Don't give up hope ! Try this .... set up a very large, clean "target". Something like a large white "project" board or poster board like school kids use, or a big piece of card board such as an appliance box. I would not touch anything and I'd try at 50 yards again ... using the same ammo as before. Shoot 3 shots carefully aimed at the center of the board. I'd suggest using a 3" diameter orange sticky dot as a bull. And time the shots far enough apart to let the barrel cool down.

Adjust the scope to move the center of the "group" to the center of bull .... if your scope is 1/4" per click, which I think Leupold's are .... it'll take 2 clicks at 50 yards to move it about 1/4". If you run out of adjustment, you likely need to shim the mount.

Next, put the target at 100 yards. Aim dead center .... and fire another carefully aimed 3 shot group. Don't get all hyped up about where the shots hit (yet). You are looking for a decent triangle, even if it is rather large, centered roughly around the bull. Continue to adjust the scope to center the group around the bull. If it'll center around the bull consistently you are probably good to go.

If the group is scattering rounds in some weird way ... problem is not yet solved .. and I have nothing to advise except a trip to the gun shop .... or try swapping out the scope.

In my opinion, if the group is rather triangular and say 2.5 MOA +, I'd call it pretty good ... but I'd try at least 2-3 different loads to see if I could find a better match for that rifle. Most factory grade rifles these days, if they are in good shape will do 2 MOA or so.

Example: My good buddy E.R.'s 30.06 Spr. BAR grouped Remington Express 150 Gr. Core-Lokt about as lousy as I have ever seen a long rifle group a factory load. But he did himself in from the get-go because he'd shoot only one round then adjust. So after about 70 rounds he had made essentially no progress, had a target board with holes all over the place, and was totally disgusted. I calmed him down and fired a 3 shot group, which to my surprise was at least 6-7 MOA. I fired another 3 shot group figuring it was me. Same result. Nice triangle, but huge. Until I showed him this, he figured buggered rifle or serious scope problem (Ziess Conquest). So I sent him home to pick up a couple of different factory loads for us to try the next week, hoping we'd find one that would group.

He came to the range with 10 different loads .... including some darn high dollar stuff. After trying each of these, 3 different factory loads grouped about 1.5 MOA +/- consistently, and 1 of the 3 grouped right at 1 MOA (Federal Premium 180 Gr. Nosler Partition). We tried that same ammo 4 times, 3-shot groups each time. The largest we had was just over 1 MOA, with the smallest just under 1 MOA. Eddie was thrilled and much relieved. After centering this BAR with this load at 2" high at 100, we shot at 200 .... it was essentially dead on. So for grins, I tried the Core-Lokt stuff at 200 yards too. Only 1 of the 3 rounds even cut the sight-in target.

It just so happened that he was working with a bad match for his rifle from the start. He had chosen that load because it did so well in a bolt action that he had. Makes sense, but goes to show that rifles are different animals from one another. That might be your case too. It'll take some more time at the range to know for sure.

Good luck and I'd be interested to know what you come up with.