Thoughts?

[TRIGGER]

Savage ml2 smokeless.
Purchased this gun end of season last year and just getting around to shooting it. Previous owner told me he shot 44 grains of accurate 5744 and a 300 grain bullet (Barnes) so that's where I'm at. I pulled the Nikon scope off of my other ML and mounted it on this gun.
It was 4" left at 25 yards so I walked it in with two more shots/adjustments and then did the same thing at 50 yards and had it within an inch of the bullseye. Great now I'm confident it will hit the 16" target at 100 yards. First shot at 100 and nothing. I reevaluated my 50 yard shot and knew it should be hitting at 100 so I fired another shot that ended up being 2.5" left at 100 so I moved the scope 10 clicks to the right and the next round ended up 1" high at 100 yards but center left to right. PEFECT let's see how well it will group now. Next shot…NOTHING. Reloaded and aimed at the 50 yard target and NOTHING. I weighed all charges exactly 44 grains and all of the bullets/sabots went down the barrel the same. Scope issue? Been shooting this scope for 6 or 7 years with no issues and mounted it with a torque wrench to spec.
Anything else that can throw it this bad?

 

[Jcalder]

Scope, rings, bases, or you're shooting over the target at 100.

 

[Carlos]

Make sure the scope rings match the scope, some scopes are 1" and some are 30mm. (You're probably already aware, just thought I'd mention it.)

 

[jeff gra]

Make sure the scope rings match the scope, some scopes are 1" and some are 30mm. (You're probably already aware, just thought I'd mention it.)

Savage ml2 smokeless.
Purchased this gun end of season last year and just getting around to shooting it. Previous owner told me he shot 44 grains of accurate 5744 and a 300 grain bullet (Barnes) so that's where I'm at. I pulled the Nikon scope off of my other ML and mounted it on this gun.
It was 4" left at 25 yards so I walked it in with two more shots/adjustments and then did the same thing at 50 yards and had it within an inch of the bullseye. Great now I'm confident it will hit the 16" target at 100 yards. First shot at 100 and nothing. I reevaluated my 50 yard shot and knew it should be hitting at 100 so I fired another shot that ended up being 2.5" left at 100 so I moved the scope 10 clicks to the right and the next round ended up 1" high at 100 yards but center left to right. PEFECT let's see how well it will group now. Next shot…NOTHING. Reloaded and aimed at the 50 yard target and NOTHING. I weighed all charges exactly 44 grains and all of the bullets/sabots went down the barrel the same. Scope issue? Been shooting this scope for 6 or 7 years with no issues and mounted it with a torque wrench to spec.
Anything else that can throw it this Weekend

Give the barrel plenty of time to cool down. Sabots don't perform well in this heat and smokeless pressures.

 

[vonb]

That load should work. I would suspect the scope or mount.

 

[RockMcL]

Scope front not touching barrel is it? Or real close?

Otherwise, remove scope & mount. (Make sure mounting screws are not bottoming which would give false torque.)
Make sure everything clean and fits/sits solid. Remount and re-torque.

 

[TRIGGER]

Scope front not touching barrel is it? Or real close?

Otherwise, remove scope & mount. (Make sure mounting screws are not bottoming which would give false torque.)
Make sure everything clean and fits/sits solid. Remount and re-torque.

Ruled the scope out by changing it. Have gotten it to shoot a little better by changing sabots but still have a ways to go. I have a few different bullets in 300 grain and a few in 250 grain with 4 different sabots and two different powders just have to find the right combination.

 

[RockMcL]

Just brainstorming but you may want to try backing down to minimum powder loads and see if get away from wild flyers with each sabot. Then go hotter till you get flyers again. (Then back off till no flyers and eval if your accuracy and velocity is sufficient.)

I used to push too hard for velocity and energy and overdrive my sabots which would give me flyers.

Good luck

 

[TRIGGER]

Just brainstorming but you may want to try backing down to minimum powder loads and see if get away from wild flyers with each sabot. Then go hotter till you get flyers again. (Then back off till no flyers and eval if your accuracy and velocity is sufficient.)

I used to push too hard for velocity and energy and overdrive my sabots which would give me flyers.

Good luck

Excellent! I have been shooting the load of 44 grains of 5744 because that's what the previous owner said the gun liked but I'm thinking the previous owners definition of "accurate" is a lot different than mine. I'm going to swap to n110 at a low charge and work up from there. Jlanecr500 suggested this to me also. Sounds like I need to do it lol.
With my black powder ML I started with 90 grains of blackhorn and the gun didn't like it at all so I went down to 70 grains and it shot good. Never felt the need to even try a different load since it was shooting good.