Wide Groups...Help!

[pebowbender]

Hello All!
I am new to this forum. Ihear that you are the "Guru's" on reloading.
Let me start by giving some info mon the rifle I am shooting.
My Grandfather is a WWII hero and fought directly under General George Patton. In the mid '60', Grandpa and my uncle bought and "sporterized" a Remington 1903A3. I have had the privelege of owning this rifle for many years now. Grandpa turned 90 in May. As a tribute to him, I had the rifle completely gone through by a professional gunsmith. You should have seen his eyes light up when I showed it to him.
Now the problem; I have been loadding 165 gr. Sierra Game king HPBT's, IMR4350, CCI LR primers in W-W brass. I have tried from 56 grains to 57.5 grains and a C.O.A.L. of .010" to .030" off of the lands. The groups mainly seem to shrink vertically (the best is 57.5 gr. at .020 off the lands with less than .100" center to center). The horizontal group measurement is from 1.75" to the smallest being 1.200". I shot a friends rifle yesterday to see if the horiz. spread was me and cloverleafed three rounds. I feel confident with my shooting ability (Grandpa tought me well)
How do I shrink these groups?
PS The barrell is the original 4 groove that has been re profiled.

 

[necchi]

Sorry to burst yer bubble, but when I see horzontal groups it's me on the trigger.
(and I'm a pretty good shooter too, good enough to know when it's me and not the gun)

It could simply be the trigger on Grandpas gun is, well, worn out a bit and it doesn't break as well as a modern trigger set up.
What's the fix? I don't know, mybe back to the smith for a trigger job or just more practice learning the gun

 

[pebowbender]

Thanks for the reply Necchi, but included in the extensive smithing was a new timney trigger set at 2.5 lbs.
I'm no expert shooter, but I can tell when a hold is good and I can see that the cross hairs are still in place when the barrel starts to rise from the recoil. With all of the work that I had done to this rifle, it should hold sub moa at 100.
Is there a part of my recipe for the loads that anyone has any suggestions for?

 

[watercam]

Is there any part of the barrel channel touching one side or the other of the barrel? If you have a forend tip applying pressure to the barrel is it concentric or pushing more on one side than the other? Are you using a tight sling that might be pulling sideways just a bit? Either or a combination of the two can throw shots wide.
I would look at the barrel channel and/or the stock bedding. In a pinch one can check the bedding by slipping a business card under the action/recoil lug and perhaps under the barrel just ahead of the receiver and see if anything changes for the better.

 

[wapiti25]

Bedding can cause horizontal stringing. Also try flat base bullet such as the Sierra 180. Imr 4064 with the 150 fb is a good try.

 

[pebowbender]

Thanks for the help.
The stock was a Fajen(spelling?) blank and custom fitted for the rifle. I had it Devcon bedded and floated. I had also thought that the problem could be in the bedding? I have heard of bedding the first couple of inches of barrell, this bedding is the action and lug only. Any thoughts???
The barrell was reprofiled enough to give it clean lines and not remove excess material.
More often than not, the stray has been the third shot of each of the 3 shot groups?
As for the optics, I had the base custom made and topped it with a Leupold VXII 4-12X40.
Thanks again for all of the help and any comments are greatly appreciated.