NewtoGa
01-11-2004, 06:13 PM
My past experience with rifles has been with a Ruger M77 almost 30 years ago (buy it, mount a good scope, shoot it). I would say I am fairly new to guns. The experiences with this Winchester has been real challenging and I want to thank all who responded with suggestions and advice. This and the information provided on this forum has been invaluable. Thank you all.
Now for the story. As I mentioned I felt the stock was affecting the accuracy and decided to relieve it, Done. I took the advice given on the forum with regards to a 'buy the best scope you can, regardless of the quality of the rifle' - went out and bought a Nikon Monarch in 3 x 9 x 40, mounted with Leopold mounts and rings. Can clearly see the bullet holes on the target at 100 yds at 9 X. Never new what I was missing, its amazing is all I can say. Won't go into the trials of getting the scope mounted, lets just say the guy at the gun story may never say "sure we'll mount that scope for you" again. Now the gun, I'd read where some guy ( believe it was Chuck Hawkes, but not sure) had a rifle that did the same thing as mine and he had written up what he went thru. The best thing he did was to use David Tubbs Final Finish system. I bought the system and ran it thru today. I've read the pro's and con's but figured I had nothing to loose - couldn't see how .0003 wear was going to ruin this gun. Loaded up the 50 rounds, shoot 10, cleaned, repeat for the other 10 round groups. Cleaned with Hoppes, dried, cleaned with Sweets, followed with dry patches. I could tell the difference in the smoothness of the bore with the cleaning patches. Setup with a large Cladwell bag with a blanket over it on the front and a Caldwell rear bag sitting on a 2" thick roll of duct tape for the rear (going to have to buy a gun benchrest if I keep this up). Shot three rounds of 130 grain Winchester SP's (factory), to find the new scope location, adjust to zero. Next shot showed I had moved one inch to far left, moved scope one inch right, shot next two shoots - they touched each other. I waited a minimum of 60 sec between shots. I'm thinking WOW, this is great. Now what if I shot a 150 grain, it should be about a 1/2" lower. I held over 1/2", shot went 3/4" to left of previous two at same elevation. Great. Shot two more 130 grains just to make sure this wasn't a fluke. They grouped within 3/4" of 150 grain. Decided this was probably me and how I was holding gun. I was out of factory ammo and did not have any reloads done yet. Cleaned the gun with Sweets and found no copper fouling that I could see - I think the Final Finish did its job. I think I got the problem solved! I thinking that if I do my part the gun will out do me now by a wide margin. I am a pretty happy camper right now. Bottom line is, there is nothing wrong with this Winchester. You could ask for better out of the box performance but then I think you get what you pay for to a large extent. Now to the challenge of developing accurate reloads for this thing. I am new to that as well, first reloads I have ever done were the Final Finish loads. Anyone out there have any loads using IMR 4831 for Hornady 110 V-Max.
Again, thank you all for your help, it was invaluable.
Now for the story. As I mentioned I felt the stock was affecting the accuracy and decided to relieve it, Done. I took the advice given on the forum with regards to a 'buy the best scope you can, regardless of the quality of the rifle' - went out and bought a Nikon Monarch in 3 x 9 x 40, mounted with Leopold mounts and rings. Can clearly see the bullet holes on the target at 100 yds at 9 X. Never new what I was missing, its amazing is all I can say. Won't go into the trials of getting the scope mounted, lets just say the guy at the gun story may never say "sure we'll mount that scope for you" again. Now the gun, I'd read where some guy ( believe it was Chuck Hawkes, but not sure) had a rifle that did the same thing as mine and he had written up what he went thru. The best thing he did was to use David Tubbs Final Finish system. I bought the system and ran it thru today. I've read the pro's and con's but figured I had nothing to loose - couldn't see how .0003 wear was going to ruin this gun. Loaded up the 50 rounds, shoot 10, cleaned, repeat for the other 10 round groups. Cleaned with Hoppes, dried, cleaned with Sweets, followed with dry patches. I could tell the difference in the smoothness of the bore with the cleaning patches. Setup with a large Cladwell bag with a blanket over it on the front and a Caldwell rear bag sitting on a 2" thick roll of duct tape for the rear (going to have to buy a gun benchrest if I keep this up). Shot three rounds of 130 grain Winchester SP's (factory), to find the new scope location, adjust to zero. Next shot showed I had moved one inch to far left, moved scope one inch right, shot next two shoots - they touched each other. I waited a minimum of 60 sec between shots. I'm thinking WOW, this is great. Now what if I shot a 150 grain, it should be about a 1/2" lower. I held over 1/2", shot went 3/4" to left of previous two at same elevation. Great. Shot two more 130 grains just to make sure this wasn't a fluke. They grouped within 3/4" of 150 grain. Decided this was probably me and how I was holding gun. I was out of factory ammo and did not have any reloads done yet. Cleaned the gun with Sweets and found no copper fouling that I could see - I think the Final Finish did its job. I think I got the problem solved! I thinking that if I do my part the gun will out do me now by a wide margin. I am a pretty happy camper right now. Bottom line is, there is nothing wrong with this Winchester. You could ask for better out of the box performance but then I think you get what you pay for to a large extent. Now to the challenge of developing accurate reloads for this thing. I am new to that as well, first reloads I have ever done were the Final Finish loads. Anyone out there have any loads using IMR 4831 for Hornady 110 V-Max.
Again, thank you all for your help, it was invaluable.