Testing out the new Savage 10TR (and let the 700p tag along)

I got a chance to take the 10TR out for a test drive today, up at PCDHFC.  Not sure if the temperature is important, but it was probably hovering around -1 or so.  The rifle is pretty much as is out of the box except with the addition of a Blackhawk pivot bipod, GRG Magnum Muzzle Brake I got off Amazon.com.

Now the following findings are from a noob shooter, and on top of that, a noob to bolt action rifles and precision shooting.  I barely knew what MOA meant until just two weeks ago.  I'm sure some of you more advanced and experienced shooters could get better results, but these are my results:

First up is the Nosler Custom 168gr:

 At 100 meters, I got a group at 2.66 inches.  I had a feeling that one on the right was a flyer so I let off so I tried another group:

 

 My second group was a lot tighter at 1 inch.  

I tried the Nosler out to 200 meters and shot three 3-round groups, measuring 1.78in, 1.59in, and 1.7in.  This left me with a pretty good feeling.

Next up is the Remington Premier Match 175gr Match King BTHP.  Boy, that's a mouthful.

At 100 meters, it wasn't so hot with a 1.9in grouping.  Again, this is probably the result of user error (me).

I did three more 3-round groups and the results were 1.66in, 2.12in, and 2.19in.  they were all over the place, but maybe I was rushing, maybe I pulled a few shots, who knows. 

When I took the Remington Match Kings out to 200 meters, I was really wondering what I was doing wrong, but I ended up shooting two 3-round groups getting 4.18in and 3.5in.

That was pretty much all of the Nosler and Remington ammo I had with me today, so I decided to test out the Federal Premium 168gr Sierra Match King BTHP Gold Medal Match that I had left over from testing out my 700p.  It didn't do that great in the Remington, so I figure I might as well blast away a 5 round group and see how it did in the Savage.

The results were surprising to me, but then I thought back to all the reviews saying how awesome these were and the surprise faded away.  5 rounds in a 1.7in group at 200 meters.

Next up were some left over Hornady Match 168gr BTHP.  These did okay in my 700p, but I didn't have time to test them out extensively so I'll have to get another box to run through the Remington again.  

 I shot three rounds and got them in a 1.9in group, and then decided to blat off the 5 rounds I had left.  1.65in.  I was in awe.

 I had some good luck with my Savage, and I also had some good luck running some cheap ammo through my 700p a few weeks ago, so I thought I'd just run my 700 a bit.  I pulled out some Federal 150gr soft point blue box.

  At 100 meters with three 3-round groups, I got 0.9in, 1.6in, and 1.52in.  Not great, but not horrendous I suppose.

 When I went out to 200 meters, I started going down with the ship.  I ended up flopping out a 4in group.  I pulled out the few PPU 145gr stuff I had left and tossed that down the 200m mark.

 I may as well have taken the PPU out of the rifle and threw them at the target because 7.7in group is downright embarrassing out of a bolt gun.  Back to the drawing board with the 700.  Maybe it doesn't like cheap ammo after all, or maybe I was just so used to shooting the Savage, I got lazy with the Remington.

I decided to blow through a few rounds at the steel gong at 200 meters.  That made me feel better:

I also took a shot at the gong with my Savage, unfortunately, all I had left were 3 rounds of Federal blue box and I had no idea what the hold over would be in the Savage because I hadn't shot any through it yet, but I wanted to film the Savage in action along with the GRG muzzle brake:

I completely missed the gong on the last two rounds, but oh well, I'm positive I can nail it with Nosler, Hornady or SMKs.  Better luck next time I guess