My uncle gifted me his Rem 700 .300 WM a few years ago. I shot it two or three times with his handloaded 130 grain speers, killing a bear and a coyote. I decided to use it for elk this year after the sale of my Mauser '06. I bought some federal red box 180 grain nosler accubonds for their excellent reputation. First trip out i was having vertical stringing issues, bad. like, 10 inches high at 100, then 1 inch high the next shot. 200 was barely on the paper, high. i went home and scrubbed the barrel thoroughly. used gunslick foaming bore cleaner 5-6 times until no blue remained. then I checked the action screws, the front one being three turns out!

today i made sure the barrel wasnt touching the fore end and the action was well seated. back out to the range. 100 yards first shot 11 inches high. i started vertical clicking until i had 3 shots together 3 inches high at 100, then moved out to 200.

at two hundred i was 6 inches high! then 2 inches low, then 6 inches high again! windage throughout both days is right on. i tried one of the 130 gr handloads and it was 12" low, was disgusted and put it away. all shots taken from a lead sled.

so, a .300 win mag with a sterling reputation from my uncle, 20 year old redfield 4-12 that has only been on this rifle, fiberglass stock, factory barrel ported with the slits at the end of the barrel, not an add on brake. stock is not bedded, but barrel is freefloating. chamber is set at absolute minimum: you have to slap the bolt down. radical vertical stringing of shots.

My course of action is to swap the scope with a new Burris my dad has in the drawer to see if the vertical adjustment on the redfield is to blame (does that happen? windage on all shots was great).

second, bed the action. I've not done this before, but there's a couple of people here in town i'd trust this to.

third, have the chamber adjusted so a rap on the bolt isn't required.

Do these sound like reasonable steps to get this rifle back in working order? my uncle never had a lick of trouble with it, being able to shoot at any time for any length of time with great results.

Thanks!
heath

Yes trying a new scope are a good idea. I had two 25-30 years old redfields acting like yours.
Do you have to use force on the bolt with factory ammo?

Change the scope before doing anything else.

I'm thinking it is going to be a bedding problem. I had a similar issue last year, once it was bedded, the rifle calmed down to sub-moa

shoot it with the new scop on before spending any money...tj3006

Without second guessing did that Uncle just use simple "cup and core" soft point lead tip bullets?

That MAY be the answer that your rifle doesn't like being fed its new diet of Nosler Accubonds?

I couldn't get Nosler Partition 100 grain to shoot at all in my 6mm Remington 1 in 9 Mauser by Parker-Hale.

If you've any other bullets I'd maybe try them first?

As far as I am aware, the 700s have always been designed to shoot well with a pressure point in the stock about 2" back from the forend. I think I would try doing that with a piece of folded card stock or similar. The vertical stringing could be caused by stock pressure at another point on the barrel, but it could also be caused by a load your rifle just doesn't like.

As has been suggested, change scopes first (yes, you CAN get a bad one!), and if that doesn't fix it, try putting a pressure point in the stock to stabilize barrel whip. It has worked for me several times...

Yes, do what they said; it is most likely bedding. Prob not scope. And clean your barrel well of all copper fouling and start over with testing. And I don't trust lead sleds; shoot it from a proper set of bags and hold the forearm. This is a hunting rifle, not a heavy barreled target rifle and in the field, you are going to be holding it yourself. Vertical stringing is easy to fix.

thank you all!

yes, the 130 gr handload are old speer BTSP bullets. 130's in a .300 seemed a bit small for elk, and accubonds having such a good reputation (we use them for .270, 7mm RM & .300 RUM) I thought they would be a good choice. i thought maybe this rifle didnt like them, like my '06 HATED 165's. I will try a box of cup/core bullets next time out. hopefully my wife doesnt see the ammo bill just for sighting in this rifle!

and all cartridges loaded require the slap of the bolt. That needs to be addressed, as last night while examining, the bolt is deforming the cam of the receiver from the force needed to close the bolt. unacceptable.