Thread: .233 bad grouping

Hi guys,

So I was sighting my new .223 Savage Weather Warrior in the other day and found it was grouping beautifully at 100 yards. But after a couple of nice groups, it started throwing them randomly. I never managed to get it to group nicely again. We tried two different rounds, with no change.

Could this just be because its new?

Cheers,
Dax.

I'd be starting by checking all the various scope-mount and action screws for tightness.

What ammo you shooting and what twist rate is the barrel?
My 223 shoots Hornady 55gr sp brilliantly but I had some h&f loads that grouped terribly

Sent from my workbench

SCOPE !!! As above...

Then could be variance in factory loads it happens... often - see if you can secure some handloads to play with.

Try another scope ... First thing to check, then action screws, bedding / if you use a bipod or rest is the barrel is touching the fore-end. Cheap stocks have a habit of being bendy and touching even though you think they are free floating.

Then crown (look for dags in rifling) or if you use a suppressor projectile strike or alignment / tightness issue. I'm assuming you haven't used enough rounds yet to have a copper fouling issue.

Those are your starters in order... Hope it helps its a bit of a journey

so its new clean it with a good copper cutting solvent dry it out and try again

How many is a couple of groups, how hot did it get, first check scope mounts as above.

I can answer these as I was shooting with Dax (and he has probably forgotten that this thread exists ). Was warm to the touch, but not particularly hot. Twist rate is 1:9.
Shot a couple of three shot groups at 25 yards to get it on the paper, 2-3 ~1 MOA groups at 50 yards, then a .6MOA group at 100). Then the next 3 groups at 100 were all over the show. ~2MOA at best.

He was using a bipod and bunched up jacket as a rear rest. Using Barnaul 55gr except for the last couple of groups where we switched to the steel cased Hornady Match 55gr and I had a shot, but there was no improvement.

Scope mount was my first suggestion too - surely copper buildup wouldn't have that much of an effect after ~12 rounds?

Sounds like a screw wasnt tightened up right and worked lose or yes a new barrel needs a clean. Then I read "barnaul" and 2 MOA, yeah 2MOA sounds about right for barnaul.



You may just have had a selection of good uns and then went back to the usual shoot all over the place. Barnaul makes the steel cases for Hornady I understand, I dont know if that includes the primer or even the complete round. Tula would probably be even worse btw, dont bother with it.

So a) clean barrel with a carbon cleaner. b) Get a pack of 20 ADI 69gr SMK and try those. Way better suited to a 1 in 9 twist I would think, you should see 3/4MOA or better. if its not that good ie still 2MOA with the SMK I'd take the gun back with the evidence and get the shop to fix it or get my money back.

Some ppl think copper is an issue/problem, some such as myself do not, in fact its an essential lube, but then I read advanced papers on tribology for "fun" (yes OK Im a sad f**ker)

Sorry, just talked to Dax and I was wrong on that - It was the cheap 55gr Belmont stuff. I'm in your camp when it comes to copper. I have a $700 Howa Ranchland in 223 that has only been boresnaked a couple of times in the 2 years I've owned it, and I shot a 0.4MOA cloverleaf at the range a couple of weeks ago with the cheap Hornady Steel Match

Good tips thanks - will pass them on to him.

Um, I had 200+ of the belmont seconds? and they were pretty consistent doing 1.25in MOA, but some were indeed odd reloads that all but blew primers so yeah not the best to load test on. The Sierra match king in the ADI's are great Im using them as my baseline to measure everything else against.

barrel to hot did you give it a rest to cool down between groups

give your barrel a bit of a clean maybe, and I wouldn't rely on a rifle shooting 2 good groups and then shooting a few shit ones a good benchmark for a particular type of ammo, do it heaps as you might just be having a bad day or something

Originally Posted by Josh

I can answer these as I was shooting with Dax (and he has probably forgotten that this thread exists ). Was warm to the touch, but not particularly hot. Twist rate is 1:9.
Shot a couple of three shot groups at 25 yards to get it on the paper, 2-3 ~1 MOA groups at 50 yards, then a .6MOA group at 100). Then the next 3 groups at 100 were all over the show. ~2MOA at best.

He was using a bipod and bunched up jacket as a rear rest. Using Barnaul 55gr except for the last couple of groups where we switched to the steel cased Hornady Match 55gr and I had a shot, but there was no improvement.

Scope mount was my first suggestion too - surely copper buildup wouldn't have that much of an effect after ~12 rounds?

just wondering if you have answered it here, you say the last groups were the worst but you had also changed ammo, unless i have missed something you have the answer, go back to the first ammo??

I was approximating the number of groups we shot. It did a couple of really crappy ones with Belmont before we switched to Hornady.