Cold Bore Issue

[Saltydog235]

Savage Model 10 Precision Carbine .308 in a B&C Medalist stock. DNZ Mount, Timney trigger set at 2#, Trijicon Accupoint 5X20X50. Load is a 165grn NBT over 46grn of Varget. It's always shot great up until last week and today. The first cold bore shot is 3", 5" then 3.5" high. Those are rested cold bore shots, follow up shots on all 3 sessions are in the bullseye for a 5 shot group you can cover with a nickel.

Stock bolts torqued to 45# and ring screws to 25# per specs.

I'm not understanding this as it's something I've never dealt with.

 

[rickyrick]

Scope went south?

Any time I've had the issue you described, the scope came loose. You said it's tight... Maybe the scope went bad ???

 

[Saltydog235]

That wouldn't explain 5 subsequent shots after the Cold Bore shot being in a tight group right in the 10 ring. Those groups were repeated 3 times, the cold bore shots were the anomoly. One had a little bit of a sticky bolt lift and slightly flattened primer.

All my powder charges are weighed individually and its a load I've been using for years. Never had this problem before.

 

[taylorce1]

Cold clean bore or just cold bore shots? If they are cold clean bore, I wouldn't clean the rifle until accuracy falls off. If it's just cold bore, I don't know what to tell you.

 

[Saltydog235]

Just cold bore. Heck, maybe I should clean it

 

[g.willikers]

Pain-inna-butt when that kind of stuff happens.
It's obvious that something has changed.
Might take the thing all apart, clean everything real good, carefully reassemble and see what happens.
Or just shoot twice real fast every time.

 

[T. O'Heir]

So it's a very dirty rifle that suddenly quit shooting well cold when it has shot well in the past? Start with a bath.

 

[AllenJ]

A good cleaning just might be the cure, can't hurt to try. I had just over 200 rounds through my PreCar when I noticed it was not shooting as well as I was used to. I thoroughly cleaned the barrel using both nitro and copper solvents, alternating with them until the dry patch came out clean after each. It took like 40 minutes but the rifle starting shooting like I was used to after 3 fouling shots. I'm shooting 178 Hornady Match over a max load of Varget, CCI BR primers and Lapua brass.

 

[603Country]

I just had a similar problem. My 223, with fancy new barrel, was shooting great, but I felt the need to check the cold bore first round. It was about 1 inch up and 1 inch left. After that it grouped well, but that really wasn't what I wanted from that fancy new barrel. I tried it a couple of mornings, and the same first round high and left results. Probably I had over 50 rounds through it since the last cleaning, and maybe as much as 75. So I cleaned it real well and got a lot of garp out of there. Shot great after that and cold bore shot number 1 seems to be right where it should be.

And, for the record, I used Shooter's Choice first and got to fairly clean patches, but then decided to use Boretech Eliminator. I got way more carbon out with the Boretech. Not much copper was in the new barrel, which is good.

 

[DAVID NANCARROW]

I really like Bore Tech products. I have the Eliminator for copper and the carbon cleaner for general cleaning. Both work pretty fast and is not supposed to harm your barrel if you leave it in there to soak for a while.

 

[Saltydog235]

Scrubbed it clean. Will see how it shoots this week.

 

[603Country]

Run about 5 rounds through it (you might be Ok with 2 foulers, but more won't hurt). Then let it cool before you take that cold bore first shot. When I deep cleaned my 223, it took that many foulers before the barrel settled down. To me, that was odd, but the barrel didn't ask my opinion.