Crown Flaws?

[alton9]

I've got a 700 sps tactical in .223 that I can't get to shoot decently. 2"+ groups @ 100 with most loads tried. I've found a tiny little divot on the crown ,right in the 90 degree corner between the bore & muzzle face. The divot is approx. .020" deep and .050" in dia. Do you all think this flaw could be the trouble? Bbl was properly broken in & feels pretty smooth w/a tight patch.

 

[wvuredneck09]

In that area I'd be worried that it is hurting accuracy big time.

 

[alton9]

Well, something's hurting the accuracy for sure.I've never had any crown trouble before [that I knew about], was wondering if this flaw would be expected to cause large groups.Or maybe it should cause failure to group?I just don't know whether to blame the poor performance on the crown or something else.FWIW its a 1 in 9 twist, tried 55gr. to 69gr. bullets. And if you all are wondering, I can generally hold .5MOA groups with other rifles.

 

[Tozguy]

From your description you are definitely loosing some accuracy with a muzzle like that, probably a lot.

 

[alton9]

Thanks for the input.This thing's got me ready to pull my hair out. Bought it new, put it in an H/S stock, tried several bullets & powders.....NO CHANGE!! I'll see what a recrown does.

 

[DS]

I just rebarreled one just like it that wouldn't shoot. the guy sent it back to rem twice and they sent it back saying it met there tolerance. There ended up having somthing screwy with the throught I could see with my bore scope. Find someone with a scope and check it out then rebarrel it!

 

[Preacher]

Redo the crown and there is a 99% possibility that the problem will go away..

 

[Erik Cortina]

I would go after the crown first.

On that note, have you guys read the article on PS magazine this month about muzzle crowns? They made a mess out of a rifle crown and the groups would not change, I mean, they tore up the crown, I would have bet the farm that that rifle would not shoot, but it shot under 1 MOA after they destroyed the crown!

 

[Larryh128]

=2 on Preacher & Erik. It'll never shoot until the crown is right.
Just starting out, I had to re-crown 1 barrel 3 times before I got 1 that it liked :

 

[LHSmith]

Yes, that article in the March issue of P.S. had results that were contrary to what I have personally encountered. Much of my experience has been with short range BR, so I know what my rifles are capable of and I have seen, more times than not, that a fresh crown will usually help bring back accuracy. I think that test procedure was flawed, only one 5-shot group fired originally for fresh crown and for each muzzle alteration. No mention of wind flags or conditions during the test.
The author readily admitted he was using targets that were difficult to intersect with the crosshairs.
These quotes pretty much sum up the integrity of the test- "At this point I'll throw out an excuse regarding my group sizes. The groups might have been smaller if I hadn't been too lazy to dig out a bigger dot, but to be honest I expected the accuracy to go to pot after the first group so I wasn't too concerned with wringing out the last bit of accuracy."

 

[cwcarrera]

alton9,
I have the exact same rifle you have and it had the exact same problem you describe (ding on the crown). Broke in the barrel, stuck it in an H&S stock, tried several different loads that shoot well in all my other 223's but no luck with this gun. Had my smith cut a fresh crown on it and now it does just a tad better than 3/4 MOA with just about anything I put in it. I think that is all I can expect from a factory rifle / barrel. I believe fixing the crown might just make your rifle shoot the way you want it to... Good luck! BTW, I also put an old style trigger in my gun as I could never get the trigger it came with to work to my liking.

Chip

 

[Tozguy]

I would go after the crown first.

On that note, have you guys read the article on PS magazine this month about muzzle crowns? They made a mess out of a rifle crown and the groups would not change, I mean, they tore up the crown, I would have bet the farm that that rifle would not shoot, but it shot under 1 MOA after they destroyed the crown!

Just read the article you mentionned Eric. The testers started out with the expectation that a damaged crown would turn the rifle into a blunderbus. It was difficult to take the article seriously. Eric, are you going to tolerate damaged crowns on your rifles now?

 

[alton9]

Chip,that's very interesting.I touched up my crown & removed the flaw.I think I see some improvement but need to shoot more to be sure.it seems to want to shoot around 1 MOA now.Unfortunately I was hoping for half that.

 

[Erik Cortina]

I would go after the crown first.

On that note, have you guys read the article on PS magazine this month about muzzle crowns? They made a mess out of a rifle crown and the groups would not change, I mean, they tore up the crown, I would have bet the farm that that rifle would not shoot, but it shot under 1 MOA after they destroyed the crown!

Just read the article you mentionned Eric. The testers started out with the expectation that a damaged crown would turn the rifle into a blunderbus. It was difficult to take the article seriously. Eric, are you going to tolerate damaged crowns on your rifles now?

No, but it would be a hell if an excuse though! ;D

 

[cwcarrera]

Alton9,
I have an older remington 700 varmint model in 223 that shoots sub .5 MOA no problem, but that is from the era when remington was more concerned with quality. From what I have seen of the product they ship these days, I think you might be a little over optimistic with your hopes. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be a remington basher, I'm just commenting that I don't think their quality is what it used to be. Good luck to you, I hope you get your rifle shooting the way you want it to.

Chip