Guys,

Last time to the range before the gun season the .308 Win Savage M10 short action patterned fine ... groups of less than 1/2" at 50 yards.

Carried the rifle in the field a number of times, and finally got a shot. An easy one ... good rest, not hurried, but it was darkish and the scope on the rifle is an old Tasco junker. Missed the deer at 70 yards or so.

Decided to borrow a good scope from one of the Africa rifles that won't have any place to go for a while. Scope is a Leupold 1.5-5x VX-111 IR on a 30 mm tube. Has always given me superb groups on the .416 Rigby.

Took it to the range after bore sighting it ... groups were terrible. Noticed that the action was moving in the stock. Groups improved somewhat when I tightened things down more.

Appears the stock is not seating well and is flexible to boot.

Question ... Is it reasonable expect that glass bedding this stock and put some stiffening rods in the forearm will improve the grouping of the rifle?

I bought this rifle to provide one that could be taken out in the rain and nasty without worrying about it. Guess I'll have to go to better known rifles for the rest of the season and try the little Savage when I know it works.

Thanks,

Your gun shot very well before.....what happened?

I've never seen a gun shoot worse after glass bedding.....but you already know that your gun can shoot very well without it.

go back to the basics.

Stiffening the forearm is a good idea if it's the "tupperware" stock. Grind a channel in it and get an old engine pushrod somewhere, then glass the whole thing up. The gun is pillar bedded and really doesn't need glass bedding, just proper tightening on the action screws. I have 2 Savages, one with the plastic stick and it shoots .5 MOA with no problem.

My Savage shoots differently from the bench than it does in the field. The forend flexes when I shoot with a sling or put weight on the stock. Bedding the action and stiffening the forend helped. I recently switched to a B&C Duramax stock. I don't have any problems anymore. My group size at the bench didn't get any better, but my groups shooting offhand with a sling improved.

Although my Savages shot less than MOA with the cheapo factory stock, I replaced the stock on my 300 RUM Savage 116 and my Savage 110 FP 25-06 with the B&C Duramax stocks. The stocks look much better and are stiffer than the Savage factory stocks. The accuracy on both rifles improved with the new stocks.