Accurate/inaccurate rifle experience

I went shooting with a good friend of mine today and had a great time. Both of us bought Savage 338 Lapua target rifles, it just so happens they are 2 serial numbers apart. We were thinking we could do load development together and got a pound of Retumbo and H1000 reloading powders and Federal magnum rifle match primers. Bullets Seated to the lands in both rifles which was exactly the same length.
We started with H1000 shooting Berger's 300 grain tactical what ever bullets.. my rifle shot the first group OK..about .3 Milradians, second group was a bit better, and the third group at 85 grains, pow! First round was a flyer not sure why, but the rest were a one hole 4 shot group at 100 meters. It was the best group I have ever shot with a rifle discounting the first shot flyer. Looking at it you wouldn't have believed four bullets went through it, 2 yes but not four. Just for the heck of it I tried out retumbo. first group was ok, 86 grains was it, one hole clover leaf group. I Fell in love with that rifle and was amazed the drastic change just one grain of powder made to the group size. Ironically the smallest groups were about the same velocity, 2740 FPS.

We both assumed getting identical rifles they would probably like the same loads and shoot similarly.....
NOT SO!
My buddy fired his first group repeating the process, his first group was not quite as good as my first, his second group was worse and it went down hill from there. .6-.9 Mrad depending on the load. When i fired his rifle my groups were just as bad. Nothing we tried worked for his rifle. (We had a reloading table set up out there so we could try different things on the fly.) So its back to the drawing board, I have some milsurp WC867 we can try out, maybe different bullets or primers, but I was surprised how differently the two seemingly identical rifles performed. What works in yours might not work in someone else's. It was an eye opener.

 

Same optics?

 

The receivers may have been stamped closely together, but the barrels, bolts, etc....no telling when those were made.

 

I had a Remington 700 ADL in .223 about 6 or so years ago and it wasnt very accurate so i sold it after a few months. Used the money and bought a Savage Axis in .223. It shot very accurately and ive been happy with it ever since.

 

I have a 336W purchased at the height of when the bad Remlins were being made. It is a legitimate 1 MOA rifle with factory 150 grain Corelokts. It was also drilled and tapped off center and it took a little work to get the scope mounted to where I was able to sight it in without running out of windage adjustment. I decided to live with the issue instead of sending the rifle back because the only way to fix it would be to fill in the existing base holes and drill new ones or send me a new rifle.

 

Different optics, I am running a 5-25x Steiner M5XI he has the roughly equivalent US Optics offering. Very true about the barrels and bolts ect..

Happy Easter everyone

 

I have a Rem 700 in 243 that is one of the Walmart versions that sell in the mid-$300 range, bought over 20 years ago. It has been placed in a Boyd's laminated stock. With cheap Win 100 grain power points, it prints in the neighborhood of 1.5-2" groups at 100 yards. A friend (who is a much more accomplished marksman than me) has the identical rifle, but newer, in the same Boyd's stock. He also has an improved trigger. That rifle is "all over the place" at 100 yards, with 2 different scopes and several different types of ammo, including the round that is "decent" in mine. The only round that performs satisfactory in his rifle is a very expensive 95 grain Hornady.

 

Dunno if it applies in any way, but I have two CZ that had absolutely awful initial accuracy, a .204 and .22. Each took about 100 rounds to settle in.

 

Rem model 700 in 25-06. Tried box after box of every ammo imaginable. After the barrel got a little warm she would start printing 5”-6” groups.

Set it down for a couple of years and pulled it out again last year and tried Federal Premium Ballistic Tips. Prints 1” groups and seems to be staying pretty consistent after barrel warms.

It’s amazing how some guns just like certain ammo.

 

Ok so both have decent optics. Now check for simple things like a loose bedding screw, barrel and receiver bedding, crown condition. Sometimes it's something very simple.

It could also very well be a case of his rifle "prefers" a different ammo. Some guns shoot best with clean, cold bore. Some like to be "dirty" or fouled. Regardless, it needs to be shot some more with different ammo to see if that clears up the situation after you've eliminated the easy stuff.