Howdy everyone! I purchased a Tikka Master Sporter from a Hide member a couple of weeks ago. I had an excellent transaction and the rifle is gorgeous. The rifle is in .308 and appeared nearly unfired. I took it to the range last week for the first time with a generic load I use in several other rifles,175gr M118 projectile over 42gr of TAC in Winchester cases with CCI Benchrest primers. I was shocked that I could get groups no better than 4-5 inches at 100 yards! I was shooting off the bipod on the bench so I thought this was the problem. I tried shooting off a bag on the bench,same result. The groups were totally random,never showing consistent vertical or horizontal stringing.
I should clarify for those that don't know,I lost my left arm above the elbow and my right leg above the knee in a motorcycle wreck a couple of years ago. I am unable to shoot from the prone so after trying different positions with no better results I decided I must be the problem. Several days later a friend and I shot it again along with his 20 inch 700 in .308. We used 4 different hand loads with different weight bullets and different powders along with several factory loads. The Tikka started with the same dismal groups with all loads,though showing improvement as round count increased.
After a quick cleaning groups shrank by half, generally with two rounds in the same hole and followed by rounds 3-5 randomly arrayed around them. Groups hovered around 1.5-2 inches through the day. To rule me out my buddy shot my rifle and I shot his, I'm not the problem. No matter what he did groups got no smaller.The rifle has a US Optics 20 MOA rail,low Burris Extreme Tactical rings and a brand new Super Sniper 20X. I disassembled the rifle and found nothing amiss.
Since then I've added an Atlas V8 and a Accushot monopod as I have trouble stabilizing the rear of the gun.Today I took it back out with several factory and hand loads. I loaded some 220gr SMKs to try but I loaded slightly too long and couldn't chamber them. The other loads used TAC under M118 175gr bullets,168gr SMKs and even 110gr 30 carbine bullets. The only factory load I had was PMC Bronze. After zeroing, I tried shooting for group. I had the same results of typically two in the same hole with random flyers. I was very stable with the bipod and monopod and also shot off a bag. Oddly the most consistent load was the 30 carbine bullets over 43gr of TAC which stayed around 1.25 inches.
I am planning on disassembling the rifle once more and inspecting again. I'm going to clean the barrel to bare metal and polish with Flitz and my bore guide. If I can't get decent groups after this I may try pillar bedding it. I'm on the waiting list for one of the KRG Whiskey 3 chassis to use with a T3 CTR so I'm not sure how far I want to go with this. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions? Thanks!
UPDATE 9-20: Bedded the rifle in Marinetex and went back out to test today.With my m118 projectile hand loads still had disappointing results. I had two boxes of FGMM to try,first 5 shot group was less than .5 inch! I'll try to post a picture but it averaged this for four 5 shot groups. Thanks for the responses!
I should clarify for those that don't know,I lost my left arm above the elbow and my right leg above the knee in a motorcycle wreck a couple of years ago. I am unable to shoot from the prone so after trying different positions with no better results I decided I must be the problem. Several days later a friend and I shot it again along with his 20 inch 700 in .308. We used 4 different hand loads with different weight bullets and different powders along with several factory loads. The Tikka started with the same dismal groups with all loads,though showing improvement as round count increased.
After a quick cleaning groups shrank by half, generally with two rounds in the same hole and followed by rounds 3-5 randomly arrayed around them. Groups hovered around 1.5-2 inches through the day. To rule me out my buddy shot my rifle and I shot his, I'm not the problem. No matter what he did groups got no smaller.The rifle has a US Optics 20 MOA rail,low Burris Extreme Tactical rings and a brand new Super Sniper 20X. I disassembled the rifle and found nothing amiss.
Since then I've added an Atlas V8 and a Accushot monopod as I have trouble stabilizing the rear of the gun.Today I took it back out with several factory and hand loads. I loaded some 220gr SMKs to try but I loaded slightly too long and couldn't chamber them. The other loads used TAC under M118 175gr bullets,168gr SMKs and even 110gr 30 carbine bullets. The only factory load I had was PMC Bronze. After zeroing, I tried shooting for group. I had the same results of typically two in the same hole with random flyers. I was very stable with the bipod and monopod and also shot off a bag. Oddly the most consistent load was the 30 carbine bullets over 43gr of TAC which stayed around 1.25 inches.
I am planning on disassembling the rifle once more and inspecting again. I'm going to clean the barrel to bare metal and polish with Flitz and my bore guide. If I can't get decent groups after this I may try pillar bedding it. I'm on the waiting list for one of the KRG Whiskey 3 chassis to use with a T3 CTR so I'm not sure how far I want to go with this. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions? Thanks!
UPDATE 9-20: Bedded the rifle in Marinetex and went back out to test today.With my m118 projectile hand loads still had disappointing results. I had two boxes of FGMM to try,first 5 shot group was less than .5 inch! I'll try to post a picture but it averaged this for four 5 shot groups. Thanks for the responses!
