Ruger M77 MK2 in 260 remington

603Country: I haven't bought the rifle from him, he asked if I could work up handloads for his rifle. the scope is the same as when he shot the legendary group. to rule out user error im going to have him shoot his rifle with factory groups as well as what I load for him. if im a bad shot id like to know it before I decide to throw another round down range. he handed me a box of nozler 120 gr. bullets to try last night. they are the same bullet as the factory ammo.

Brian: ill replace the scope before letting him shoot. I have one on hand for trial purposes. ill check the barrel again, its the M77 with the boat paddle stock. normally I would do as you mentioned with the OCW test, but I was running out of bullets to test. that's the only reason I was doing the 1 grain jump. stay tuned for more trial and error.
 
badding, I've had two scopes go bad, and both did it while on my 223. Wouldn't think that would happen, but it did. Both times the groups opened up, going from small groups to groups in the range of 1 1/2 inches or so. The first time it happened I was working up loads with a new bullet, and I could not get a decent group. Drove me crazy. I went back to a known good load, and got the loose groups. I tried cleaning the barrel, shooting with cold and with hot barrel. Nothing worked. Then I read an article in some gun mag about a failing scope, so I swapped out my scope and shot some nice groups. I think we all sort of take it for granted that the scope is always Ok, so that's the last place we look.

In your situation, I think I'd retry loads following Brian's suggestion of smaller increments. I usually use 1% of max load as the incremental change. I'd clean the barrel, removing carbon fouling but leaving the copper. Then, a couple of foulers. I start with 3 shot groups, using the logic that 3 bad shots are not going to tighten up if I shoot 2 more. Once I find a good 3 shot group, I'll make it a 5 shot group. And, just to say it, I don't have one rifle that shoots best at or near the minimum powder charge. They all shoot best from about a grain under max to about max.

If that doesn't work, then I'd swap the scope, and start over. It's a frustrating situation, and I'll bet I wasted a pound and a half of powder and a bazillion Nosler bullets for nothing. But with a good scope that rifle now shoots like a champ.
 
Update: the owner of the rifle took the gun to a gunsmith during lunch today. the gunsmith concluded that the stock was putting too much pressure on the barrel, removed the stock and reseated it. also he bought a new scope (not knowing if the old one was bad or not) and had it mounted. going to try and load a few and try the new hardware out. fingers crossed.
 
The 260 can be a tack driver but my ELD took me some work. I am ready to hunt now if temperatures don't affect my powder too much which I'm sure they will.
 

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43 grains of h4350. Good daylight. Roughly about 5 minutes between shots. With new scope and had the action re seated in the stock.
 

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The following group after the 43 grains of H4350. With 47 grains of RL-22 I didn't let the barrel cool as much as I was running short on daylight. None the less the barrel wasn't scalding. What's going on with this gun. It seems like the reloader 22 wants to shoot. But sporadic groups? The first and the third shot are the two almost touching up top. The second and either 4th or 5th are nearly touching near bottom. And the one off to the left by itself is either the 4th or 5th like I said I was running out of daylight. And those two were shot back to back without cooling off of a shooting sled on a solid wood bench
 

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Did you swap out the scope? Like I said, I shot at least a hundred rounds of reloads in my 223, only stopping to let the barrel cool, clean it from time to time, and to beat my head against an upright post. Then I swapped out the scope and found the problem.

Drop out the spring loaded magazine keeper and stick a finger or two up into the mag well and see if the metal mag well is loose or is bound up solid. Should be a bit loose. If it's rock solid in there, take the action out of the stock and reseat it, making sure the mag well metal is somewhat loose when you reassemble the rifle.

And...you might consider letting someone you know to be a good shot have a go with a few rounds. Could be the problem is user error. I have bad accuracy days, decent ones, and great ones. I think we all do.
 
@603country. I posted 2 replies back to back I'm not sure if you saw the first reply on page one with my groups right before I shot groups of RL-22. But that's where I posted that a new scope was installed on the gun. Prostaff 2.5x10x50 and for some reason I just noticed that the pictures got turned 90 degrees. the head of the quarter should be straight in reference to the holes.
 
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Brain: you think copper fouling could throw groups sporadically like that? ill do it when I get home from work. I just thought it was weird that my H4350 would produce "semi close" groups with a warm barrel. but I thought it was weird how with the RL-22 produced a group with 2 sets of holes almost touching each other rough 3.5" apart. vertical stringing almost.
FWIW I thoroughly scrubbed the barrel 20 rounds prior to these groups. which could also be what you mean as in im not cleaning the barrel enough.
 
Could need cleaning. I've had that issue but on the other hand mine will start to shoot tighter after 20-30 rounds. I seldom do a thorough cleaning with anything but a few runs with a bore snake after a range session until I start losing accuracy. After my groups start drifting I run Hoppes foam in barrel overnight and scrub super good with brush and patches. I know my next ten shots are not going to be tight. Just the way my Tikka does. I done the barrel break in. Cleaning after every shot for 5 and after every 5 until I ran 50 through it. My number 6 target was with a hotter barrel but it was 90 degrees outside and I was already pretty happy with numer 2 group. I've never ran reloader 22 in anything but larger bullets in my 30-06. 7 mag and 300 ultra mag. I would have never dreamed of using h4831 sc but Long Range shooting forum had a suggestion for it for the Hornady eld. Prior to this the only powder I ever used in my 260 was h414. Same groups or better and the eld had me stumped. Instead of the 2.80 I normally seat these liked 2.765 which was a little more jump on the longer bullet. I used the same oal on the 127 grain Barnes TTSX which wouldn't shoot the longer oal. I had called Barnes and they suggested I give them a longer jump to the lands and they were right. Now that I like this eld bullet I can't find it anymore local.
 
I seriously doubt a break in was done with this gun and now that I've almost put a hundred rounds through it trying to get a load loaded for this gun.
 
I think Brian already suggested copper removal. Probably it's time for that. Get a good copper remover (not Hoppe's or something ammonia based). Boretech Eliminator works great.

I can shoot about 100 or so rounds through my 223 before the groups start opening up. Time to clean it. My 220 needs cleaning after about 25 rounds. The 260 seems to never need cleaning. So it seems time to give yours a good cleaning, if only to get back to a baseline condition.
 
I'm told that ammonia can attack steel. And in my experience, using Sweet's and others, they don't work that well. There are a couple of good copper removers other than Boretech Eliminator, but once I bought the Boretech there was no need to buy anything else.
 
I gave my 77 Compact to my DIL. It shot .6" with 45gr of RL19 under 120s or 129s. In my Savage 16, same load shot same groups. As others mentioned, look elsewhere.
 
Boretech Eliminator is a good all-around choice. KG12 is the best copper cleaner there is. It's major downside is that it doesn't turn purple. That's why I like a purple foaming product that coats the whole bore and lets me know when the copper is gone.
 
I have zero experience with a 260. I do believe the gun needs cleaned thoroughly. I mean clean. Copper free. It'll give you a place to start. I'd repeat the R22 loads you last did. I'd get someone else to try it too before I did one more load. See where you are at.

I gotta be honest. I think you have either a fouling problem or a shooter problem. Good luck and God bless
 
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