ARKANSAS SPORTSMAN: Twin rifles don’t shoot as one

With regular factory ammunition, these two groups were printed at 100 yards with an unmodified Ruger bolt-action rifle chambered in 6.5x5.5 Swedish Mauser.
With regular factory ammunition, these two groups were printed at 100 yards with an unmodified Ruger bolt-action rifle chambered in 6.5x5.5 Swedish Mauser.

— Two identical rifles, with identical actions and stocks. One shoots like a dream. One doesn’t. How could they be so different?

The guns are Ruger M77 Mark II bolt-action rifles. One is chambered in 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser. The other is chambered in 7mm Mauser. Both are factory original with no modifications.

The Swede won my heart right out of the box when, topped with an old Redfield Wideview 3-9x40 scope, it shot within 1-inch at 100 yards with plain, old 140-grain factory Remington Core-Lokt ammo. It put a deer in my freezer every time I pulled the trigger, including the “Dummy Stand” buck of 2008, which at the time was the largest I’d ever taken.

The 7mm Mauser? Not so much. It’s accurate enough for hunting, but it’s not in the same league as the Swede. Theoretically, every rifle has its sweet spot, but I’ve yet to find a load that the 7 Mauser likes. This search, plus a new scope on the Swede, led me to the rifle range at the Benton Gun Club on Wednesday.

I don’t like the Redfield scope despite its compatibility with the Swede. The Refield gives out in low light when better scopes are still bright, and its optical quality is inferior to, say a Leupold VariX-II 3-9X-40, which is what it wears now.

After getting on paper at 50 yards, I set up a Score Keeper Precision Sight-In Target on the board at 100 yards. Two shots hit about 3 inches high and 2 inches right, so I dialed the reticles to the left eight clicks. With the barrel warm, I fired three shots at intervals of about five minutes. Two went through the same hole nearly dead center and 3 inches high. The third shot was a little high and a little left, but the group was still a half-inch.

After letting the barrel cool, I fired three more shots at 15-minute intervals. Surprisingly, the point of impact shifted 1.5 inches to the left and down one-half inch, but all three holes touched to form an inverted mushroom. I credit the Leupold for the improved performance. I will not adjust the reticles until fall, when the weather is colder.

I called Remington, but the representative would not give me the recipe for the ammo. He said it probably contains powder not available to the public. However, he said the muzzle velocity on that load is 2,500 feet per second with 2,021 foot-pounds of energy. With a 200-yard zero (3 inches high at 100 yards), its point-blank range is 300 yards, meaning you can hit a target aiming straight-on without compensating for bullet drop. Even when I was shooting 1-inch high at 100 yards with the Redfield, I dropped deer holding dead-on at ranges exceeding 300 yards.

The sad thing is that I cannot improve this rifle’s performance with custom handloads, but oh, well.

Maybe I should try factory Core-Lokts with the 7 Mauser, because it sure hates my handloads. On Wednesday, I shot several groups consisting of 130-grain Speer Spire Points powered by 46 grains of H414, 140-gr. Nosler Partitions (47 gr. H414) and 140-gr. Nosler Fail Safes (45 gr. H414). The first two Partitions hit a half inch apart, but I never got close to that again. Interestingly, the point of impact for the Fail Safes fell 3 inches. My best group was 1.5 inches.

The only commonality between those rounds is the H414 powder, which the Nosler Reloading Guide Fifth Edition listed as the most accurate powder tested for its 140-grain bullets. I will pull the bullets on all my remaining rounds and reload those cases with mild charges of IMR-4064, which is always the most accurate powder for every round I load. But first, I’ll see how it shoots factory Remington ammo.

On the other hand, I have two other 7mm rifles, both Remington 700 BDLs in .280 and 7mm-08, that are just as accurate as the Swede. Why waste my time with this temperamental Ruger when these other two can pull thread through a needle?

Because it’s a 7mm Mauser. C’mon! It’s traditional, it’s legendary and it’s oh, so retrocool. We are going to find that rifle a load that it likes.

Sports, Pages 24 on 07/22/2010

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