Bergara B14 Ridge 308 reload issues: throat length vs mag length limit

[perryjosh]

Folks looking for to see if anyone has had same or similar experience with what seems like long throat vs magazine max bullet length issue. This is with a new Bergara B14 Ridge rifle in 308 cal and loading Sierra Gameking 165 gr BTSP. The chamber COL appears to be 2.865” and the magazine length is 2.84”. With these factors particularly the magazine length live loaded from 2.75” to 2.827” with different powers and amounts but can’t get groups below 1 1/2”. Now if I load out to around 2.84” groups tighten up.
Side note Federal GM Match 168 gr give about 1” group. Got some more bullets in different weights coming for testing. So am I just expecting to much out of Sierra gameking hunting bullet or operator failure and need to try other steps?

 

[Precisionhunter417]

I found my Bergara B14 HMR and B14 Hunter to have a longer throat than most hunting chambers. It worked well for single feeding but i too had issues with MAG length accuracy. Try a hybrid ojive (Berger) bullet and see if it self aligns for better accuracy.

 

[Doom]

If you are getting 1/2" groups at 100yds you are doing well. I'm assuming this is for 3 shots. Remember this is a hunting rig with a fairly thin barrel. 308's with long free bore are a staple of Remington 700s and shoot well with the jump.

Load your initial rounds at the recommended length of the data. Also you want to use tangent or hybrid Ogive bullets.