Problems when switching ammo

[TruEdge]

So I was going to check the zero before my upcoming deer hunt on my savage 30-06 equipped with a vx-2 mounted with leupold rings and bases.
I normally shoot hornady 165gr SST but only had a few more shells. I couldn't find any of this ammo locally so I decided to try out something different. I ended up picking up a box of Nosler 168gr ET. The ballistics on the box seemed pretty close so I figured I'd give it a try. The Nosler are an all copper bullet which I never shoot out of my gun.
When I went out today to sight the new ammo in the first shot was 11" low! I thought holy crap and proceeded to raise my elevation. To my surprise my vx2 ran out of the necessary clicks to get to the center bull. I proceeded to take 2 more shot just to see where it ended up putting me and how it grouped and I ended up around 3" low and the 2 shots were touching. The Nosler seemed to group well but I don't quite understand why it's 11" low from the 165gr sst zero @100. Is this due to an all copper bullet?? Never seen such a drastic change or maxed out my scopes elevation. What's going on here guys? I feel like I just got kicked in the nuts since I spent over $40 for the Nosler and it looks like I won't be able to even use it this weekend for my deer hunt.
By the way I cleaned the barrel with Barnes cr-10 to get all the old fouling out so my barrel was super clean.

[h.charlie]

Sandwich a shim between the scope and mount, and re zero

[stevec223]

I have a 30-06 hunting rifle that loves factory remington 165gr core-locks... Never had any problems on game (deer-bear) and it really performs.... Ck big 5 or wallys... I haven't found a reload that works for it yet (semi-auto rem 7400) when trying out bolt gun work ups from other rifles... Someday i will work up a load for it,, but i'm in no hurry to possibly jinx my lucky hunting rifle either !!!.. Give the Rems a try,, and usually about 20 bucks a box or less.. Sounds like your rifle really dosen't like the noslers with the 11 inch lowballs,,, sounds a bit excessive to me ...Cheers..

[B W E]

At 500 yards, the drop on your Hornady is 73". On the nosher, it's only 70", meaning the Nosler has a flatter trajectory....opposite of what you experienced. If you're shooting factory ammo, the problem appears to be with your equipment, not the ammo. Also, CR-10 is going to affect your POI. A cold bore shot with an unfouled barrel is not going to hit anywhere near where you expect it to hit. However, it looks like theres some promise in the fact that your follow up shots were touching, even if 3" low. In my opinion, switching ammo this close to hunting season is a bad idea. I developed my load over 6 months ago, used it successfully in Alaska on a bull Caribou 3 weeks ago, and I now have a proven bullet, in my rifle, thats good for a one shot kill at 650 yards on a 450+lb caribou.

What distance did you do this shooting at?

[thenodnarb]

As for a reason why the copper bullet might strike lower, it is possibly due to the increased friction of the longer copper bullet. When I was developing loads for my whisper, I was shooting some very low velocity 168 BTHP and they were cycling fine. I tried a 200 grain nosler partition, which has way more surface area against the rifling, and it got stuck in the barrel. This is obviously an extreme example, but friction does play a role in point of impact.

Its also very strange that your scope ran out of elevation at (presumably) 100 yards. You should be able to dial 60" of elevation change at least. I suspect something is wrong with your scope, your scope mount, or the way you have it mounted.

[B W E]

The ballistics for both bullets are very similar... POI over 500 yards is only 3" different.

[TruEdge]

At 500 yards, the drop on your Hornady is 73". On the nosher, it's only 70", meaning the Nosler has a flatter trajectory....opposite of what you experienced. If you're shooting factory ammo, the problem appears to be with your equipment, not the ammo. Also, CR-10 is going to affect your POI. A cold bore shot with an unfouled barrel is not going to hit anywhere near where you expect it to hit. However, it looks like theres some promise in the fact that your follow up shots were touching, even if 3" low. In my opinion, switching ammo this close to hunting season is a bad idea. I developed my load over 6 months ago, used it successfully in Alaska on a bull Caribou 3 weeks ago, and I now have a proven bullet, in my rifle, thats good for a one shot kill at 650 yards on a 450+lb caribou.

What distance did you do this shooting at?

I did the shooting at 100 yards. I really don't see how it could be the gun considering it shot a grouping that all touched with the Nosler so that's why I was a little baffled. Leupold is going to send me some shims to bring the rear of the scope up. Looking at the ballistics I too figured the poi to be very similar that's why the 11" drop seemed very strange.