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I took my rifle to the range today & tried some loads. I had installed a Leupold 2-7X scope.

I tries 3 bullets - Nosler 250 gr Balistic Tip, Barnes 250 gr TSX & Lapua Mega 286 gr soft point. I had 2 loads each - total 6 loads.

I had collumated the rifle with my Leupold collumator. I also bore sighted it against the top of a pine tree 1 mile away - usually works very well for me & the top "cross" of the pine makes it easy to center the bore as well as the scope cross hairs.

At the range, I first tried to get on paper at 25 yards. The first shot was way off the mark - 8" high & 6" to the left. The next two were also out despite adjusting the scope. After getting it on the 2 inch circle, I moved to 50 meters & again I had trouble with the Nosler going off the paper. Finally I got it on the bull at 50 meters. By now all the lighter loads were gone & I was begining to worry that I had bought a lemon & spent all this money on restoring it only to have a jar of rancid marmalade!

I then tried 3 shots of the Nosler BT at 100 meters & got a 1" group about 2" high (after adjusting the scope for the umpteenth time). The next 3 shots from the Barnes TSX were in the bull - 1" group. May be the rifle was not a lemon after all....! Final 3 shots with the Lapua were 1" low & 1" group!! I just cannot believe this.

So, the Lapua can be zeroed for 100 meters & the Barnes will shoot to 200 meters & the Nosler BT to 250 meters!

I'll now load up the same 3 loads & do a full chronograph test. I am expecting 2450 to 2600 with the 250 gr bullets & 2300 to 2450 with the 286 gr bullet. The 3 final loads were 56gr to 59 gr of Varget. I had already chronographed the starting loads with open sights a few weeks ago.

The BIG QUESTION I have is - has anyone else had much experience with full length ribbed barrel rifles behaving like this? Was my rifle "settling" into the new stock?

The only other rifle I have had that behaved so strangely despite collumating & bore sighting was my 358 Win Douglas SS barrel on a Mod 70 action that was not free floated. I thing the fact that the barrel had virtually full length contact with the stock resulted in the bullets shooting very high. Once I got it close to the bull, I was able to shoot 1 hole groups with Sierra 225gr bullets & 1" with Hornady 200 gr bullets.

I would appreciate any info / feed back on the matter.

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Always shoot through the target & not just at it.