I took my "Deep Throat" Mark X Mauser .30-06 to the range yesterday. Will not bore you with test results except to note that despite humid, 85-95-degree weather I was able to just about achieve standard velocities by going a grain or two over book max loads, without any sign of excess pressure.

What drove me nuts was that my groups seemed to consist of multiple flyers. This made my testing fairly useless other than to determine what velocity I could get from each load.

That is, for a three-shot group, say, I'd fire a shot, note its point of impact, fire a second shot, see it hit an inch or so to the right, then the third shot would go to the same POI as the first. Or, sometimes, the second. Five-shot groups were little better, consisting of a tight three-shot group and a tight two-shot group an inch or so apart.

I didn't feel that my shooting was off, and my shots with the Model 70 were more evenly distributed.

I am wondering if I should suspect either the bedding or the scope of the Mark X, or something else.

What would you check first? I found that a thickness of business card under the recoil lug effectively gives it a free-floated barrel. And, I have a spare scope I could put on it.

BTW, when it's that hot I will (from now on) always bring a third rifle, or a good book. It takes *forever* for a barrel to cool down under those conditions.

John

With a rifle that is "two grouping" I always suspect bedding first. The truth is that I don't even shoot a rifle before it's glass bedded figuring that it's not a realistic test and havn't for 25 years. Regards, Bill.

The Mark X (often, at least) came with the recoil lug area glass bedded from the factory. Mine did.

But, since there seemed to be quite a bit of forend pressure, I will try it with the business card shim under the lug as the poor man's free-float and see what happens.

I also cut a shim for the area under the tang, as it seemed that tightening the rear guard screw was sucking that down a bit sharply.

Further thoughts?