53 years old. I have been shooting since 5 or 6 years old. Not a hunter, not even varmints any more, would rather watch then run around versus blow them up. Punch paper mostly. I was into hand gun metallic silhouette for a number of years, but not active with that anymore. Still have my silhouette pistols, so plan to get involved in this again.
Prior to getting my Savage Model 12 LRPV - Left Port, the most accurate rifle I had was a Remington Model 700 heavy barrel in .223 Rem. That rifle right out of the box with zero tunning was incredibly accurate. dime size or smaller 5 shoot groups at 100 yards as long as I did my part. It is topped with a Leupold 6.5 to 20x.
Now the story behind my getting the Savage Model 12 is as follows. My dad who is in his late 80's (Avid shooter and superb gunsmith still) took it in a trade last year. He messed with it a bit, could not really get it to shoot very well and basically said that 'this type of rifle is not really my thing.'
I didn't really need the Savage (need versus want again!), but he gave me a sweet deal. It had a straight Redding 10X on it. I took it to the range and shot off some of the loads my dad had done and was getting 2 to 3 inch groups at 100 yards. Obviously I was not very impressed. Did some of my own loads with various powders and bullet weights, some improvement, but still not even remotely close to My Renmington 700 in .223.
I decided I needed a better scope, but decided a Leupold was more than I wanted to spend. I got a Bushnell Elite in 8 to 24X. Figured the low recoil would not tax a cheaper scope very much (very happy with the scope). Thinking the scope was the answer, back to the range and still shot 2 1/2 to 3 inch groups with fliers common.
Now back at home, took the stock off, checked everything and carefully re-torqued as per Savage. Checked scope bases for tightness as well. Back to the range, slight improvement. I was starting to think I could not shoot anymore, so I took out the Remington 700 and shot a few 5 shot ragged holes at 100 yards so determined I could still shoot.
So what did I finally discover? I had a copper fouled barrel! I had used a standard Hoppe's cleaner, but had not used a specific copper fouling cleaner. Groups immediately tightened up to dime size or smaller once I had the copper fouling removed. The target below was at 100 yards and the load was 23.5g of H322 and Hornady 40 gr V-Max. I will have to try some of my earlier loads again as with the copper fouled barrel, they may have been better than I thought.
Moral of the story? If you have a gun that is not performing, make usure your barrel is really clean and free of copper fouling!
Work is starting to interfere with my hobbies...
. I bought my first .204 in 2010 and have loved it since. I have just started reloading so I'm still green under the ears in that field. I have an obsession with smaller fast rifle cartridges which led me to the .204. 
