Crazy grouping

[teksan80]

Picked up a Savage 111 in .300 win mag with Nikon 3-8 scope. First time out was getting good groups. Shooting .5" or less at 100yds. Second trip out to different range that allowed me to shoot further I was trying to sight in for 200 yrd zero. This time out I took the Federal factory loads that I started with and three different steps of handloads. Handloads are Berger VLD's 185gr backed by 72, 74 and 76gr loads of powder. At 200yrds I was unable to get anything that could be considered a group. Ranging anywhere from 8" to off paper on a 16" wide target. Rifle does not have accustock and is bedded tight, scope is not moving. Boresighted well. Any advice of what I should be looking at? I a needless to say lost. I have never had this problem with any of my other rifles. Thank you in advance for any assistance.

 

[el matador]

Picked up a Savage 111 in .300 win mag with Nikon 3-8 scope. First time out was getting good groups. Shooting .5" or less at 100yds. Second trip out to different range that allowed me to shoot further I was trying to sight in for 200 yrd zero. This time out I took the Federal factory loads that I started with and three different steps of handloads. Handloads are Berger VLD's 185gr backed by 72, 74 and 76gr loads of powder. At 200yrds I was unable to get anything that could be considered a group. Ranging anywhere from 8" to off paper on a 16" wide target. Rifle does not have accustock and is bedded tight, scope is not moving. Boresighted well. Any advice of what I should be looking at? I a needless to say lost. I have never had this problem with any of my other rifles. Thank you in advance for any assistance.

I had a similar problem one time, although not quite as bad as you describe. I had not cleaned the rifle in quite a while and the barrel was just fouled. Cleaned it up and it was back to shooting consistently the next time out. It was a factory Remington barrel and I had fired about 30 rounds without cleaning. So that's one possibility. Scope could be broken also.

 

[Bullet bumper]

It is not clear in your post which ammo produced the bad accuracy .
You say you had .5 groups with Fedral factory ammo at 100 yards wow that's very good for a 300 magnum in a hunting rifle with factory ammo.
Did the Federal factory ammo suddenly start shooting bad or was it only the handloads that shot bad ?
Tracking down an accuracy problem reqires strict attention to details and a systematic approach to elliminating each possibility one at a time.
If the ammo that gave .5 @ 100 yards is also shooting bad now at 200 as you say off a 16 inch wide target then that's a big group scatter or POI change.
Go back to 100 yards and try to re produce the good accuracy .
If you can then it must be the reloads.
If you can't and all the ammo is now bad then it must be the scope , gun or you .
If you have a spare scope swap it out and try again with the ammo that showed good accuracy at first.
Work through the scope , mounts , bedding , action screws, and if all seems good then it may be that your barrel twist can not handle the Berger VLD bullets . Berger say 1 in 12 for that bullet so I would suspect it was fast enough .
The other thing is , is the barrel new ? If it's a worn barrel boat tail bullets might be no good but it could still shoot flat base ok .
Try the 150 grain Berger flat base and if it suddenly starts to shoot better groups then the barrel may be on it's way out.

 

[ICANHITHIMMAN]

Start over man, go threw the rifle/optic torque settings etc. Then, remember that VLD bullets are tuned with seating depths NOT charge weights.

Now that you have that info, find your rifles pressure limit. You will accomplish this by picking a seating depth and (mag length works) shooting a ladder test from min to max charge weight, until you see pressure signs. Its important to note that the deeper a bullet is seated the lower the pressure will be, that said, the longer a bullet is seated the higher the pressure. Once maximum safe pressure is established back the charge weight off 1 to 1 and 1/2 grains and shoot a 24 round seating depth test, the details of which can be found in the article I have linked in my signature line.

As always be safe and try your best to tune your load at a distance greater than 200m and of the utmost importance is to remember it is a hunting rifle, so don't go bang, bang, bang, bang, bang and wonder why its not shooting good groups, as you smoke your barrels throat. Do you shoot that fast at game? One shot every 10 minutes practice and plan for the cold bore engagement.

 

[teksan80]

Thank you all for the info and responses. I will be taking your advice and rechecking everything on the rifle this weekend and then go out and check sight in again. I am going to sight in with a shooting stand instead of off my bipod at first. Once I have that done then I will go back to the bipod and see how it works. Will post up once this has been done.