Some Difficulty Getting My Savage ML II to Group Well

[ported45]

Happens with all of my smokeless guns, cartridge or muzzleloader. Seems that all of mine have to have 4-5 shots to get back to a certain level of powder fouling for the gun to "settle back in" to its zero after being cleaned.

 

[Mnt monkey]

I find the same thing in almost all of my smokeless rifles I really don't try to shoot a group on a clean barrel until about 6or 7 shots

 

[GM54-120]

Well know issue with SMLs. Some shoot way better after a few shots and N120 is a really clean burning powder too.

 

[Harley469]

Good to know guys. Interesting thing is, I have owned the gun for 3 yrs and have never experienced these issues until recently. But it is shooting well now. Thanks for all the responses.

 

[LHR]

Just wondering here if you have always ran the two dry patches between shots, or is this new to your loading procedure?

I have not shot smokeless so this may be irrelevant, but with BH209 I never swab between shots and my groups tighten up every time after 5-10 shots.

I would think with a clean burning smokeless this could be even more of an issue?

UPDATE:
Shot my ML II yesterday with everything cleaned and tightened. Shooting from a bag rest at 100yrds. I used 57grns of N120 powder for all shots and Federal 209A primers. Bullets used were 300gr Barnes Original Spitzers, 300gr Fury Stars, 300gr Parker Ballistic Extremes. Waited a approximately 5 minutes between every shot, running two dry patches down the barrel between shots. I shot the Barnes first and got a 1 1/2 inch group, shot the Furys second and improved to a 1 inch group. Shot the Parkers last and the groups just fell apart completely- 1st shot was just below the bullseye, second shot was 6 inches below that, and the 3rd shot was an inch below the second. I should have taken some more shots with the Barnes and Furys to see if they were off at that point, but didn't have time (my wife wanted to take a nap and didn't want me doing anymore shooting). Let the gun sit overnight inside the house and took out the breech plug this morning- it was in good and tight, as well as the new Badger Ridge vent liner. I am at a complete loss as to why the group of Parkers fell apart. I have shot plenty of them before out of the gun and not had those issues. I am going to clean everything out again, and really put the gun through its paces when I have plenty of time to do so. I like to run these tests in the cold since it doesn't take long for the barrel to cool down. I am very tempted to get a new vent liner from Arrowhead and go that route with LMRPrimers. I don't know if crud is quickly building up inside the breech plug, but to get 6 nice shots, and then have 3 just crazy I am lost. I will say that those 3 shots with the Parkers were all on the same vertical line (don't know if that means anything), just continued to drop. Any advice from those of you out there is welcome. Thanks.

 

[ENCORE50A]

With SML I never run a patch. Now if range shooting and the rifle sets for awhile, I run a brush in and out once.

With BH I run one dry patch between rounds. 1st round is dead on. Not sure if its the quality of the barrel or that the barrel is down to bare steel.

 

[GM54-120]

After a sightin if its close to a hunting date or if i plan on more recreational shooting soon, i just run a dry patch. Some smokeless powder fouling gets a little hard if its left in the bore. Not a big deal with sabots but with sabotless it could make then harder to load.

 

[Harley469]

Thanks to all of you for the various info