Stringy Savage?

[Shmackey]

I have a new-to-me Savage MkII BV that I finally got to shoot for real today with good ammo and controlled conditions. Even after shooting a few dozen shots, it did an unusual thing consistently: the first shot of a new magazine (i.e., after a couple of minutes' rest) was off to the right. The next shot might be a little closer to POA. After that, the rest of the magazine was all sub-MOA right on POA. After a couple of minutes to reload my two mags, it repeated this behavior.

Could the barrel need to be floated? It seems strange that a couple of minutes would be enough to let it cool off so much that it would move, but maybe it's touching the stock just right.

 

[WNTFW]

I seriously doubt the .22 is reacting to heat that quickly.

Try some single loading consecutive shots.

I would look for something loose or funky stock fit like you mentioned. Scope/rings or sights would get some looking at. I had a bushnell with a loose eyepiece that took a while to track down.

 

[DIM]

what is your good ammo? make, weight velocity? Have you tried Woolf or Eley match ammo? CCI Mini-Mag is another good choice.

 

[Shmackey]

Ammo was SK Rifle Match (same as Wolf), CCI SV, Federal GMM. It wasn't the ammo.

 

[Shmackey]

But to be honest I've been fighting a similar problem with my MkBTV for 2 years. I learned to predict when it was going to shoot well and I have been able to shoot very well with it in target shooting like that. But for hunting it becomes very tough because of the first shot not being where it should be. If you figure it out let me know. I've heard that a new firing pin and firing pin spring will fix it. I put in a new firing pin and no help. I have the spring to put in but that takes a gunsmith and I haven't made it to one yet. I intend to take the gun to a smith to try to get the problems fixed. What you describe is actually pretty common for Savage MkII especially with the heavy barrels. If you can figure it out a lot of people will appreciate it. Maybe I just haven't tried the right thing yet. I've heard a lot of suggestions I haven't tried yet.

Gah. Not what I wanted to hear. Might be time to look at that Anschutz....

 

[DIM]

I made a mistake once and bought semi-auto 22 LR and almost always first shot is not where I aimed it, but I learned: it has to do how receiver was closed, so I had to play with cocking piece by moving it back a bit and slowly closing it with specific pressure applied, still I missed like 3 rabbits this year but I got like 12 I think. But you have bolt action 22LR so this one hard to predict, unless you have some free movements in the headspce. Well there are 22 LR ammo sorting gauges you can buy, try to sort your ammo buy weight also can help, cleaning chamber also helps, but don't clean bore to much unless your bullets copper plated.

 

[Shmackey]

Hrm. Anschutzes are damn expensive. I'm going to have to figure this out if it makes me crazy, which it's already beginning to do.

 

[DIM]

get a new barrel, or try to bedded, I did bedded mine and it actually improved when barrel got free-floated...
here is a good place where you can get good answers for your problem
http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=24
and this
http://savageshooters.com/SavageForum/index.php/board,10.0.html

 

[Shmackey]

Interim update: I checked today, and the barrel was not floated. Not even close. After a few hours with sandpaper and various cylinders, it's floated now. I'll try to get to the range in a few days to see if removing that variable had any effect.

Note: A Lee .308 Win neck-sizing die is a most excellent cylinder for sanding out the barrel channel.

 

[Art Eatman]

Shmackey, after your range test, start a new thread as an update.