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savage 338 lapua

2K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  LDBennett 
#1 ·
i have bought a savage 110 ba 338 lapua with a NXS 5.5-22x50 nightforce scope. tried sighting it in at 100yds with 250 grain HSM gold. i cannot get a consistent grouping of more than couple of rounds within 1-2 in. then one takes off 6-7 in. i bagged it, put it in a lead sled, had 3 different shooters on this weapon and all have the same result. with the price of these shells wondering if maybe i should look for a different brand if possible. HSM-$92.00 a box, Remington $114-120.00 a box, herters according to reviews is out, Winchester seems to be unavailable. any suggestions?
 
#2 ·
If you want to shoot a rifle like that, you better learn to reload. That ammo is not going to be gettting any cheaper. There is no way I would ever pull the trigger if it cost me $6 every time I pulled it.
Also would look very closely at your setup. Make sure the rings and scope are tight.
 
#4 ·
thanks for the input, at this caliber I have heard mixed feelings on brand of ammo to use. I will be looking into getting dies, or resetting myself up to reload with Dillon. all screws are tight and torqued to specs. until I get set up $4.50 a shot with HSM will be the brand of choice, I'll hurry thanks again
 
#5 ·
If your using factory ammo, I'd say go with Lapua brand ammo if possible. You will have the Lapua brand brass which is a must for reloading, all others are crap for 338 Lapua. Also Lapua loads their ammo with their Scenars which should give you better accuracy. I have the same rifle but I started off reloading because $4-6 a pop is just too much for me. Reloading I get the costs down to around $1.50 a pop and have way better accuracy than any off the shelf ammo since you can tune the load for your specific rifle. I use the Redding competition Full length resize and seating dies. But going back to factory ammo if your already spending $4.50 a round spend a little extra for ammo loaded in Lapua brass, it will save you tons of $$$, and you'll probably find better accuracy.
 
#6 ·
Indeed Savage is known for tack drivers and also as a cheapy deluxe rifle. Some guns are excellent and others not so much. It appears the accuracy depends on how good the barrel making was executed and some Savage barrels are less than optimum. I have a friend with that same rifle who hand loads and gets similar results. A gunsmith scoped out the barrel and told him the rifling was rough and inconsistent. It appears Savage tooling is not alway perfect with the results of early barrel on the tooling is great and later ones not so much.

I suggest you have the barrel interior inspected to see if that is the problem. Also the crown should be inspected and renewed. When cutting tools are used to do the crown they, by their very nature, can pull metal over the rifling's groove leaving a micro burr. It takes a long time for the burr to wear off so a good crown includes a chamfer done with grinding which leaves no burr. The crown chamfer can be done at home with grinding compound, a drill motor, and a spherical crowning tool (see Brownells). The chamfer needs to go past the bottom of the grooves.

LDBennett
 
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