Reloading Help Needed

[tactserv]

OK, so the gun is an older 20" Knight SR-25 with a 11.25" twist. Cases are LC, gentle prepping (trimmed, flash hole debured, shoulder bumped .003" in a Redding Full Length sizing die).
Primers seated with a Sinclair priming tool. Powder is VV N540, primers are Standard Remington. Bullet is a 180 SMK made for the Army Team back in the M14 days. Looks a lot like the 175 or 190.

Started with OCW, got a couple of good groups at around 2675 fps. Made up some 3 shot loadings around the sweet spots and went back to the range to zero in on a good load.

Many of the groups had 2 rounds touching, but the third would be ~2" away from the other 2. All powder charges were weighed on a balance beam. Gun has about 250 rounds through it.

Shooting with a bipod and a buttstock mono pod, with a US Optics scope at 17x.

If I had hair, I'd be pulling it out right now.

Ideas, anyone?

 

[vaeevictiss]

Could be the crown. But it would be of for one round to be consistently off.

I hate suggesting shooter error but it has to be considered. I had issues shooting my rifle when it was new until i realized i was moving my head in between shots and didn't have my parallax set correctly.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

 

[FCS]

OK, so the gun is an older 20" Knight SR-25 with a 11.25" twist. Cases are LC, gentle prepping (trimmed, flash hole debured, shoulder bumped .003" in a Redding Full Length sizing die).
Primers seated with a Sinclair priming tool. Powder is VV N540, primers are Standard Remington. Bullet is a 180 SMK made for the Army Team back in the M14 days. Looks a lot like the 175 or 190.

Started with OCW, got a couple of good groups at around 2675 fps. Made up some 3 shot loadings around the sweet spots and went back to the range to zero in on a good load.

Many of the groups had 2 rounds touching, but the third would be ~2" away from the other 2. All powder charges were weighed on a balance beam. Gun has about 250 rounds through it.

Shooting with a bipod and a buttstock mono pod, with a US Optics scope at 17x.

If I had hair, I'd be pulling it out right now.

Ideas, anyone?

You mention 3 shot loadings, were you loading 3 rds in magazine? Last round out of AR will typically have a different POI then rounds fired while there is some upward pressure from ammo on BCG.

 

[lightman]

Is your ammo concentric? I took the blame for lots of unexplained flyers over the years, until I got a tool ( Sinclair ), to measure loaded rounds. Lightman

 

[tactserv]

Follow Up:

I'm going back to the range with some factory 175 Federal Gold Medal. Got to convince myself it's not the gun.

Thanks for all the comments.