Do you own a stupid accurate rifle?

[Doc]

Idk what idk, but I do know, my own experiences.

Recently I’ve had a very unusual experience……a rifle that shoots EVERYTHING well.

Now when I say “everything” I’m talking factory ammo that’s known to be quality.

In the past I’ve done similar testing, buy a few boxes of ammo then depending on “what it likes” I’ll buy a case.

What I’m finding on this rifle is…..it likes everything. How much does it like everything? It’s worst group was 0.6” and the other thing I can’t wrap my head around….all the POI are VERY close, not something I’ve seen before


Anyone have a similar experience w a rifle?

 

[Brlux]

Interested in which one you have?

 

[paulgt2164]

I have a first gen Ruger Precision in 6.5cm and on my worst day it still is a .5 -.75 moa gun - cheap ammo or expensive.

I also have a CZ455 Tactical Trainer that is like cheating. Modern rifles are amazing.

 

[Doc]

I have a first gen Ruger Precision in 6.5cm and on my worst day it still is a .5 -.75 moa gun - cheap ammo or expensive.

I also have a CZ455 Tactical Trainer that is like cheating. Modern rifles are amazing.

Agreed!

If this is the new standard I’m going to like living in the future.

 

[Doc]

Interested in which one you have?

Nothing special just a r700 in 223

 

[Suck My Glock]

Not quite a gun that would shoot EVERYTHING well,...but back in 1990 when the import restrictions were lifted and the flood of cheap surplus rifles started coming in,...I got myself the first ever Mosin-Nagant I'd ever seen, and knew nothing about them. The price was right at $25, so if it even went bang, I would be happy.

As it turned out, what I got was a Finn-captured M91/30 that Tikka had arsenal re-barrelled. With it's long sight plane, even though it had no scope, it was easy to keep cheap Chinese ammo at 3 MOA. But then I encountered some Hungarian surplus heavy ball meant for use in Goryunovs and PKMs. That schit was match grade. It cost no more than the common Chinese stuff, but printed just over 1 MOA with my M91/30 all day long! I called it my "Iron-Sighted Sniper Rifle". For a few years while the Hungarian ammo was available, I could spend just .10 cents a round and have ludicrous fun out-shooting all my buddies with their pet Enfields and Springfields.

Alas, the Hungarian ammo evaporated and my Mosin was back to being just a very good rifle instead of the fantastic one it had been.

 

[Doc]

Not quite a gun that would shoot EVERYTHING well,...but back in 1990 when the import restrictions were lifted and the flood of cheap surplus rifles started coming in,...I got myself the first ever Mosin-Nagant I'd ever seen, and knew nothing about them. The price was right at $25, so if it even went bang, I would be happy.

As it turned out, what I got was a Finn-captured M91/30 that Tikka had arsenal re-barrelled. With it's long sight plane, even though it had no scope, it was easy to keep cheap Chinese ammo at 3 MOA. But then I encountered some Hungarian surplus heavy ball meant for use in Goryunovs and PKMs. That schit was match grade. It cost no more than the common Chinese stuff, but printed just over 1 MOA with my M91/30 all day long! I called it my "Iron-Sighted Sniper Rifle". For a few years while the Hungarian ammo was available, I could spend just .10 cents a round and have ludicrous fun out-shooting all my buddies with their pet Enfields and Springfields.

Alas, the Hungarian ammo evaporated and my Mosin was back to being just a very good rifle instead of the fantastic one it had been.

That’s pretty rad!

 

[XJThrottle]

I have a Marlin model 60 that will shoot golf balls off beer bottles at 50 yards off hand. Does that count? LOL

 

[brandyspaw]

I had an early Ruger M77V in 22-250. This was Ruger's older heavy barrel rifle that I had back in Colorado for prairie dog shooting. It would always shoot these tiny dime sized groups off a bench or rest. This occurred regardless if using factory ammo or most any reload I happened to work up for it. I guess everything just came together correctly when it was built.

When I retired and was selling off some guns in anticipation of moving I was on a caliber consolidation kick. The rifle wasn't used much any more so it was one of those I sold off. I don't really regret it since there are few prairie dog shooting opportunities down here but I always marveled on how good it shot for an off the rack factory rifle.

 

[Doc]

I had an early Ruger M77V in 22-250. This was Ruger's older heavy barrel rifle that I had back in Colorado for prairie dog shooting. It would always shoot these tiny dime sized groups off a bench or rest. This occurred regardless if using factory ammo or most any reload I happened to work up for it. I guess everything just came together correctly when it was built.

When I retired and was selling off some guns in anticipation of moving I was on a caliber consolidation kick. The rifle wasn't used much any more so it was one of those I sold off. I don't really regret it since there are few prairie dog shooting opportunities down here but I always marveled on how good it shot for an off the rack factory rifle.

That’s pretty much my experience w this rifle…..and I love it.

 

[cool arrow]

probably the most accurate rifle I have ever owned is a WInchester model 190. Eats everything and shoots straighter than anything else I have.

Great old tube fed .22

 

[Abbey]

I've had a couple rifles like that - although I don't know if you're noticing an exceptional rifle or exceptional ammo. IMO, most match grade ammo is "really good" (barring a batch of bad powder or something). Bulk rate and budget ammo, not as much.

I reload, and reloaders love to talk about optimizing a load for their rifle. But IMO, on the accuracy scale, it's kind of like custom ammo > factory match >>> budget ammo.

I'm sure others will disagree, but for me, the further down the reloading rabbit hole you go with neck turning, primer pocket scrubbing, and weighing each individual component to get as much uniformity as possible, it's all diminishing returns.

 

[Doc]

I've had a couple rifles like that - although I don't know if you're noticing an exceptional rifle or exceptional ammo. IMO, most match grade ammo is "really good" (barring a batch of bad powder or something). Bulk rate and budget ammo, not as much.

First off, never used “huge” font. Was that horrible or what?

You make a very good point, and that is what I’m really trying to understand. I’d value an exceptional rifle much more. “Good” ammo is easy to come buy. If it shot bulk ammo 1” I think it would qualify as an exceptional rifle.

Or what standard for “exceptional rifle”?

Initially I was shooting ammo that comes w a serial number. Some was “match” some was just “good stuff”.

Last night I decided to go through my stash. I’ve always bought a box of this, a box of that to test and if a rifle shot it well I’d buy more.

Then I decided to really put this to the test and grab some bulk ammo

here are the results from smaller to larger group.

0.755” Hornady Varmint Express 55gn V-max. I expect this level of performance from this ammo in any bolt action. I was hoping for 1/2” and further validation this rifle “does it all” well. It’s handled 69gn 0.179” perhaps the bearing surface of a 55gn is marginal? It’s still under 1” and you don’t have to reload.

0.841” PMC Bronze 55gn - I was impressed. I’ve always been impressed with this ammo. I think I can get better results as I had my “cold bore” in this group…..I know better. Now this is BULK ammo. We would buy this in college. Man I miss college & cheap ammo. Now I’d like to think this qualifies as “exceptional rifle”


0.862” Hornady Zombie 55gn Z-Max - a real blast from the past. I actually lol’d when I found these. From what I remember the walking dead was a thing and Hornady was having fun. Wish I would have saved the box. As far as performance I was actually expecting better results, I mean it was bested by PMC….BULK ammo.


1.037” Hornady Superformance 53gn - I hate this ammo. Thankfully I only bought one box. I haven’t found success with superformance in any caliber. This got dog walked by PMC. It should be ashamed.

1.418” Winchester SuperX 64gn now this was disappointing. I figured 64gn was in the wheelhouse after seeming the 55gn PMC and Z-Max. I’ve had great success with Win SuperX. I might buy another box because I don’t like the idea of SuperX not shooting sub MOA

2.833” Fed UMC (Green/White box) 55gn now I was REALLY hoping this would shoot. It was my last box of the day. Sticker read $7.99 and was some kind of neon “90’s price gun” sticker. I think I bought it from a gun show. The first shot was a sign of what was to come. It was the first round that wasn’t close to POA. So now this gun is a piece of trash.

For sale: One gun that can’t even shoot 2” groups at 100 with Fed Bulk Ammo. :lol: :lol: :lol:

I finished the day with a .221” from some Fiocchi 77gn SMK. POA POI.

Oh. But this thing also broke today. My trigger release. The one you push up. It just “stays up” and to get the bolt out I had to pull the release down. Talk about discomfort. Think it’s broken? Or just dirty?

 

[Doc]

I have a Marlin model 60 that will shoot golf balls off beer bottles at 50 yards off hand. Does that count? LOL

Yes. This counts for something. I tried going down the 22lr rabbit hole. It got wild fast.

 

[Abbey]

By “trigger release”, do you mean the bolt release? Getting stuck should just mean that the bolt won’t stay in the action. I haven’t used a stock R700 trigger in awhile but you should be able to clean that.

My last stock R700 was one of the recall triggers. If got gritty over time and could fire if you bumped the rifle or looked at it funny. Instead of dealing with the recall, I replaced it with a Timney and lived happily ever after.

 

[Doc]

By “trigger release”, do you mean the bolt release? Getting stuck should just mean that the bolt won’t stay in the action. I haven’t used a stock R700 trigger in awhile but you should be able to clean that.

My last stock R700 was one of the recall triggers. If got gritty over time and could fire if you bumped the rifle or looked at it funny. Instead of dealing with the recall, I replaced it with a Timney and lived happily ever after.

Bolt release, yes, thank you.

When you “push up” it has no resistance. I probably just need to tear it down and investigate

 

[Abbey]

No resistance is not good. Something sounds broken. I’d definitely pull the action off and investigate.

 

[BigNate]

Can't say that I've done the testing to say that it shoots EVERYTHING well. What I can say is that I'm amazed at how far rifle accuracy has come in the last decade or two. It used to be that a sub MOA capable gun was a pretty expensive and involved proposition - not to mention a sub MOA semi-auto rifle. Today I've got an AR-15 that is consistently sub-MOA (when shot from a bench or prone off of a bipod - not even in a sled) that I self assembled and that cost me less than $1000 to build a couple of years ago (yes - I shopped sales). The upper is a $360 PSA .223 Wylde 1:7 18" stainless heavy barrel with their "decent" BCG. The lower is pretty vanilla - save a good trigger (SSA-E) and a Luth AR adjustable stock...

I've shot a variety of match grade heavier bullet 5.56 through it and have not found anything so far that won't shoot sub MOA. Most of the stuff through it has been IMI 77gr SMK 'Razor Core' match ammo or Frontier 5.56 NATO 75 gr BTHP Match. Best 100 yard group ever was 0.39" but the more typical is in the 0.65" - 0.85" range. I'm guessing that a better shooter would shoot consistently near the lower end of this range.

 

[Lucafu1]

Savage Predator Hunter in .223 is my most accurate rifle. It's awesome.

 

[desertmoon]

I have a few.

Two Marlin 39As that are more accurate than a repeater has a right to be.

Anschutz 64MS...no surprise there.

Winchester 62A...also stupid accurate.

For center fire, there only two that come to mind that are fantastic shooters for me and those are my .300 WM Sendero from the mid 1990s and my Christensen CA-15. THAT thing is ridiculous. I mean, I expected it to shoot well...but, DAMN.

...and last, but not least by any margin is my Steven's No 44&1/2 that I got from one of the members here. DAMN! Another stupid accurate gun!!!!