Okay! Here are the results.
I worked with Ackleyman on getting my 22-250 groups back in check. Pretty good results came of it. Here are all the things I did to the rifle. I was hoping to do these one at a time and see what helped the most but I got excited and did them all at once.
Internal Box
The internal box was jammed up tight against the action. I couldn't move it until I let the actions screws loose. I had to remove some material from the top of the box to allow the action to sit further into the stock. The box is now loss and can be moved around with a little finger pressure. While doing this I inlet a couple tight spot for the action as well, not a lot, but a few locations.
Actions Screw
When I reassembled the rifle I tightened the front action screw to 65 in-lbs (manufacture recommends 90 in-lbs). The screw behinds the trigger guard was tightened to 25 in-lbs and the center screw was left finger tight.
Crown
I very lightly filed the ding in the crown with a small hand file. I know this isn't the best thing to do but I didn't have much to loose.
Cleaning
Holy B-jesus did I clean, and clean, and clean. I had originally used sweets to remove the copper fouling but groups had not gotten better. I did 4-5 rounds of the foaming bore cleaner accompanied by a brush and wiped clean with patches around an old brush (Over 200 strokes total). I ordered new brushes (12 pack) and JB Bore Cleaner at the suggestions of Ackleyman. I did around 250-300 strokes with the JB. So many the barrel thermometer started to heat up. I wore out 3 brushes in the process. I was surprised to learn how quickly a brush can actually ware out. I think I have it clean now.
Bullet seating
After cleaning the seating depth change was an eye opener. I use 50g V-max for the 1-14 twist barrel, I was seating the bullets into the case a good 0.300. Ackleyman explained a way to measure seating depth with a case that has the neck cut to allow a bullet to push into the case. I got different results with that than the Hornady seat gauge tool. This may be because i am using a case from my die, rather than the hornady gauge case.
When measuring the new seating depth for the 50g V-max I couldn't get the bullet to touch the lands and push into the cut case. This made me think I was doing it wrong. So i got out a 75g A-max and tried it. The 75g touched the lands and pushed into the case. I could measure the difference before and after to know it had changed, it was also visually obvious. SO, this means the 50g V-max is not getting to the lands when placed as far out of the case as possible. I pulled a couple (20 or so) of the v-max I had loaded and re-set them as far out of the case as possible. I had about 0.100 or less of bullet neck tension area.
At Ackleyman's suggestions I also ordered 63gr sierra semi points. The 63g sierras are deigned to be used in the slower twist 1-12 and 14 barrels. These have a very long flat and I was able to touch the lands with these while measuring, then back them up 0.005 from the lands. I loaded these with 33g of Varget
Below is a photo of the 3 rounds. Originals, reset 50g and 63 sierras.
Results
Last night I finally got to shoot the rifle again.
WOW! What an improvement! These are slightly better groups than I was getting before things fell apart! See targets below. I shot slow strings of 5 letting the barrel cool down between each string. I shot a total of 40 rounds and accuracy hung right in there.
To my surprise the seating depth did not change the group size. The long seat and short seat grouped very nice in the same place on the target. The change in kegs of powder was also a non factor anymore. The 63gr sierras didn't fair as well as I had hoped, but I learned a lot from ordering them and seeing what they are and can do. I will try them some more to see if they improve.
I shot out to 200yds on steel I have set up and the groups were an inch or a little over. Very please.
Down the road
I will be taking this rifle on the next P-dog trip in September. I'll change back to my old scope so I will have a few more rounds to shoot while sighting-in to make sure the groups are staying tight as the barrel builds more copper again. On the trip will likely have to be more diligent about cleaning the bore more often and better than in the past. If I think groups are really falling apart I'll give it a good cleaning with the JB and see if it gets better. I know I am near the end of the barrel life but want to use the 1000 rounds I already have loaded for this barrel on this trip. Next winter I will be able to re-barrel if the rifle does not fair so well on this next trip.
Thank you, everyone, for your help and comments. Especially to Ackleyman. Which one of the fixes above brought the accuracy back we may never know. I am glad I didn't jump to the new barrel conclusion right away, but we will see how many more rounds the rifle will hold together.
Happy hunting.
Photos
3 new rounds with seating differnces.
Left - Origional load, Center - reset 50g V-Max out as far as I was comfortable, Right - new 63g sierras. You can see how much further the lands got.
Target 1 - Origional 50g V-Max load and seating
5 shot group. I know I pulled the one shot out of the group.
Target 2 - 50g V-Max rest to long seating lenght (I don't think I wrote down the correct seating depth. This should be more like 2.3880)
Target 3 - 63g sierra SMP with 33g Varget and long seating. ( I was hoping for more out of this. I hav a few rounds of it left and will try again)
