Issues with bolt action 30-06

[AKshooter150]

I've got a Franchi Momentum .30-06 150th anniversary rifle that I can't shoot worth a crap. Beautiful rifle! Was in love when I bought it. Had it for a few years and have never been able to feel confident using it. My target is a 12" steel AR500 plate which I usually shoot at 200 yards — not a tall order for a .30-06, right? Wrong. I'll hit it once, miss, miss, maybe hit it again, miss, repeat. I spent two hours at the range and couldn't hit this huge plate at a measly 200 yards even twice in a row. I just got more and more frustrated. I shoot off a bench using a bipod. Vortex scope. Very steady setup. Recoil from my ammo is massive but I don't think I'm flinching.

Then, I busted out my 7.62x39 AR rifle and hit the damn thing 30 TIMES in a row. I emptied the entire mag into that steel plate and didn't miss a shot.

What's up with this? Is my rifle just messed up?

 

[jmr40]

Back up and shoot it at a PAPER target at 50 yards so you know where your shots are hitting. Use a paper target big enough that you won't miss and can account for all of your shots. I'm betting it isn't zeroed properly. After you get the sights adjusted at 50 yards move to 100 and shoot at paper again to fine tune the zero. Once zeroed at 100 you should be about 2" low at 200 and easily hit a 12" steel plate.

 

[Robert]

Is the action bedded? Is everything tight to spec? That's where I'd start. If the action is bedded, but poorly done, it can be shifting enough with each shot to throw you off. I had this happen to a rifle I had. A proper bedding job solved the issue.

 

[dh1633pm]

Had a nice new Savage 111 in 30-06. Wouldn't hit the broad side of a barn. Pesky rifle. Gave it to my cousin and a couple boxes of ammo to see if he could figure it out. He did. It was the stock. I wasn't bedded properly at the recoil lug and the action was moving backward in the stock. He fixed it for me. Simple fixes are sometimes hard to figure out. That is one nice looking rifle you have. Be good to see if shoot as good as it looks.

 

[dranrab]

Have you examined the bullet holes in a paper target to see if they are round?

Have you checked to be sure that the scope mounting system is all snugged down.

Have you tried a different scope?

Have you torqued the actions crews to spec?

There is no sense in proceeding any further until you do. These are the simple things. Get those out of the way first.

 

[dh1633pm]

I am going to add a little of my IT Troubleshooting Skills to the mix here. Troubleshooting is about what you know. What you don't know is what is not working. By covering all those things that you know, you eventually come up with what is amiss. You have a good list from others who already posted on possibilities. Let us know how it works out.

 

[tarosean]

Do you have another scope to try? Different ammo?

 

[jmorris]

Recoil from my ammo is massive but I don't think I'm flinching.

There are lots and lots of variables and things that could be wrong. If you are unsure that you are not causing the issue, I suppose I would remove myself from the picture and eliminate me as the suspect.

Something like this would do it.

Remote

www.youtube.com

 

[gwpercle]

Something isn't right . Shoot some benched groups at 50 and 100 yards with good factory ammo , 150 - 165 gr. hunting loads and see what the groups look like . Look for sideways strikes (tumbling) and wandering groups . It could be a rifle bedding , rifle barrel , danaged barrel crown ... or the scope internals can go wonky , scope mounts , loose screws holding bases .
It could be one of several things and you have to eliminate the things that might be wrong one at a time .

And if you can hit with one rifle ...you should be able to hit with the 30-06 but let someone else shoot some paper targets and that will tell the tale !
Good Luck finding the problem !
Gary
PS- I had a scope that , as it turned out , allowed the groups to "wander" around on the target ...
that scope like to drove me to sell a good rifle ...but it wasn't the rifle ... scopes can go off into the weeds so check it out and/or try a known good scope .

 

[Picher]

I've got a Franchi Momentum .30-06 150th anniversary rifle that I can't shoot worth a crap. Beautiful rifle! Was in love when I bought it. Had it for a few years and have never been able to feel confident using it. My target is a 12" steel AR500 plate which I usually shoot at 200 yards — not a tall order for a .30-06, right? Wrong. I'll hit it once, miss, miss, maybe hit it again, miss, repeat. I spent two hours at the range and couldn't hit this huge plate at a measly 200 yards even twice in a row. I just got more and more frustrated. I shoot off a bench using a bipod. Vortex scope. Very steady setup. Recoil from my ammo is massive but I don't think I'm flinching.

Then, I busted out my 7.62x39 AR rifle and hit the damn thing 30 TIMES in a row. I emptied the entire mag into that steel plate and didn't miss a shot.

What's up with this? Is my rifle just messed up?

Have someone else load your rifle magazine with ammo and a few dummies (resized empty shells with bullets, but no primer or powder) and live rounds mixed-up. If you're flinching, you and your buddy will see your movement when the rifle just clicks on the dummy round.

 

[VoodooMountain]

How does it group at 50 yards? If around 1 inch or better it should be fairly obvious

Usually when a rifle is that far off it is something simple and usually obvious.

Scope would be my first suspect. Possibly a terrible crown, loose bases/rings, or poorly fit stock..

Anything that causes an inconsistency from shot to shot.

I had something similar happen once. Turned out the scope that was "sighted in" was WAY off. My bullets were hitting the floor of the range (concrete) and bouncing back up and hitting the target once I got past ~50 yards.

 

[Pat Riot]

All good recommendations above ^^^^^

I would like to add one thing. Have a gunsmith give it a once over to be sure you haven’t overlooked something then start with the simpler recommendations above and then work into the more difficult ones.

 

[entropy]

I've got a Franchi Momentum .30-06 150th anniversary rifle that I can't shoot worth a crap. Beautiful rifle! Was in love when I bought it. Had it for a few years and have never been able to feel confident using it. My target is a 12" steel AR500 plate which I usually shoot at 200 yards — not a tall order for a .30-06, right? Wrong. I'll hit it once, miss, miss, maybe hit it again, miss, repeat. I spent two hours at the range and couldn't hit this huge plate at a measly 200 yards even twice in a row. I just got more and more frustrated. I shoot off a bench using a bipod. Vortex scope. Very steady setup. Recoil from my ammo is massive but I don't think I'm flinching.

Then, I busted out my 7.62x39 AR rifle and hit the damn thing 30 TIMES in a row. I emptied the entire mag into that steel plate and didn't miss a shot.

What's up with this? Is my rifle just messed up?

You're flinching.

Back up and shoot it at a PAPER target at 50 yards so you know where your shots are hitting. Use a paper target big enough that you won't miss and can account for all of your shots. I'm betting it isn't zeroed properly. After you get the sights adjusted at 50 yards move to 100 and shoot at paper again to fine tune the zero. Once zeroed at 100 you should be about 2" low at 200 and easily hit a 12" steel plate.

I'd double down on that and say start with a 30"x 30" piece of Kraft paper like you would for shotgun patterning, and start at 25 yards.
Shoot from the standing offhand position. Shooting from a bench increases felt recoil because the majority of the recoil impulse is taken on the upper half of the recoil pad, and because of the scrunched down body position, the "pocket" that the recoil pad is supposed to sit in is narrowed and the muscle that normally absorbs recoil is thinner. If you mount too far in, it hits the collarbone, too far out, it hits the joint itself, making recoil painful.
When you shoot the standing 25 yards, it's not group size you are going for. It's getting solid group on the paper to determine where to adjust the scope so all your rounds are going to hit that gong at 100.
If you have access to a Caldwell Lead Sled, (clubs sometimes have them, or a buddy maybe) use that to adjust the groups from 25 to 100, then you should be able to bang the gong, to quote Marc Bolan, with boring consistency like you do with your AK.

 

[AKshooter150]

There are lots and lots of variables and things that could be wrong. If you are unsure that you are not causing the issue, I suppose I would remove myself from the picture and eliminate me as the suspect.

Something like this would do it.

Remote

www.youtube.com

Great idea. I didn't think about using a lead sled at all. I'm absolutely going to buy one and test it.

 

[AKshooter150]

Back up and shoot it at a PAPER target at 50 yards so you know where your shots are hitting. Use a paper target big enough that you won't miss and can account for all of your shots. I'm betting it isn't zeroed properly. After you get the sights adjusted at 50 yards move to 100 and shoot at paper again to fine tune the zero. Once zeroed at 100 you should be about 2" low at 200 and easily hit a 12" steel plate.

I admit, I haven't zeroed in a while. I attempted to zero at 100 yards with the help of a local range expert who did a lot of shooting and even had a cooling device for his barrel. He insisted I didn't lift my head from the stock after each shot. Unfortunately, with how stiff the bolt was after each shot, that was impossible. Anyway, we spent quite a while getting it zeroed at 100 yards, and although it was some time ago, I remember this: I started shooting a group that was an inch or two off, listened to the expert about what MOA adjustments to make to my scope given the distance, shooting again and hitting even farther off in the other direction than the original group. I remember feeling like I had nailed that shot after a minute of breathing control — it was perfect, or at least it felt that way. But when it hit nowhere near where intended, I lost all confidence, and the expert turned to me and said, "that's the problem with cheap scopes."

However, if my scope was the problem, wouldn't every shot at 200 yards miss? Why would one shot hit, and then a 2nd shot miss, every time? I've always felt that if the scope was the problem, it wouldn't be so sporadic. It would be a static failure, correct?

 

[Pat Riot]

However, if my scope was the problem, wouldn't every shot at 200 yards miss? Why would one shot hit, and then a 2nd shot miss, every time? I've always felt that if the scope was the problem, it wouldn't be so sporadic. It would be a static failure, correct?

Not necessarily. I had a Tasco scope that my wife bought me (She meant well.)
That thing was mounted solid, zeroed and ready to go, I thought, but it must have had an internal issue. Rounds patterned, not grouped.
I gave it to a neighbor kid to use as his “spy scope” when he played “Pirates” with the neighborhood kids.

 

[45/30-06OKIE]

Do you have a torque wrench for the action screws? I have one by Vortex that I got on clearance a while back and it works ok. Id start there. Shame that a Franchi won't shoot straight right out of the box...

 

[br549arkie]

I once had a Marlin 39 with a scope on it that I made lot's of head shots on squirrels with and then one day I had a squirrel in the top of a big red oak that I shot at many times and never could hit it. Came to find out the screws holding the scope bases had come loose.

 

[LoonWulf]

Nothing helpfull to add that hasnt already been said, but I did want to wish you luck on your quest to getting it shooting right!

 

[tominboise]

Great idea. I didn't think about using a lead sled at all. I'm absolutely going to buy one and test it.

My personal opinion is that the rifle bounces around too much in a lead sled. If you need isolation from the rifle, put a sand bag between the butt plate and your shoulder. This will also help determine if your scope has a parallax problem, as the field of view is greatly reduced.

Also understand that rifles with a separate recoil lug system, which I think yours has, you need to make sure the recoil lug is seated correctly in the action slot and in the stock. I once got a very good buy on a Tikka 22-250 "that wouldn't shoot" because the owner had pulled the rifle out of the stock and not put it back together correctly.

 

[tdbmd]

I've got a Franchi Momentum .30-06 150th anniversary rifle that I can't shoot worth a crap. Beautiful rifle! Was in love when I bought it. Had it for a few years and have never been able to feel confident using it. My target is a 12" steel AR500 plate which I usually shoot at 200 yards — not a tall order for a .30-06, right? Wrong. I'll hit it once, miss, miss, maybe hit it again, miss, repeat. I spent two hours at the range and couldn't hit this huge plate at a measly 200 yards even twice in a row. I just got more and more frustrated. I shoot off a bench using a bipod. Vortex scope. Very steady setup. Recoil from my ammo is massive but I don't think I'm flinching.

Then, I busted out my 7.62x39 AR rifle and hit the damn thing 30 TIMES in a row. I emptied the entire mag into that steel plate and didn't miss a shot.

What's up with this? Is my rifle just messed up?

What is your zero? Everything tight? Scope not messed up? Done some zero work on a stable bench like a lead sled? Lots of questions

 

[tactikel]

My friend has a 6mm that shot great when he got it About 20 years ago. This year he had trouble keeping it on the target at 50 yard. Every screw on the scope bases and rings had worked loose. 5 minutes later he was shooting 1 MOA.

 

[AKshooter150]

My personal opinion is that the rifle bounces around too much in a lead sled. If you need isolation from the rifle, put a sand bag between the butt plate and your shoulder. This will also help determine if your scope has a parallax problem, as the field of view is greatly reduced.

Also understand that rifles with a separate recoil lug system, which I think yours has, you need to make sure the recoil lug is seated correctly in the action slot and in the stock. I once got a very good buy on a Tikka 22-250 "that wouldn't shoot" because the owner had pulled the rifle out of the stock and not put it back together correctly.

What do you mean when you say the owner took the rifle out of the stock and did not put it back together correctly? I just took my rifle out of the stock for the first time to see underneath. There were only two screws holding it to the stock, which I can only assume need to be torqued to spec.

To be frank, I know nothing about these bolt action rifles. Commenters’ mention of action lugs and other terms are the first I’ve ever heard of them. I am infinitely more familiar with AR platforms.

I checked every screw, both in the action, on the scope, on the mount, everywhere I could find a screw, and they were all tight. Here’s what it looks like. (See attached)

 

[tominboise]

What do you mean when you say the owner took the rifle out of the stock and did not put it back together correctly? I just took my rifle out of the stock for the first time to see underneath. There were only two screws holding it to the stock, which I can only assume need to be torqued to spec.

To be frank, I know nothing about these bolt action rifles. Commenters’ mention of action lugs and other terms are the first I’ve ever heard of them. I am infinitely more familiar with AR platforms.

I checked every screw, both in the action, on the scope, on the mount, everywhere I could find a screw, and they were all tight. Here’s what it looks like. (See attached)

On the Tikka I bought, the owner had not fully seated the independent recoil lug into the bottom of the receiver. All the screws were tight, but the receiver was not properly bottomed in the stock. It was subtle, but you could see the barrel was riding too high in the channel.

On you rifle, I would make sure the floating lug fits in the slot machined on the bottom of the receiver correctly, and also into the stock recess. Then make sure the receiver is fully bottomed in the stock and not rocking before you tighten the screws. If you have a torque screwdriver, you should torque the action screws evenly. I would start at 30 inlbs on each, if you don't have a factory spec.

It is probably put together correctly - it's just another thing to check off the list during troubleshooting.

 

[doubleh]

The first thing I would check is the scope. Replace it with a known good one if possible. I watched an excellent rifle shooter wrestle with a new Barska scope one morning that wouldn't hold zero. I was surprised that he would even consider that brand of scope in the first place as it was on a rather expensive rifle. A scope change solved his problem. Your problem seems rather drastic is the reason why I chose the scope for the first attempt.