shot out?

[jasonstewart]

the gun in question is a savage 110 30-06. trigger has been tuned, stock barrel free floated, and mounted a leupy 6.5x20x40ao vxiii on it. it has been my go to rifle for a while now. earlier in the year i was able to shoot 1" groups or better at 100yds with factory loads. i dont have any idea the total round count on this rifle, but its been shot a lot. but well cared for. yesterday at the range i noticed that it wouldnt pattern at 200 yds. i pulled the bolt and cleaned the barrel. shot at 100 and it does great. shot again at 200 and couldnt hold better than 6". this summer i was shooting 2" at 300yds. the weather hasnt been that much different. here in south ga it has been very warm 80 degrees the past week or so. any insite or advice would be great. im just wondering if ive gotten the best out of this one. thanks, jason

[LostInSpace278]

How many rounds are you putting through the barrel before cleaning? Some guns, even custom, group better when dirty. You mentioned you were shooting factory loads, are the different results at 200 yds from the same box of shells or a different box? Factory loads can vary between batches. 2 machines producing the same round, 2 different results. Just trying to take some variables out of the equation.

Ohh almost forgot, Have you checked the barrel for signs of copper fouling? Check the crown for scratches, gouges, nick, and dings?

[Michael Eichele]

It will take several thousand rounds to shoot out a 30-06. If youre under 3000 rounds, I would look else where for the decay in accuracy. You may have been cleaning her wrong all this time too. Get some JB bore paste or similar (you dont need to use it all the time) and scrub her out. Put some paste on the patch and swab the barrel back and forth 10 times. Run 2 clean ones through and repeat at least once more if not two. Then take some cleaning solvent of sorts and clean out the paste. Also look to your ammo. Have you been using factory all this time or hand loads? Have any lot numbers changed on ANYTHING? Bullets, powder, primmers, or factory ammo? New cases?

[jasonstewart]

same lot of ammo that i was using since this summer. i keep her pretty clean. about every 50 rds or so i swab the barrel. i will check for any nicks on the crown and check for copper fouling. jason

[Michael Eichele]

What are your cleaning tequniques?

[royinidaho]

My experience is that my barrel shot well right up to the shot when it quit shooting. Last group @ 300 yds was < MOA. Rifle was put up for a couple of years. Broke it out to start my LRH adventure. Couldn't hold it on a paper plate at 300 yds?????

270 Win w/well over 3000 hard rounds through it. Pressure was way down, velocity was way down. Added more powder to get pressure and velocity back to where it should be. Still patterned instead of grouped.

Looked at the throat. oops!! nonexistent for a well over an inch. Dry lake bed cracks look.......

Replaced barrel with a "mocern" one and all is well.

[johnnyk]

jason,
Just goes to reason (to me) if accuracy is at 100yds it shouldn't get that far out at 200yds. What kind of scope are you using? Are you using the same power setting for all ranges? JohnnyK.