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stagpanther · February 23, 2019, 07:14 AM

My savage 111 300win mag has sat forlorn in my safe for years, I only get er out for a few shots every now and then to keep the barrel good. So I go out to my local pit, and it was a once-in-a -blue moon opportunity; all the construction gear had been temporarily removed so I could shoot all the way out to 380 yds--very rare. I wasn't really prepared for this, but I had a couple of boxes of Nosler 180 AB trophy grade factory stuff with the info on it and was able to use the figures to plug into ballistics AB ap on my iPhone. I took 4 shots at the target and all I could see was puffs of dirt from the impacts--but upon retrieval of the target I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice grouping right around MOA in the center region of the target.

I switched to my hand-loads for some testing and decide to rezero my monarch scope to 200 yds. First 4 shots were only about 2 MOA, and I'm wondering if something is wrong with the loads. I move on to the next batch and it gets worse--now I have a spread of around 7 inches. No point in wasting any more ammo and I pack up to leave. My rig has a Tupperware stock, so it has a certain degree of flex to it no matter what, but upon picking it up by the forend it seemed the flex was a bit more than usual. Turning the rifle over I immediately noticed the front action bolt had worked loose and fallen out.

I had forgotten to do a check of the action bolts--which I should have especially considering the power of the cartridge and the flex of the stock.

February 23, 2019, 07:14 AM	#1
stagpanther Senior Member Join Date: March 2, 2014 Posts: 11,801	Front action screw goes bye bye My savage 111 300win mag has sat forlorn in my safe for years, I only get er out for a few shots every now and then to keep the barrel good. So I go out to my local pit, and it was a once-in-a -blue moon opportunity; all the construction gear had been temporarily removed so I could shoot all the way out to 380 yds--very rare. I wasn't really prepared for this, but I had a couple of boxes of Nosler 180 AB trophy grade factory stuff with the info on it and was able to use the figures to plug into ballistics AB ap on my iPhone. I took 4 shots at the target and all I could see was puffs of dirt from the impacts--but upon retrieval of the target I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice grouping right around MOA in the center region of the target. I switched to my hand-loads for some testing and decide to rezero my monarch scope to 200 yds. First 4 shots were only about 2 MOA, and I'm wondering if something is wrong with the loads. I move on to the next batch and it gets worse--now I have a spread of around 7 inches. No point in wasting any more ammo and I pack up to leave. My rig has a Tupperware stock, so it has a certain degree of flex to it no matter what, but upon picking it up by the forend it seemed the flex was a bit more than usual. Turning the rifle over I immediately noticed the front action bolt had worked loose and fallen out. I had forgotten to do a check of the action bolts--which I should have especially considering the power of the cartridge and the flex of the stock. __________________ "Everyone speaks gun."--Robert O'Neill *I am NOT an expert--I do not have any formal experience or certification in firearms use or testing; use any information I post at your own risk!* Last edited by stagpanther; February 23, 2019 at 03:44 PM.