SmallCaliberCentral

also make sure the rear tang is fully floated, I have seen when they contact the stock they cause problems

I have a Savage 223 that is rather picky about the bullets you feed it. Mine plain and simple will not shoot anything under 60 grains. It also is picky about those over 60 grains. Mine shot the Black Hills 69 grain Nosler into 1.5 inches, but shoots the 69 grain Sierra Match Kings into .5 inches or less. Luckily I loaded and shot the Sierras early in it's life. It is also velocity sensitive. It goes from .5 inch groups to 1.5 inch groups with a .3 grain shift in powder charge. The groups looked like a sine wave when I did my ladder testing (1.5, 1.0, .5. 1.0, 1.5, 1.0, .5 ...........).

EJT

I can't live with the idea that the gun is that picky - my Remington LVSF was way more tolerable of various loads. Nothing was spectacular, but then again nothing was really awful (I'm beginning to wish I had not sold that gun). I think I am going to ditch this thing and try a Sako - in my book the whole point of a .223 over my Browning .204 was that I could buy something off the shelf that would shoot well out of it, and apparently that is not the case with this gun. If I wanted to reload everything I would just stick with my Browning .204 which shoots more accurately than I am capable of holding with my own reloads.

Goody - My Savage 12FV 223 does not shoot ANY over the counter ammo worth a bean. Best was the Win white box.

I am talking 1.5 to 5.5" groups - I tried 15 brands of ammo in different weight bullets.

Try contacting Savage before you do anything drastic. They want it to shoot well just as much as you do.

My dad bought me a 12FV for my birthday, and from what I can tell it is the baseline model. But I can get well under 1" groups. The rifle surely shoots better than I can make it. And I love the Accutrigger. The only thing I would change on this rifle is to upgrade to a Hogue stock. If they made one.

I bought a M 12 in 22 250 and it does not shoot the remington factory loads very well at all 100 yard groups measure 1.0 to 2.0 but 39.5 gr of H 380 and 55 gr Nosler bt I can get .50 groups at 100 yards and that even took some time to find but I think I have it now.

Hey Buckfever, did you try 38 grains of H-380 with a 55 grain and work up, the reason I'm asking mine worked good at 37.7 and 38grains. I can't find my notes for the 35 berger. But it did make some very good 5 shot groups.

Rambler I think I started 37 gr but when i tried the 39.5 they shot just as good as 37, 37.5, 38, 38.5,and 39 so I stayed with 39.5. I'm going to try varget and some Nosler 50 gr bt and see how that works I bought the rifle in september so I haven't had a lot of time to shoot it because of deer and elk season and bad weather I only have about 100 to 110 rounds through it but that well change. as soon as the weather does.I'm open to any loads to try.