Browning BOSS and Bedding

[cstilt]

I've been considering rebedding my BOSS equipped Browning. A while back I heard that Browning uses some type of vibration dampening bedding material on BOSS rifles and traditional glass bedding on non-BOSS rifles. This was confirmed with a quick look at their website.

My question is, will it have any negative effects if I re-bed my rifle with Devcon instead of the Browning stuff? The job they did leaves a bit to be desired in looks and I'm not sure how I feel about a bedding material being soft enough to absorb vibration. Anyone done this? If so, how'd it turn out? Good? Bad? Any and all info will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[jonbearman]

Does it shoot bad? Give us more to go on.

 

[cstilt]

I wouldn't say that it shoots bad. I just want it to shoot better. Right now I'm shooting groups in the range of around 1" at 100 yards. They'll often be 2 within 1/2" of each other then one will open it up a bit. It seems like it's just not consistent with group size. So I'm wanting to do all that I can to correct that. The last group I shot was at 200 yards. Two rounds were well under 1" while the 3rd pushed the group out to 2".

My plan is to lighten the trigger to about 3lbs, rework my load to see if there's something to improve on there and bed it if traditional bedding materials won't have any negative affect on the rifle.

Any other information I can supply? I'm not 100% sure of what all you'd like to know.

Chris

 

[eww1350]

Chris...we need more info like caliber, cartridge, handloads or factory plastic or wood stock...
All that aside the Boss system will NOT make "Walmart" ammo shoot small groups...if you shoot factory loads get some premium ammo...like Winchester Supreme or Remingtons best...I can tell you from personal experience that you will need a premium bullet/load combo to get the best out of the BOSS...

Eddie in Texas

 

[cstilt]

The rifle is a 270win wearing the original wood stock and it has the BOSS-CR on now . I've tried a few loads in it. So far I've shot Federal Fusion 150gr, Winchester PP 130gr and Federal Premium 150gr Partitions. Currently I'm shooting 59gr of H4831sc with 130gr Accubonds at 2900fps. They're some of the best groups but the way one in a group will fly out still bugs me. Sorry if I left anything out. On my phone abouit to leave for work.

 

[cstilt]

Do I need to post more info still or does anyone know if using Devcon will not go over well with a rifle equipped with a BOSS?

 

[zcrackshot]

Have you played with the BOSS enough? My landlord is a BIGWIG for Browning and has been very helpful with all of my questions when it came to the BOSS settings and how to ZERO or CALIBRATE the thing. Come to find out my BOSS was way out of calibration and I had no idea that you were suppossed to make adjustments in 1/10th's, I had been changing by whole numbers. Browning posts the general settings for various brands of ammo for any given caliber on their website. According to my landlord this was one of the most expensive research undertakings that Browning has ever worked on. I can only imagine how many rounds and how much time was taken to derive all of the data posted. Anyways, according to what little I know I would say any decent ammo in your A-Bolt should produce sub MOA groups without much trouble. I have a couple of A-Bolts and both shoot various loads into .75" . Hope this helps.

 

[wapiti25]

I have a M 70 that I installed a new Hart barrel that I chambered in 338 win mag. The gun was only shooting about 1"- 1 1/4" with 200gr bullets, I bought Boss pieces and installed it on the barrel which was about 25" long. The rifle is in Brown Precision stock bedded with Accraglass. I tuned the BOSS for my handloads by turning in 1/2 turn increments for each group. I got the gun to shoot at about 3/4" groups and stopped so I could go hunting. I have since cut the barrel by 1 1/2" as it was too long with the BOSS on it. I tuned again (about 6-7 groups) to about 3/4" groups and quit. My rifle originally had something like hot glue for bedding and some of it pulled out with the action. This gun was crap from Winchester as now I'm only using the action, the recoil lug had an angle on it so if I had set it in bedding It would have been locked for ever in the stock. The lug was .010" thicker at the bottom so it got milled down untill it was parallel. The muzzel break really takes the bite out at the bench.

 

[cstilt]

Thanks for the info guys. Hearing that makes me think that bedding it will help it be a bit more consistent. I was just worried about the bedding material since I'd heard that Browning used some type of vibration deadening stuff.

zcrackshot, you are correct in the having to calibrate it. I made sure to do that before I make any changes to it. The recommended setting of 6 was pretty good for the Federal with 150gr partitions, not so much for the Fusions. When adjusting it I typically made 1/4 turns until I was close then went smaller with the increments.

DaveBerg, how much of a difference did you see from bedding your A-bolt?

Last question. What's your technique for handloading for the BOSS? Where do you set it for your initial groups?

Again, I truly appreciate the help. I'm really wanting to get down to 0.5" groups at 100yards.

 

[TRECustom]

Several years ago, I barreled up a Rem 700 with a Shilen #4 stainless barrel and chambered it for .340 Wby. I had salvaged a B.O.S.S. off a Winchester .338 Mag, and installed it on the Shilen barrel. It turned out to want the B.O.S.S. screwed in all the way and locked there. The barrel crowned at 26" plus the B.O.S.S. Nearly 28" overall. It would shoot 1/2 moa with factory 250gr Nosler Partition ammo. The stock was a H.S. Precision that I SteelBedded on top of the aluminum chassis. Last I heard, it was still stacking Elk. The hard bedding apparently didn't hurt anything.

I couldn't stand rubbery bedding anyway.

Just one example, but it worked for me.

Good shooting, Tom

 

[cstilt]

Thanks for sharing Tom. After hearing your story and the others I feel a lot better about going through with the bedding of the rifle. The rifle was a gift from my Father and I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't do anything that would be remotely detrimental to it. From what I hear, I'm on the right track to making it an even better shooter.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[BoydAllen]

You have tried one powder and bullet and you are looking to rebed? If your trigger is over three pounds, and are you using something to see what the wind is doing? I would take care of those issues first. If you go to http://www.erniethegunsmith.com/ you will find a lighter trigger spring. As far as looking at the wind goes, some sticks with surveyors tape tied to their tops at 25, 50 and 75 yards, should solve that problem. What kind of rest and bag setup are you using? As to the load, a friend who shoots a .270 WSM and tried 4831 without success found a good load with 4350. ( I know that this is a fast powder for that caliber.) Early on, I convinced him to take his loading equipment to the range to work up loads. He does, and his loads show it. Bedding is important, but you may have other issues that will need to be resolved, that will eventually need to be attended to, so why not take care of the easier ones first? Your load seems to be a little slow for the caliber. How did you work it up? What primers are you using, what dies?

 

[cstilt]

You are correct that so far I've only tried the one load so far. I have some H4350 that I'm also going to load. The spring trigger is also on my definitely do list as well. I've not used anything to check the wind so far. I didn't think that it would have a great affect on my 100 yard groups in that caliber. I have a rifle rest (adjustable for height front and rear with windage in the front) that I often use, but sometimes I use regular sandbags front and rear. I've not shot my 243 on the rest yet, but off the bags it'll shoot around 0.3" so I guess I'm okay with them. What kind of setup do you use to load at the range? I'm interested in that because it sounds like a great idea, but maybe tough for me to pull off. The load is a bit slow for the caliber, that is true. However it's also out of a 20" barrel. Browning advertises it as 22" but doesn't really advertise that 2" of that is lost to the BOSS. The dies are RCBS, Win cases, Fed primers.

I thought the bedding would be a good winter project after hunting season is out. That way I'd have one less variable to worry about when it warmed up around here.

 

[BoydAllen]

Do you have a sturdy table that you can load on at the range? If you do, the only trick is the scale. I came up with an idea for a scale wind box (My friend Ed Hellam built us both one.)that has a sliding glass front cover, and a trickler inside with the scale, but with its handle sticking through a tight fitting hole in the end of the box, so that you can throw and trickle in the wind.

Let me know if you need any help with the rest of it. I think that once you have experienced the advantages of working up a load at the range, you will never go back.

 

[TRECustom]

cstilt, I don't know much about modern Browning bolt rifles, but at least half of the factory barreled rifles I have tuned ended up being limited by the barrel itself. I have heard of factory barreled rifles shooting 1/2 moa or better, but have never had one myself.

In my opinion, bedding and floating, adjusting (or replacing) the trigger to get about a 3 lb, clean break, and tailoring handloads for it, never hurt any rifle, but ultimately the barrel itself may not be a 1/2 minute barrel. Some apparently are, so I hope you have one of them.

BoydAllen, that is a good looking scale box. All my loading stuff is out in my garage, and I'm thinking that this box would not only be a stray breeze killer, but a heckuva good dust cover in the bargain. I'm going to build one for myself and 2 more for my brothers. I've never loaded at the range, but it's something I'd like to do.

About 2 yrs ago, my 20 yr old O'Haus 1010 beam scale started acting crazy. Charge weights could vary by as much as 5 grains from throw to throw. Scary! It sounds implausible, but in desperation, I removed the copper magnetic dampener plate from the end of the beam and annealed it. After reinstalling it and readjusting zero, it is consistent again, and will deflect on 1/10 grain changes. I bring this up because most of those years it was stowed in a cabinet with the beam in place in the bearings and consequently the copper plate was between the damping magnets. I will use the wind-proof box, but will scoot the beam out of the bearings and get the plate out from between the magnets when I'm not using it.

I know this sounds pretty far-fetched, and am wondering if anyone else has had this problem with a magnetic damped beam scale?

My apologies for getting off the subject.

Tom

 

[BoydAllen]

I didn't have that particular problem, but when I borrowed a friends $300+ electronic scale, I learned that my old RCBS 10-10 was in need of some serious work. Having read that someone was tuning scales, I worked mine over, over a period of a couple of years, trying this and that, and now it works just fine. If you take your time, and are handy that way, tuning a balance type reloading scale can yield big benefits in sensitivity, accuracy, and repeatability.

I am pleased to read that you are going to be building some wind boxes. One tip...use tempered glass. Plastic will build a charge. On mine that would cause a .1 grain error.

 

[TRECustom]

I appreciate the advice on the glass. I was headed off to use plexiglas. Never even considered the buildup of static electricity. Should have known there was a reason you used glass.

Thanks again, Tom

 

[wapiti25]

Iv'e used the Lee hand press at the range and it did work. I also built an adapter to go into my trailer hitch socket that you can bolt your std press on. I know that these are not the BR solutions but it is another choice. I have used my powder scale inside my camper shell for wind control.

 

[BoydAllen]

Assuming that you have some sort of a bench, or table that you can for reloading at the range, just laminate a couple of thicknesses of plywood (12" x 8" will work), cut shallow counterbores for T nuts on the underside, and mount the press. Add a couple of C clamps and you are all set.

 

[cstilt]

I didn't think it would be that easy to load at the range. I always imagined it could be more trouble than that. The box you made up for the powder looks like it should work really well too.
Thanks for the advice on getting set up for that. I was looking at some ways to make a portable setup after reading what all you wrote and saw the posts about the workmate bench. Looks like it could work better than my current bench. I like that it's easy to stow away if needed, and it could be portable.