What's wrong with Remington 597

You can rule out the ammo and scope so you're down to the weather and rifle. Assuming the winds were calm, check the crown to make sure there isn't any damage.

Well, it appears your 100 yard group is stringing sideways, which is to be expected if there is any cross wind.

But your 25 yard group appears to be stringing more vertically.

Any chance it is you?

In otherwords, can you shoot tiny groups with other rifles?
(You shot a 3-shot group with the .308. Whats a 6 or 10 shot group like the .22 from the .308 look like?)

rc

Bet it's that horrendous 12lb trigger Remington has blessed the 597's with.

Most of those 597's will group pretty good IF you can get past the trigger pull.

If that that 25 yard group is typical of that 22 rifle than you have joined Remingtons bum 22 RF barrel club. Sometime after my Remington 541T was built in the mid 90s. Remington seems to have forgot how to consistently turn out decent 22 RF barrels. In this decade I have bought new not so cheap 572 pump and a 597 that shot horrible at 50 yards( over 3" + groups). And another 597 HB LS that does so so (1 1/4" ) nothing great especially for a HB.

Watched a buddy get real frustrated with a expensive Remington 504 bolt action 22 about five years ago. After he spent over $650 dollars on it with good match ammo the best it would do is 1 1/2" - 1 3/4" at 50 yards. And over 2" groups were not uncommon with bulk ammo.

Compare these to my mid 90s Remington 541T it shoots .375 - .700, 5 shot groups at 50 yards all the time. Or and older 1980s Remington 552 that I own that shoot 1" - 1 1/4" groups 5 shot groups @ 50 yards all the time.

does yours have open sights? if so, use them at 25 yds, to eliminate the possiblility of the scope being the problem. next thing to do, make sure your front action takedown screw is torqued down at about 2o to 25 lbs. next thing to do, is get some aluminum tape, and make some finger bandaid sized slices. lay about 2 or 3 slices on top of each other, then stick them inside the bottom of the stock where the action fits down into; on the bottom, the front , the rear, the sides, of the action area. this will make it nice and snug, and keep from moving the rifle around inside the stock, between shots. next thing to do, is the sand out the stock channel, and make absolutely sure, the bbl is free floated. after all this, if it still does this, then you have a bad bbl/chamber.
Also, it proly doesn't have the best of triggers, go over to rimfirecentral.com, and go to the remington thread, and look at the 597 sub thread, and read the sticky at the top, to improve your trigger.

Thanks for the help

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NP , have you tried using premium ammo (Eley or other match grade)...that group looks like a bulk pack grouping. If that doesn't work (or perhaps even if it does) I would consider a trigger job.

I think that you might be better served by a Savage Mk. II for target use (over the Remmy, not the T/C, which I have no experience with). Good luck, Mav.

I still like the Savage...it has proved itself to be a very accurate rimfire at a pretty decent price, but I have no experience with the T/C so it may very well be a better rifle.

Ruger is probably your best bet for an autoloading .22lr target rifle.

Ruger is probably your best bet for an autoloading .22lr target rifle.

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I disagree!

As for out of the box, unmodified, unbox it, load it and go there are more than a few brands that tend to spank Ruger 10/22's in the accuracy department.

What exactly makes a .22 target rifle...simply the weight of the barrel...not!
Internals, chamber, bore tolerances, it goes on. The Ruger has nothing in these departments that are target or competition class.

Nice, that one can swap barrels and trigger groups on the 10/22, but if your not going to do these kinds of upgrades on the 10/22, then makers such as Marlin, Savage and even the 597, if you can get by the trigger, will often time out shoot the 10/22 as far as group size...all variables equal.

I had high hopes for the TC R-55 .22 auto loader, with its steel receiver and threaded in barrel I thought it was going to be the hot steaming deal but.... maybe the barrels are crap?

Nice, that one can swap barrels and trigger groups on the 10/22, but if your not going to do these kinds of upgrades on the 10/22, then makers such as Marlin, Savage and even the 597, if you can get by the trigger, will often time out shoot the 10/22 as far as group size...all variables equal.

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Agreed, but if you are going to put a little money into it to make it into a target rifle, it is a good platform due to the aftermarket support. If left in factory configuration, it is not a great choice IMO.

get a Kimber 82... shrink the groups quick.

Wait when you say .22 do you mean any .22? That rock river is a .223 unless I missed something, and there are scores of 0.5MOA centerfire .22s out there. I would keep the .22lr for plinking, and go with a turn-bolt (or precision AR if that floats your boat) .223 or .22-250 for a nice tack driver in .22cal. if that is what you want. Just remember that the price of ammo with escalate exponentially if you decide to go with centerfire.