morcey2
Member
So about two years ago, I picked up two rifles to use as action donors for builds. One is a Savage 110 in 30-06 that I plan on turning into either a 6.5-06 or 280 (either may be AI, but I don't know yet.) It came with a 4-16x50 Barska "sniper" scope on extra-high rings. They were high enough that you couldn't get a decent chin weld on it. It also had a habit of trying to emulate a Mosin's "stick bolt syndrome" with any case, fired, unfired, new, that was chambered. That was cured with a brush, some solvent, and a drill. That's the first rifle.
The second one is a Dominican Republic Mauser in 7x57 with a 20" carbine barrel, Dayton-Traister trigger and safety, somewhat "pudgy" stock, and a pretty good glass-bedding job. It was $190 at a LGS. I already had a one-piece scope base that fit and rings, so I picked up a wal-mart centerpoint 4-16 scope for it as temporary glass.
I've shot them both several times and the Savage was giving me fits. I put much lower rings on it before shooting it would do a couple of decent groups (1.5" @100 yards) but then shoot all over the place the next time out. Then back to small-ish groups. Then back all over the place. I borrowed an unused known-good scope from a neighbor (since I don't have any other 30mm tube scopes) and it did the same thing. Small, then all over, then small again. I put the scope on a different rifle and it was consistent with what the rifle shot before with a known good scope. I was ready to give up on it when I shot a group with all 5 rounds touching a couple of weeks ago. I make sure not to disturb anything and I take it out again last Saturday. Same load that shot the one-ragged-hole group, now shoots an 8" group. The rounds from both groups were loaded at the same time a year of so ago. So that one is officially going to be torn down and turned into something else. (I wasn't the only one shooting it either. Others were questioning their sanity as well.)
Now the Mauser. The mauser is a different animal. The first time I shot it, I got a couple of 2" groups at 150 yards using 139 gr PPU factory ammunition. Pretty good. I work up some loads for it. I can't get it to shoot any of them really well, but I don't have a great rest to shoot from either. I tried 120 gr BT, 140 gr BT, 139 gr Hornady BTSP, 130 gr Speer SP, 145 gr Speer BTSP. The 145 grs seemed to show the most promise so I continued on that one. I took it out last Saturday to shoot some loads w/ H4350 in those.... but I forgot to grab that ammo box. I had 2 boxes of the 139gr PPU loads, so I decide to shoot those. (This is a hunting rifle so I'm only doing 3-shot groups.) Here's the first group. 100 yards and fired relatively quickly.
Not bad. Under 1". I adjusted the scope to move the POI up a little over an inch to about 2.5" above POA. I decide to let the barrel cool all the way and shoot another group with all 3 shots with a cold barrel. Here's the second group with shots fired about 20 minutes apart. (the picture is kind of at an angle so it looks a little odd. POA is the bottom point of the diamond and is circled.)
Now, the first impact is the center hole. Second is slightly to the right. The third hole, about an inch to the left of the first, was shot after the wind had picked up to between 5 and 10 mph coming directly from right to left. I held at the same aim point and didn't try to compensate at all. With that bullet going at about 2550 fps from the shorter barrel, it would have pushed it between a half inch and an inch to the left. Move it a half inch to the right and it's a 1" group. Move it an inch and it's in the same hole as the first one.
I shot one more group @ 100 yards which was about an inch also, but was off to the left because of the wind (at least it was steady) and was going to shoot at 250, but the wind really picked up. I did shoot a one-shot group at 250, but it was into a full orange soda bottle. It only took one shot and it exploded, leaving orange carnage all over the newly fallen snow. (it's the one on the right... the one on the left was a victim of a 60 gr V-Max from one of my ARs.)
Here's my high-tech bench setup:
I'm in the middle of building a dedicated portable shooting bench that will hopefully be done in the next week or two.
So, the morals of the story are:
#1. If you buy a donor rifle and shoot it, don't get frustrated if it doesn't shoot well because you didn't want it that way anyway.
#2. If you buy a donor rifle and shoot it, don't get frustrated if it does shoot well because you didn't want it that way anyway.
I believe that the mauser will stay the way it is, but possibly with a better scope. The Savage will be disassembled later this week.
Matt
The second one is a Dominican Republic Mauser in 7x57 with a 20" carbine barrel, Dayton-Traister trigger and safety, somewhat "pudgy" stock, and a pretty good glass-bedding job. It was $190 at a LGS. I already had a one-piece scope base that fit and rings, so I picked up a wal-mart centerpoint 4-16 scope for it as temporary glass.
I've shot them both several times and the Savage was giving me fits. I put much lower rings on it before shooting it would do a couple of decent groups (1.5" @100 yards) but then shoot all over the place the next time out. Then back to small-ish groups. Then back all over the place. I borrowed an unused known-good scope from a neighbor (since I don't have any other 30mm tube scopes) and it did the same thing. Small, then all over, then small again. I put the scope on a different rifle and it was consistent with what the rifle shot before with a known good scope. I was ready to give up on it when I shot a group with all 5 rounds touching a couple of weeks ago. I make sure not to disturb anything and I take it out again last Saturday. Same load that shot the one-ragged-hole group, now shoots an 8" group. The rounds from both groups were loaded at the same time a year of so ago. So that one is officially going to be torn down and turned into something else. (I wasn't the only one shooting it either. Others were questioning their sanity as well.)
Now the Mauser. The mauser is a different animal. The first time I shot it, I got a couple of 2" groups at 150 yards using 139 gr PPU factory ammunition. Pretty good. I work up some loads for it. I can't get it to shoot any of them really well, but I don't have a great rest to shoot from either. I tried 120 gr BT, 140 gr BT, 139 gr Hornady BTSP, 130 gr Speer SP, 145 gr Speer BTSP. The 145 grs seemed to show the most promise so I continued on that one. I took it out last Saturday to shoot some loads w/ H4350 in those.... but I forgot to grab that ammo box. I had 2 boxes of the 139gr PPU loads, so I decide to shoot those. (This is a hunting rifle so I'm only doing 3-shot groups.) Here's the first group. 100 yards and fired relatively quickly.
Not bad. Under 1". I adjusted the scope to move the POI up a little over an inch to about 2.5" above POA. I decide to let the barrel cool all the way and shoot another group with all 3 shots with a cold barrel. Here's the second group with shots fired about 20 minutes apart. (the picture is kind of at an angle so it looks a little odd. POA is the bottom point of the diamond and is circled.)
Now, the first impact is the center hole. Second is slightly to the right. The third hole, about an inch to the left of the first, was shot after the wind had picked up to between 5 and 10 mph coming directly from right to left. I held at the same aim point and didn't try to compensate at all. With that bullet going at about 2550 fps from the shorter barrel, it would have pushed it between a half inch and an inch to the left. Move it a half inch to the right and it's a 1" group. Move it an inch and it's in the same hole as the first one.
I shot one more group @ 100 yards which was about an inch also, but was off to the left because of the wind (at least it was steady) and was going to shoot at 250, but the wind really picked up. I did shoot a one-shot group at 250, but it was into a full orange soda bottle. It only took one shot and it exploded, leaving orange carnage all over the newly fallen snow. (it's the one on the right... the one on the left was a victim of a 60 gr V-Max from one of my ARs.)
Here's my high-tech bench setup:
I'm in the middle of building a dedicated portable shooting bench that will hopefully be done in the next week or two.
So, the morals of the story are:
#1. If you buy a donor rifle and shoot it, don't get frustrated if it doesn't shoot well because you didn't want it that way anyway.
#2. If you buy a donor rifle and shoot it, don't get frustrated if it does shoot well because you didn't want it that way anyway.
I believe that the mauser will stay the way it is, but possibly with a better scope. The Savage will be disassembled later this week.
Matt
