Savage 10ML-II accuracy loss

[lindauer]

my friend has a 10ml2 shooting 46 gr of 5744 with a 250 TC shockwave with a harvester black sabot that suddenly lost grouping earlier in the season. He has double checked to make sure the front base screw isnt bottoming out on barrel threads. he also changed his scopes and no improvment. (not sure his scope choice but would say 300 dollar range sfp). the new scope was a known good scope. he got it shooting OK for 100 yards or better just for the season. His son in law test fired it and missed a 3x3 sheet of cardboard at 100 yards. he retested an also missed. he redialed it in. he is worried about blow by and was also curious if the sabot can wear out metal faster than brass like the plastic coated bearings can wear out the shaft. i know my 10ml2 did this too. i switched to Lukes asg 209 plug settup with my savage action. He isnt against upgrading...just stumped.

[44evans45]

Maybe needs vent liner replaced in end of Breech plug?

[cuda]

Give the BP areal good cleaning and drill it out too.

[lindauer]

He has switched to Lukes savage plug with bushing. I also forgot to mention he even put back in hia old breech with a new vent liner. same results

[mimath314]

Has there been damage to the crown?

[lindauer]

Not sure. He told me this mornjng everything is pushing down barrel far easier than it use to. He says rifling aren engaging the sabots very well. thats why he was wondering if the sabots can wear down riflings.

[Deleted]

Which black sabot, smooth or crush ribbed? My ml2 wouldn't shoot black cr except with .458 bullets. Red cr sabots shot good with .452. Also mmp short shot well.

[lindauer]

smooth

[Dave W]

I had over 2300 shots through my ML II before I sold it. It loaded the same as it always did.

[lindauer]

But why the sudden loss when everything else is clean and good. a base remount a new scope. breach plug with busing and factory breech the same. all is clean behind the breech. can plastic wear down riflings faster than copper? gun has 500ish shots on it

[tedb]

You sure the crown of the barrel was not damaged.

[thelongrider]

Dec 27, 2018 7:14:12 GMT -5 lindauer said:

Not sure. He told me this mornjng everything is pushing down barrel far easier than it use to. He says rifling aren engaging the sabots very well. thats why he was wondering if the sabots can wear down riflings.

It sounds to me like a different lot of sabots or bullets are being used that are slightly smaller causing the bullet/sabot not engaging the rifling. I have in the past wrapped a layer of cigarette rolling paper around the bullet before placing it in the sabot to increase it's size making a tighter fit to the rifling. Now it is much easier to knurl the bullet with two files.

[smokeeter]

when l was shooting my stock savage I was able to shoot .458 dia bullets in the harvester sabots ( they wouldn't go down the barrel with mmp sabots). Try to use bigger bullets with the harvesters or try mmp with the shockwaves knurling the bullets might be another option if you think the bullets aren't engaging with the rifling. I don't know what's changed with your friends set up it looks like all of the bases have been covered.

[todd]

Try backing off the powder some and check the bullet diameter . I switched to n110 powder this year because my accuracy went away on my savage . Is the powder old got to have some resistance pushing the load down the barrel

[lindauer]

Thanks for the responses. I believe he is going to rebarrel thru Arrowhead.

[dannoboone]

Jan 6, 2019 8:13:19 GMT -5 lindauer said:

Thanks for the responses. I believe he is going to rebarrel thru Arrowhead.

Best idea yet. I rebarreled to .45 for the 10MLII and never
looked back.

[screwgunner]

I use the the red smokeless harvester sabots and the 300 gold buy 50 bullets separate and sabots separate a lot cheaper good accuracy not as good as orange and 300 BO but close.

[screwgunner]

I have blown up 3 scopes got the slugger by Nikon so far so good.