Finally finished up my predator/varmint rifle. Bought a hogue stocked Howa 1500HB in 223 from big boys a while back. As with anything that I get with a hogue stock, I replaced it. Dropped it into a Bell and Carlson M40 stock, slapped a night force 20moa base and a used vortex diamondback scope on it with some basic vortex rings. Went out to Lexington, and couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with it. I was disappointed. No groups whatsoever.
fast forward a year: it’s a shooter!
I recently disassembled everything, cleaned it all up. Found my barrel was touching the stock, filed that out. Reinstalled the base, installed new Warne horizontal rings, put a brand new Vortex Hog Hunter 3-12x56 scope on it. The scope looks absolutely ridiculous, it’s huge. But it should work well for what I want. Took it to the range today, while new story. Got everything zeroed, tried some different ammo out. Looks like it prefers Winchester 40gr polymer tips over the 53gr Hornady superformance polymer tips that I fed it, but only ever so slightly. These are the groups I’m getting, but I’m willing to bet I can tighten them up. I was limited on time, so My barrel was too hot to touch and I was getting horrible mirage from it as well. I’ll measure the groups once I get the chance.
fast forward a year: it’s a shooter!
I recently disassembled everything, cleaned it all up. Found my barrel was touching the stock, filed that out. Reinstalled the base, installed new Warne horizontal rings, put a brand new Vortex Hog Hunter 3-12x56 scope on it. The scope looks absolutely ridiculous, it’s huge. But it should work well for what I want. Took it to the range today, while new story. Got everything zeroed, tried some different ammo out. Looks like it prefers Winchester 40gr polymer tips over the 53gr Hornady superformance polymer tips that I fed it, but only ever so slightly. These are the groups I’m getting, but I’m willing to bet I can tighten them up. I was limited on time, so My barrel was too hot to touch and I was getting horrible mirage from it as well. I’ll measure the groups once I get the chance.