Cooper 51 Montana Varminter

[husackgp@shaw.ca]

Hi. I just purchased this rifle in .204 Ruger. I'm a pretty good shot with my Sako 85 .223 Rem and my Anschutz rifles but I couldn't get this rifle to group under 1 1/4" at 100 yrds. I was using Hornady Superperformance 32 gr V-Max factory ammo? Any ideas why this might be? Thanks.

[Rick in Oregon]

If you are a handloader, no problem, as any Cooper can be made to shoot well under half inch. I've got four of them, and any of them will do under 1/4" with my handloads.

If you're not a handloader, you may want to consider becoming one, but in the meantime, trying only one brand of ammo is not going to give you any indication of the rifles true potential. Like a .22 rimfire, you must try other brands of ammo to see what it really likes, as that rifle even with factory ammo should do much, much better.

Of course there's the usual drill too....scope mounts of good quality and tight? Scope is of known quality? Action screws torqued properly? Barrel confirmed to be free-floated with nothing touching? Try some other ammo after making sure all is well.

[husackgp@shaw.ca]

I bought a box of Nosler Varmaggedon ($38 CDN) 32 gr and went shooting again yesterday. Much better than the Hornady Superperformance. 1/4" groups from my portable table in a gravel pit. I have to get into reloading!

[RAMOS]

As Rick said, time to consider reloading. You may have several firearms that end up surprising you. The accuracy potential of that Cooper is most likely amazing!