I have seen some pretty accurate Howa rifles. I have a Weatherby backcountry (Howa) in .240Wby that is ridiculous. Not a pencil barrel and not $12 a box factory ammo, but a very accurate out-of-the-box rifle for half the price of a Barrett. I think that is the point. A lot of $800 to $900 field rifles will shoot MOA all day long even without the BIC ballpoint load. Maybe .5 MOA is more difficult to come across , but you would expect a high end rifle to stand out. That said, it is tough with those barrels with super light contours to them to stay straight for 5 rounds.
Those of you who have or have shot a Fieldcraft, how accurate are they? What exactly is acceptable to Barrett?
Reason I ask is that I have been pulling my hair out with a 6.5 Creedmoor that shoots 3 shots into .7- .75 MOA for the first group or two after cleaning and each successive group seems to get bigger. I just swapped scopes- no help.
I have tried Hornady Precision hunter 143 ELD-X, Hornady match 120 ELD-M, Sierra 130 TGK and the new Berger ammo with the 140 Hybrid. The 120 match shoots the worst but maybe it wouldn't if I tried it first after cleaning.
I let it cool way down. By the 5th group I'm up to 2" ++ 3 shot groups. I did shoot a few 5 shot groups but didn't see the point when 3 shot groups were so awful.
Looking for any examples. If all of them shoot like this then OK, it didn't work out but I'm hoping this is a lemon.
I've read your posts and this thread and I have some follow-up, so please bear with me.It's .75" for the first group and gets bigger with each successive group after about 12-15 rounds it's over 2 MOA. I feel like I have tried a wide enough variety of ammo to see what it will really do. I'm hoping this is just a bad barrel. I'll bet it has about 80-120 rounds through it at this point- mostly 143 ELD-X Hornady stuff. No reloads at all.
waiting for my fieldcraft in the 6.5x55 as a 24 inch num. two
Both my Fieldcrafts in 6.5 x 55 and 7mm-08 shoot right around 0.5-.75 moa up to 5 rounds or so, then they widen since the barrel is very warm at that point, but once cooled for a bit, go right back to that standard. They are both a #1 thin barrels. I would be concerned with groups opening up so big after cooling and trying to shoot them again.