Savage 110 30-06 accuracy help

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Savage Armed

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I have a Savage 110 30-06 that is about 2.5 moa. I have adjusted the trigger. I have put a Boyds stock on it and bedded the action. Barrel and tang are floated. Action screws are torqued. Scope bases and rings are torqued. I have tried two scopes. I have shot it both copper solvent clean and fouled. I even tried to lap the barrel crown with a brass crowning tool and a drill. It still shoots the same. I have shot Remington Core Lokt 150, 165, and 180. Winchester Power Point 165 and Hornady 165. Should I keep trying new ammo or is this as good as it gets?
 
I have the same rifle you do but it's 30+ yrs old a model 110C. It's has always loved Remington cor lokt bullets. I get 1.7" groups at 200 yds. And about .765 at 100. Unfortunately this may no loner be the case as the original stock will have to be replaced.

Is your scope parallax free to 100 yds or further? If not every time you move those crosshairs move and though they maybe on target the actual bore might be off from your center.

I would also recommend someone else shoot your rifle and see if he/she gets the same result. Also consider shooting more different types of ammo until you find what it likes.

The final recommendation I would make is to reload ammo with different charges and lengths and than perform a ladder test to see what your rifle likes.
 
curious

Curious about the age of your rifle and what the round count might be, can you say? Its a bit rare to find a sporter that is "shot out" but I suppose it's possible. The round count would have to be in the thousands, and the rate of fire would have to be high as well.

More likely, I'd suspect the throat length. If you have access to a bullet comparator, get some readings as to how far forward the lands are from your factory ammo. Most factory slugs are seated very deeply in the '06 in my observation, and many sporter throats are very long, usually not a good combination. If the magazine will accept them, and the action feed same, rifles can sometimes benefit by longer cartridge overall length.

If you don't have access to a real comparator, lightly pinch a pulled bullet in a spent case, very long, and chamber it gently. The rifling should seat the bullet. Withdraw this "comparator" very carefully, and note the difference between your experiment and the C.O.A.L of factory ammo. Differences exceeding, oh say .050 may well be your problem. It could be less than that too, say .030.

Another thing you can easliy experiment with is the action bedding screw torque settings. I'd start somewhere around 35- 40lbs on both screws,and run it up to 60 in about 10 lb increments and see how it shoots. If you get favorable results say at 50, I'd try 5 lb on either side to see if it responds further. Too, you could crank them up differentially so to speak, 50 on the front one, say 40 on the rear, that sort of thing, and see if you get results.

All that my result in a lot of shooting. which is expensive these days.The Savage 110 gives you an easy third option. It's a fairly simple process to screw a new barrel onto the 110 action, and pre threaded 110 barrels are available from several sources. That'd be cheaper than a new rifle.
I've got a 06'/110 barrel, very rough, I might even part with, very cheap.
 
Can't say for certain, because obviously we can't inspect the rifle and we can't be certain of any of the details.

But, if everything is in order, as you describe (bedding, action screws, scope, etc., etc.)......the only answer is different ammo. That is assuming, of course, that YOU can shoot better than 2.5 moa. Some people simply can't. I'll assume that you can.

So, we're left with ammo. More specifically, handloads. You may well just have one of those stubborn rifles that will not shoot well without carefully tuned ammo - tuned for that particular rifle. If you don't hand load....and it sounds as if you don't....then, yes, you may be stuck.

In the meantime, if I were you, I'd continue to try different ammo. Very few rifles can't be made to shoot at least 1 moa, if enough effort is put into them.
 
Years ago, I had a old 110.....tried a few different hand loads and it would consistently do MOA or sub MOA....just took some load tuning.
Dan
 
Check for correct headspace. Since the Savage barrels adjust headspace by "nut" instead of "reamer", it's possible your headspace is incorrect.
 
"...is this as good as it gets?..." Probably. A Savage 110 is a hunting rifle. If it's consistently shooting that 2.5" that ain't bad. You could try a pressure point in the barrel channel. Free floating guarantees nothing. Bed the tang too.
Ever try carefully loaded match ammo in it? Or a Sierra Game King?
 
I can only imagine the frustration of going through factory ammo at a range session, especially after all the gun work you've done with no improvements on the target. First, save that brass, because now you have custom, fire-formed cases for your rifle, and that's a good start right there on solutions. Know anyone with a reloading press? Get some '06 dies (check ebay; lots of '06 dies for sale there) so you can get started down that trail. If you shoot a lot, you really should reload anyway. And these days, there's more info available than ever to answer any questions you'll have regarding ammo crafting. Reloading ammo, to me, is just as much fun as shooting it (being retired, I can make that claim...).

When reading your O.P. (and since it seems you don't reload), my first thought on a starting solution was C.O.A.L., as has been mentioned already (think freebore). I use a Hornady, "lock and load" straight O.A.L. tool when checking cartridge length and it's a slick unit, indeed. The "pinch the bullet" method of finding over-all length has already been mentioned, and all you need to do that test is a 308 cal. bullet, because you already have a fire-formed case (if you saved them) to pinch. If you find yourself at the C.O.A.L. step in your quest, there's lots of help on this forum to see you through, if needed.

I have three '06's, and they all shoot better than me, and I reload for all of them. The already mentioned idea of someone else shooting your rifle is a good suggestion, too; might narrow down solutions.

Best of luck with your 110, I believe we all feel your frustration.
 
A good stand by load for a .30-06 is 56gr of IMR4350 w/ a 165gr bullet. If a .30-06 won't shoot that load 1.5 MOA or better it won't shoot anything.
 
You indicated you tried different scopes. Did you also try different rings and verify there was nothing keeping the rigs from being stable and secure?

My father had an issue with some sight through rings one time and was unable to get consistent results. He was ready to sell the rifle and at the last minute bought a different set of rings. It solved the problem nicely.
 
Sounds as though you are shooting factory ammo. I could never get anything worthwhile out of factory ammo.

My best 06 shoots 1/2" at 100 for 6 shots.

My worst 06 shoots 3/4" at 100 for 6 shots.

My Model 70 has shot 6 shots into 9/16" at 200 yds.

I have 5 of them, all different, and all have their own pet load.

All of the groups are with a 150gr Hot Cor.

I get almost similar results with the Speer 180 gr., but the groups are not quite that tight, but almost. As John Wayne once said "I'd hate to live off the difference".
 
I really couldn't get any better than what you are seeing until I moved into 180-208 grain bullets. 180 gr at 2715 fps; 208 at 2520 fps. But once I got to those levels I started seeing 0.5 MOA on a repeatable basis.

That Savage 110 (g series, non accutrigger) '06 is run of the mill. I say try a few more 175+ grain bullets. Try some ballistic tipped AMAX type bullets
 
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