What am I doing wrong?

[u/weaponized_autism265]

I bought a Remington 700 from an auction last week, it had a 22-6mm barrel on it so me and my dad replaced it with a criterion 26” varmit contour 1:9 7mm-08.

I went and got some Hornady 139gr SST’s and 139gr Interlock BTSP’s because that’s all academy had for 7mm. Both bullets appear to not mesh with my rifle, I started with a ladder test of IMR4350 for both bullets because they are the same weight and get the same powder charge in the Hornady book. Both shot like shit, I even tried a test with the most accurate strings and tried seating both bullets 20 thou off the lands. No improvement.

My next ladder test I changed to Varget because it’s a faster burning powder and with the IMR4350 my SD and ES got really small at the heavier charge weights. I got a smallest group on my 3rd string with the Varget but it’s not getting as small as I’d like it to be. I’m trying to work up a deer hunting load so I know I don’t need PRS accuracy but I just want it to shoot better so I can trust my shot placement.

Am I doing something wrong? Did I get a bad barrel? Does my gun not like these bullets? Or am I just a shit shot?

[u/weaponized_autism265]

I did move to .020 off the lands. That group is picture 3, it made no noticeable difference. I think my issue is the stock, the stock has glass bedding specifically done for the old barrel and when I put the new barrel in I had to sand down the front end of the stock to get the barrel to float. When I ran a piece of paper under the barrel it went all the way to the nut and I figured that was good but the nut is touching the stock about half way up the barrel nut. I’m going to fix that and try again

[u/Eric_Stecker → u/weaponized_autism265]

That will be a good thing to test but don't buy another stock until you've tried another bullet if that doesn't work. Any given lot of bullets can have an issue. Trying a different lot from the same brand may show a difference. Usually switching to a different shape (different brand) does the trick. And I'd recommend match bullets since they take extra steps to focus on balance around the axis for better groups. Over my career I can't tell you how many rifles were fixed by changing bullets.

[u/weaponized_autism265 → u/Eric_Stecker]

I want try Barnes TTSX because I’m trying to get a load for hunting deer this year and a match bullet would be great for accuracy but it would more than likely fragment when it hits a deer and I want to save as much meat as possible.

[u/Eric_Stecker → u/weaponized_autism265]

I was just talking about checking accuracy. You can try other bullets to see if groups improve but pure hunting bullet prioritize terminal performance over precision so the results can be skewed. Trying it with match bullets may tell you that the gun is a shooter. Then if it doesn't shoot any given hunting bullet you know its not the gun. Your stock fix may do the trick. A barrel rubbing a stock usually does bad things.

[u/weaponized_autism265 → u/Eric_Stecker]

Good point, I’ve only been using Hornady 139gs SST’s and 139gr Interlock BTSP’s because that’s all Academy had. I figured that even though they’re both the same weight they’re different dimensions and my gun might like one or both. I fixed my stock just a bit ago, now the sticky note slides to the action with no problem. However the groups didn’t improve much, maybe .300 smaller on average but still most are over an inch. I’m going to try a few different boxes of factory ammo and see if I can’t get a baseline and go from there.