I'm having a problem with my Savage bolt-action in .250-3000, and I was wondering if anyone might have some suggestions. I just fitted a new Shilen barrel (1-10" twist) on this rifle, and I've been getting pretty decent accuracy with J-word bullets (0.75" to 1.5" at 100). I just picked up a new RCBS 120 grain 2-cavity GC mould, and I cast a bunch of really nice looking boolits with it. I fitted the gas checks and sized them to .258" (the bore measures .257," right on spec) before I lubed with my time-proven home recipe.
When I went to test fire them, I wasn't getting any hits on the target at 100, so I moved to the 25. Let's just say I would have gotten better accuracy if I'd have thrown the boolits downrange. The best grouping I got was about 8 inches at 25 yards! Now, I'm no veteran of cast boolit shooting, but I've been getting great results from other cartridges and similar loading practices, so I'm wondering if maybe I missed some fundamental issue that gave me shotgun patterns instead of rifle groupings. The lube worked great; not a sign of leading anywhere. The lead was water dropped WW, so would they be too soft? I was only pushing them between 2100 to 2700 fps for this test, and no velocity gave any decent results. Any ideas?