All,
My 25-06 Ackley has just decided to quit shooting worth a damn. I cannot figure out why. Action screws are tight, but not too tight. The barrel is still free floated. The scorpe mounts are tight. Same reloads. I am wondering what ya'll thoughts are.

The gun is a Ruger Mk2 M77 in 25-06 Ackley. The same gun shot great a month ago. I am shooting hot loads. Could I have shot out the barrel? It's probably had 1200 rounds of pretty hot stuff through it. She used to shoot just awesome. The scope is a Springfield Armorey 6.5-20x58mm. Could the scope be messed up?

Any advice would help. Thanks.

Jason

Jason---

I've worn out two 25-06 barrels with 1100 rounds each. The load was a full case (59 gr or so) of surplus 4831 and 117 gr Sierra SPBT bullets in one and *most* of the rounds in the other were the same.

I'd say you have a barrel that has a throat that looks like dark gator hide. It's shot.

You can extend life another couple hundred rounds by shooting a heavier bullet faster. Seat them out some, too.

First- clean the bore and then JB the heck out of it with a tight fitting patch. You may have alot of copper fouling. Next seat the bullets out till they just touch the lands. You will note that your previous seating depth has changed quite a bit.With that many rounds through it the throat has eroded but may not yet be toast.-rob

Jason,

These two previous suggestions are right on track if your accuracy started fading. If it just one day suddenly changed, then you may have another problem all together.

For instance, you could have damaged the muzzle's crown, or, the barrel may have a buldge in it. Clean the bore thoroughly and inspect the crown for any damage or look down the clean bore for the appearance of any dark ring. Your scope may be the culprit. Accuracy after 1200 rounds of hot ammo in the 25-06 Improved would generally decline at a steady pace and not usually overnight. But hey, anything is possible. Good luck.

Malm

Had a friend who had this happen with an old .250 Savage M-99. The cure he found was to cut about a half an inch off the muzzle and then recrown it. Shot great after that. Don't know if this would help yours, but his problem started the same as you described yours starting. Hope this was of some help.

The Savage 99 HAS to be cleaned from the muzzle. Unless you are savvy enough to use a protector, you eventually get muzzle wear from the cleaning rod. That's what cutting back and recrowning cures.

I think we can assume that is not the problem in this case.

Oops, the quote got away from me before before the comments.

I am curious about the gun shooting great a month ago. Twenty rounds at the range would likely have no bearing. A hundred rounds on a varmint shoot would be a very probable answer.

Other than that, the place to start looking is the scope. Costs nothing to swap one off and another on and see if you get the same results.

To my mind, variable scopes are like automatic transmissions, a minor convenience just waiting to turn into a major problem.

But then, I am very conservative.

[ 12-04-2002, 04:03: Message edited by: Leftoverdj ]

I'll bet a bear hide to a rabbit's foot the scope is your problem.

If it quit shooting all of the sudden I'd mount another scope on it and see how it shoots. The only time I had a rifle suddenly go south on me was when the Leupold vari XII I had on my 22-250 died on me. I was sure it couldn't be the scope. (after all it was a leupold) But when I borrowed a friends cheap Japenese $25.00 special the rifle started shooting again. By the way the same friend that loaned me the scope was the same one that suggested it might be the scope right from the start. I was sure it couldn't have been the scope and went through all the other possibilities first. Now if a rifle quits shooting it's the first vatiable I eliminate.

Migra