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Life and Times of a NEW rifle

acloco

I have been wanting (not need) for a 450 bushmaster in a bolt flavor. Have handled two of the three brands available.

Ruger American - the action, just does not feel like a quality action. Sorry, it feels light and cheap. Comparing to the Ruger M77, there just is not any comparison.

Savage - have not handled one in person - they seem to never be on the rack.

Ended up with a Mossberg Patriot. Action is steel. Bolt body feels cheap (Ruger does as well).

Made the purchase, cleaned the bore, and checked torque on the two piece bases. They did not spend any money on the bases or the included scope.

Mounted a better than average, NEW Cabelas scope that I have been saving for this project. 6-18x50 with some graduation lines in the reticle.

Bore sighted at 100 yards and let it rip. 30" low, close to center left/right. Held crosshairs on my POA, dialed scope, next round on paper, but 20" low. Dialed some more, now 10" low. Scope travel is now exhausted. WHAT?

Figured, no big deal at the moment, just need to shoot a little more to break the barrel in with my cheap reloads (230 gr 45 ACP ball over Lil Gun). Of note, this load is exceptional in a gas gun.

I never purchase factory ammo, but wanted to try some with this caliber. 250 gr FTX.

Loaded 3 of the FTX Hornady ammo, held 10" on the target, and rewarded with a 4" group, but right of center 4" as well.

As it stands now, will need 20-30 MOA in the base (or rings) to get the scope reticle somewhat centered AND on paper for POA and POI to coincide.

I am still shaking my head.....did I buy a POS with a bad action/scope bases/barrel? Kind of makes me smile at some of the things we do.
 
Wow! That is alot. I have been using the burris rings with inserts for quite a while and have had better luck with scopes sice I started centering them, using that style ring might get you closer to where you should be, but that doesn’t explain why. That would be pretty concerning that the gun or the scope is out of whack, I definitely wouldn’t rule out the scope.
 
I have had the same rifle for 4 years. I consider it a good buy considering the price. Mine was 2 moa rifle with factory ammo, Hornady Black being the most accurate and killed deer just fine. I read an article on how under loaded the factory ammo is, all of it. With handloads I am now 200 fps faster than factory and have cut groups in half or a bit more. I like it but I did add a Harrels muzzle brake, it has enough recoil to make shooting at the bench less then pleasent.
 
Many years ago, I bought a Rem 700 VS in .223. I mounted rings and bases (don't remember the brands) and lapped them, or so I thought. I mounted an inexpensive scope (Tasco Tactical 8-32X). I bore sighted it, took it to the range. It shot way low. I cranked it up all the way, still shot about 15" low. WTF.....
Did some research and found I needed to shim the rear base. I talked to my Dad who was a mathematician.
Doing some math, he calculated I needed a shim that was .006 thick to bring up the POI with the elevation knob at 0. I bought a shim kit from Sinclair and selected the .006 shim. I remounted the scope, bore sighted it and away I went. All good after that. I have not had to shim a scope base since then.
I was very surprised that I needed to shim the base at all. I thought tolerances would have been much tighter. The rifle was a 1/2 MOA rifle at 100 yards. For my skill level, and the fact it was a factory rifle, I was happy with it. I sold it 5 years ago to make room for a custom .223.

PopCharlie
 
While I'm probably done buying firearms at my age, when I got wiser as I got older, I tried to stay away from "Lemon Trees" since they abound with "lemons". ;)

Also, complexity give me stomach acid, I try to keep this sport as simple as possible. I think the idea is to enjoy it. I enjoy shooting, not solving firearm problems.

Of course, one can always end up with a lemon despite the brand's reputation, but I minimized exposure to "lemons" by going with Tikka. :rolleyes:
 
DNorton said:
The American, despite it’s shortcomings, is well documented as perhaps the most accurate of the ultra-budget offerings. Some are freakishly accurate. I would have looked no further than the Ruger American personally.
Click to expand...
While they are super cheap feeling, I'll attest to them (Ruger American) shooting great! Out of the box, my piccatinny rail was all but falling off the receiver. While not the end of the world because I go over all firearms 100% before ever firing a shot, but for someone who is not gun savvy they would've certainly had major sight-in issues.
Dan
 
You should not have to be going through all of this to zero a scope. Call Mossberg I have heard good things about these rifles. Are the scope mounts both the same? Could you have the front and back reversed?
 
ebb said:
You should not have to be going through all of this to zero a scope. Call Mossberg I have heard good things about these rifles. Are the scope mounts both the same? Could you have the front and back reversed?
Click to expand...

In the case of this Mossberg, cannot swap front and rear bases - different hardware length pattern.

Good thought though!!!
 
Maybe Eric Cortina's new video will help? I watched a guy shoot a Ruger 77 with either two front rings or two rear rings and everyone was trying to adjust the thing but I was way down the line and could see the scope was no where near parallel to the barrel. I would ask Mossberg about this problem they may know about an issue that they need to fix.
 
I don't get it, sure Burris signature z rings will fix a multitude of sins but why should you need to. Mossberg has been building firearms longer than most of us have been alive. The know how to make a gun that can be sighted in, Thats what the OP paid for. I am sure that Mossberg will do what it takes to make him a happy customer. They obviously intended for this rifle to have a scope or they would not have drilled the holes.
 
ebb said:
I don't get it, sure Burris signature z rings will fix a multitude of sins but why should you need to. Mossberg has been building firearms longer than most of us have been alive. The know how to make a gun that can be sighted in, Thats what the OP paid for. I am sure that Mossberg will do what it takes to make him a happy customer. They obviously intended for this rifle to have a scope or they would not have drilled the holes.
Click to expand...

Adding....this was a scoped rifle package combo. I removed the original rings and scope (have never seen ANY scoped rifle combo that was worth a darn).
 
DNorton said:
The American, despite it’s shortcomings, is well documented as perhaps the most accurate of the ultra-budget offerings. Some are freakishly accurate. I would have looked no further than the Ruger American personally.
Click to expand...
I have also seen some accurate Americans. In this case the magazine made it a no go for me.
 
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