This morning I was working up loads for my 223, for the 64 gr Nosler BSB. I was putting holes all over the paper, but nothing was looking good. Geez. I ramped up the powder by 0.3 grains, which took me almost to max, which is where it shot well with the previous barrel. And man...it was an ugly group. Figured I'd just give up for today, since I was in a nasty mood, and take it up again on Monday. I reached for the rifle to pick it up and take it inside and my thumb hit the forward scope ring and the big screw holding it to the mount. It wasn't even finger tight. How the heck did that happen. When did it happen? Dang. I wasted the morning, and a lot of bullets and powder. I retightened that dang screw, and Conan the Barbarian will have to grunt to get it loose now. Reset the scope for the 40 grainer, and quit for the day.

Gonna have whiskey now.

Man that sucks, makes you feel good to finally figure it out though.

Thanks for the sympathy. I am having whiskey. At least it'll shoot the 40 grainer great.

Im still waiting on a good field trial report on the 64 gr bsb. I have about 50 partitions loaded yet. I haven't read anything bad about the 64 bsb so I will likely give them a try when the partitions are gone.

What kind of base?
What kind of rings?
How many times have I recomended a one piece pic rail, Weaver style rings with a cross bolt and nut, and low strenght Locktite, followed by the F.A.T. wrench?

Just sayin

That'll come back and bite ya, JG. Careful where you sit.

Shoot, I've had action screws back out the day before a match and rezeroed to it. See how one shoots when that happens

603 knows I'm gigging him.

Yeah...we all know somehow and yet we weren't born that smart. Musta been experience, huh?

I wish I could remember exactly, but I saw it somewhere...went something like "good judgement arises from experience, and experience arises from bad judgement." I'm sure the gist of it is pretty clear.

Experience, the ability to reconize a screwup when you make it again

I can't tell you how many times I have had friends or family bring a rifle to me and say "I just don't know why, but its not shooting good any more" and when I check its the bases or rings or action screws (if not all) that are loose.

Also, if you just have a wood stock, if you retighten the action screws, it sometimes takes a few rounds for the rifle to settle in. I've noticed that my Garand takes about 5 rounds to get settled after I take it out of the stock.

I just can't remember having the base or rings get loose in the past on any of my center fire rifles. I'm beginning to think that this is a jinxed rifle. When I first got it, I wasted mucho ammo due to a scope that came loose inside. The gun was new, so I didn't know what the problem was. Finally got a new scope and all was fine till I wanted a fancy barrel. Now the rifle is again 'unknown' to me and in the process of load work ups, the scope mount gets loose.

The rifle is a Ruger Hawkeye, with factory scope mounts. Solid as a rock, till recently. But like I mentioned, it's gonna take a real man to unscrew it now.

So back to load work ups on Monday. AA2230 is the next powder in line, followed by Varget. I could also try BL(C)-2, and give H335 another try.

Just be glad you only wasted some ammo. This could have happened on an expensive guided hunt, which would have really hurt your wallet, especially if it had resulted in a wounded--and lost--animal.

I like to use a degreaser like carburetor cleaner on the screw threads. Then, when you put it back together, put the tiniest dot of super glue on the threads (someone mentioned loctite, which is fine too). Now the screws will stay tight, but the super glue wont keep you from removing them with the proper driver, should you need to re-scope someday.

And be glad it was only 223! It could have been a magnum gun that cost a lot more!