still looking

The details on the antelope are that I missed three times from in this order a kneeling position, and twice off a buddy's shoulder, from 68 yards, with about a 35-40mph crosswind. The details on the deer is my buddy was in a tree stand, "all I saw was mass and decided to shoot" and he missed four times. It is looking more and more like this might be a ring issue,or two cases of buck fever, but I will let you know either way

So after a 4 year hiatus, I am finally in a place where I can hunt Coues deer again. During that time, I manage to beat the heck out of my .270 trying to call lions in South Dakota, and have both made the longest shot I have ever made (325 yards) and had two spectacular misses with the same gun (one on my first antelope and one by a buddy on a big whitetail). So, I have a couple of questions. First, the gun in question is a Savage 110 wearing a Bushnell 4-12 with a now dented wood stock that will shoot one inch groups (I'm sure the rifle shoots better, I just can't) at 100 yards with any 140 grain ammo I feed it. I am wondering if the issue that cause the misses might be scope/bases related and if so if this rifle can be saved by upgrading to either a Leupold VX3 or a Vortex Viper? In the alternative am I better off looking into a Remington 700 Mountain SS, because it has a synthetic stock that I have to work much harder to dent/scratch, and a stainless steel barrel that is less likely to rust. Additionally, the odds are as good as not that this rifle will not like 140 grain bullets, which means that I can hunt anywhere and not have to take up hand loading as copper bullets are a lot easier to find in 130/150 grain factory loads. I would like to get a Kimber Mountain Ascent in 270 and top it with a Swaro, but that is out of my price range. The last alternative is to admit that I had a bad case of buck fever on the antelope and that my buddy admitted to the same on his deer and there is nothing wrong with either the rifle or the glass, which might not stop me from still upgrading at least the scope. Either way, looking at/buying new gear is always fun, and I can't wait to chase Coues deer ( or mulies if that is what I draw) again.

I literally just got back from Unit 24 today. We hunted McKnight road at the extreme northern end of the unit, it looks like there should be deer there, we saw mulies, turkeys, a few cows and more hunters than you could shake a stick at. Seriously, we had at least 4 people drive by us every day we hunted. We made a trip up to Royal John's, again, it looked like there should have been deer, but we certainly didn't see any. So, I didn't fill my tag, but as a first Coues deer hunt, and a do it yourself to boot, it was a great time, especially when the first time I saw my hunting area was opening day. Let me know if you have any other questions on unit 24.