Savage 11 Lady Hunter Accuracy Issues

Savage99man

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Hello there this is my first post! I purchased a savage model 11 lady hunter with a Nikon 3x9x40 scope as a Christmas present for my wife a couple years ago and we've never spent an extensive amount of time at different ranges with it. Mostly shooting 100yds and the accuracy wasn't great but serviceable for the range of shots we typically encounter where we hunt. This year she missed 3 shots at a standing buck which was about 240-250yds away. She wasn't close as she didn't startle it at all. I set up a target at 200 hundred and benched and bagged was getting a 6-7" group ( barnes lrx ammo) I shot a sub 1" group with the Remington I was hunting with just to make sure that it wasn't something I was doing. I shot Win deer season xp, Hornady superperformance, with similar results and all hit the chronograph 50fps slower than advertised. I shot a sub 1" group with hornady precision hunter ammo exiting the barrel at 2550. That ammo shot 3" at 300 and 4.5" at 400 however 5" lower than the ballistic marks on the scope. That ammo has the longest col so I loaded 130 and 140 Sierra gamekings thirty thousandths off the lands starting with a 2700fps load and working up. I started with a 2" group and as the velocity increased so did the size of the groups. I've had finicky rifles before but never one that wouldn't shoot fast. Usually the opposite. Has anyone had issues with this particular rifle or any savage for that matter shooting this way and how did you correct it? I have an axis 2 in 6.5 creedmore for the kids to use which shoots 1 to 2 moa with the same ammo. 22" barrel vs 20"
 
Is this a 6.5creedmoor too? What powder were you using? Also what kind of brass, primers, and dies? We're you pushing the shoulders back at all? Go through and make sure nothing is loose the scope rail, scope rings, and action screws. How many rounds are down the barrel, and how long since you cleaned it?
 
Barrel is cleaned after every range session. I've had the action off of the stock and retorqued mount bolts. Checked scope mounts. Had I not grouped with one factory load I would have put another scope on to verify. As for handloads I had new nosler brass, 130 Sierra hpbt with win 760, 140 Sierra spt with superperformance, CCI primer large rifle primer. I use rcbs dies. Basically had similar results to factory loads at equivalent velocities. Wondering if it has to do with the 20" barrel or possibly a stock issue?
 
Do you have h4350 or rl16, rl17? Maybe it just doesn't like the powder your trying. H4350, rl16 are kind of the standard go to powders. I know they are kind of hard to find if you don't have them.
 
Hello there this is my first post! I purchased a savage model 11 lady hunter with a Nikon 3x9x40 scope as a Christmas present for my wife a couple years ago and we've never spent an extensive amount of time at different ranges with it. Mostly shooting 100yds and the accuracy wasn't great but serviceable for the range of shots we typically encounter where we hunt. This year she missed 3 shots at a standing buck which was about 240-250yds away. She wasn't close as she didn't startle it at all. I set up a target at 200 hundred and benched and bagged was getting a 6-7" group ( barnes lrx ammo) I shot a sub 1" group with the Remington I was hunting with just to make sure that it wasn't something I was doing. I shot Win deer season xp, Hornady superperformance, with similar results and all hit the chronograph 50fps slower than advertised. I shot a sub 1" group with hornady precision hunter ammo exiting the barrel at 2550. That ammo shot 3" at 300 and 4.5" at 400 however 5" lower than the ballistic marks on the scope. That ammo has the longest col so I loaded 130 and 140 Sierra gamekings thirty thousandths off the lands starting with a 2700fps load and working up. I started with a 2" group and as the velocity increased so did the size of the groups. I've had finicky rifles before but never one that wouldn't shoot fast. Usually the opposite. Has anyone had issues with this particular rifle or any savage for that matter shooting this way and how did you correct it? I have an axis 2 in 6.5 creedmore for the kids to use which shoots 1 to 2 moa with the same ammo. 22" barrel vs 20"
I had a savage light hunter, basically the same S yours but in 7-08.
It straight up sucked, it was a 3 moa rifle even with a bunch of load development
 
Do you have h4350 or rl16, rl17? Maybe it just doesn't like the powder your trying. H4350, rl16 are kind of the standard go to powders. I know they are kind of hard to find if you don't have them.
I do not have any reloader powder but do do have a small amount of that precious commodity known as H4350 however it's my powder for another rifle and don't have enough to do any load development.
 
Sounds like a typical lightweight factory rifle issue, or a Savage issue...Lightweight rifles arent typically known for stellar groups. With that said, my wife's Kimber 7/08 lightweight hunter shoots 1/2-1 MOA depending on the day and range with my 150g NBT handloads.
 
Is the wood stock bedded at all? If not I would look at pillar bedding it. Typically Creedmoors shoot fairly good out of the box, but some savage barrels/rifles are better than others. My Savage 110 300 win mag, originally shot groups 1-1.5 MOA with Federal Premium 180 grain Nosler partition ammo, 2-3 MOA with everything else tried, my mods to increase accuracy were, pillar bedding, better scope, timney trigger, limbsaver recoil pad, muzzle brake, Tubbs Fire Lapping somewhere in there. Had a 180 grain Nosler partition load that was about 0.5-1.0 consistently, shot tighter groups if I did my part, but have re-barreled it a while back.
 
Is the wood stock bedded at all? If not I would look at pillar bedding it. Typically Creedmoors shoot fairly good out of the box, but some savage barrels/rifles are better than others. My Savage 110 300 win mag, originally shot groups 1-1.5 MOA with Federal Premium 180 grain Nosler partition ammo, 2-3 MOA with everything else tried, my mods to increase accuracy were, pillar bedding, better scope, timney trigger, limbsaver recoil pad, muzzle brake, Tubbs Fire Lapping somewhere in there. Had a 180 grain Nosler partition load that was about 0.5-1.0 consistently, shot tighter groups if I did my part, but have re-barreled it a while back.
No this is something I am looking at having done as well as a possible re-barrel job. If I ordered another barrel I would need to figure out if there is a specific twist rate or number of grooves that work better with a shorter barrel.
 
If you rebarrel it check out northland shooters supply. He would have everything you need to do the job yourself. My wife has a old savage with the pre accutrigger crappy trigger, 308 win. I put a viper pstgeni 4-16 on it loaded 150g pro hunters with varget and win primers it shoots half moa or better. Always under moa. That barrel is pitted so bad I thought it was going to need a new barrel to shoot decent. No pillers no bedding, wood stock from factory.
 
The pillar bedding, scope and trigger did the most as far as the consistency for my Savage, the other stuff, may have helped, but honestly, was just trying stuff to see if it helped. Hmm my AR creedmoor has a 22" barrel 1/8 twist, but it is a heavy barrel is typically 0.5 MOA but will shoot through the same hole with some 140-143 grain loads on a good day. Look at Northern shooting supplies for a savage replacement barrel.
 
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