Hierarchy of Accuracy

[58weasel]

In building a rifle, which component - when up-graded as a single component - most improves accuracy?
My take is:
1. Barrel
2. Optics
3. Trigger
4. Action
5. Stock

When on a budget, often can't be all done at once. If you could only make one of the 5 "top of the line", which one?
Or is the piecemeal approach simply an unacceptable compromise? Don't shoot till you can do it all. All or nothing?

 

[broncman]

Some times the hierarchy is rated in available $$$

Trigger job might be cheap , you might be able to bed your own stock/action. Maybe even do some trueing/tuning to your action but my vote is Barrel makes the biggest.

It really is a symphony and takes all!

 

[Immike]

The barrel is the most important of the 5 on your list. You left out bedding and ammo.

 

[jsthntn247]

The 3 B's in this order Barrels Bedding Bullets

 

[jr600yd]

Barrel without a doubt.

 

[NateHaler]

IMO, one must start with the accuracy objective, which means define it. Minute of vitals on a deer, minute-of-angle, or screamer-group-capable on a regular basis are all very different standards.

The main thing is to get (responsibly) in the game. The game will determine the hierarchy to a big degree too. In benchrest, you must have good enough equipment to be competitive. In metallic silhouette (shot from standing position), the biggest variable by far is the shooter. Configure a 1/8 MOA capable rifle into a silhouette rig and give it to somebody who isn't skilled at standing position shooting, and that person will get dominated by a skilled shooter with a 1 MOA rig.

So, the answer, as always, is: It depends. And my advice -- worth what it costs -- is spend what you can afford. Don't let some gear sneer, some brand sycophant, some bonehead in other words, spend your money. It's a journey, an evolution (by Journey!), a process. Half the fun, at least!, is figuring it out as you go. The first time I shot a sub 1/2 MOA group (five shots, meaning a real group for a stock rifle that weighed 10 lbs including optics), I was on cloud nine. As we walked downrange to check the targets, I smugly said "Frederic Remington knew how to build a good gun, didn't he..." and a much more experienced shooting colleague (and better than I'll ever be) walking alongside murmured "The guy you mentioned was a sculptor".

Doh! :-[

 

[ShootDots]

Without a good accurate barrel >> nothing else will have much of an effect..
Without a good action to make the barrel work properly, you won't gain everything the barrel can deliver.
Without a good stock to hold the action and barrel and have it properly fitted and bedded, the above is for naught.
Without a good trigger, you will not allow all the other components to function correctly..
Without a good, repeatable scope>>> well you can't hit what you can't see and if you don't have "clicks" that move like they are supposed to>> you're just guessing at where an accurate bullet, from an accurate rifle can be placed..

It is the "cumulative effect" of all the components AND quality, precision reloading that makes a rifle perform excellently!

 

[M-61]

Barrel. Without a good barrel the rest of the list is meaningless. Of course 2,3,4,5 are important, but only really when a good barrel is attached.

 

[dkhunt14]

Barrels are important, so are bullets and the ability to sort. One thing that nobody said that I feel is important is bags and rest. Matt

 

[stinnett1981]

Custom barrel with a good load and a good shooter behind the rifle. A decent shooting factory rifle with a perfect load "can" out shoot a custom rifle with a bad load.

 

[NateHaler]

One thing that nobody said that I feel is important is bags and rest. Matt

For BR shooting, yes. Not so much for other disciplines, except they are darn handy to test theoretical accuracy with!

 

[58weasel]

A lot of really good replies. It surprised me how many are inclined to the barrel as the lynchpin around which accuracy hinges. Which indicates I suppose that it is the barrel above all about which we must be most particular. All revolves around the barrel.

In biology there is an idea of the "limiting factor", which some of you seem to be alluding to. The limiting factor is conceptualized as a barrel with a number of staves; like a whiskey barrel, not a rifle barrel. How much water such a staved barrel will hold is always limited by the length of the shortest stave. If the shortest stave is lengthened the water capacity (a metaphor for accuracy) will increase until the level is reached where a different stave is preventing the capacity from making any more improvement. And so on, with the capacity (accuracy) shifting from one component to another depending on which one is limiting.

This seems to be the case with the relationships within the Hierarchy of Accuracy. But it is again striking how the replies focus on the rifle barrel.

All the other factors seem to center around not letting the barrel be shortchanged by substandard ammo/optics/action/stock/consistency of recoil reactions/etc.

The chambering of the barrel, is thus the essential determinate of what constitutes excellence in a riflesmith.

Again, I really appreciate you all taking the time to help me clarify my thinking on the subject.

 

[lpreddick]

the cartridge!!! you can buy the most expensive of all the above, chamber for a 30-30 and shoot bullet holes that are fairly close. chamber a 6 PPC or 6 BR with less expensive components and you can overlap bullet holes. chamber one of these with the best components and shoot holes that measure .0__. these two and several others are "inherently accurate".

 

[Medic505]

Looks like it's all been covered except the most important factor. The shooter.

 

[LHSmith]

the cartridge!!! you can buy the most expensive of all the above, chamber for a 30-30 and shoot bullet holes that are fairly close. chamber a 6 PPC or 6 BR with less expensive components and you can overlap bullet holes. chamber one of these with the best components and shoot holes that measure .0__. these two and several others are "inherently accurate".

...and then along comes a guy named Michael Turner of Texas who sets range records @ 100 & 200 for 3 straight years shooting a 30/30 in an HBR bolt gun basically by using the right dies and a barrel with the correct twist for light weight match bullets....and upsets conventional wisdom.

 

[LHSmith]

Without a good stock to hold the action and barrel and have it properly fitted and bedded, the above is for naught.


It is the "cumulative effect" of all the components AND quality, precision reloading that makes a rifle perform excellently!

....and yet it makes one wonder how Gene Begg's skeleton BR stock ( see March 9th Bulletin) can shoot with accuracy equal to other winning conventional stocks made from a variety of materials......and does so without the need for bedding. Again, it makes one question conventional wisdom.

 

[338 Mollett]

If GOD was the gunsmith,the reloader, the shooter,the bullet maker,the powder maker,the primer maker,the guy putting gas in the truck to drive the rifle to the range for testing.It will be the barrel,the barrel,the barrel.

 

[ShootDots]

I've always said when ever thing else is right, it boils down to the quality of the barrel and the quality of the bullets we put down it.
A "stress free pillar bedding" will stop some corky things from happening, and is the foundation to an accurate rifle.

Many times I have seen those who will spend a +$1000 for a fancy model factory rifle, that they put a $300 (or less) scope on it, and could care less about the trigger. Myself I am just the opposite, and would take a $300 rifle and spend a $1000 on a scope and trigger, and have them beat in accuracy from those two advantages. Simply because I've yet to see where those expensive model factory rifles have any better barrel or any truer aaction then the cheaper models and none of them have stress free pillar bedding.

My 2-cents
Donovan

I agree Donovan... My 'Smith, when he "accurizes" a factory rifle that does not seem to perform as expected by the shooter who purchased it, always pillar beds the rifle. He will not "let his name" be placed on "his work" on any rifle, much less a factory rifle without 1.) Squarring and truing up the action; 2.) recrowning the barrel; 3.) Pillar bed / Glass bed the action and 4.) works over the trigger.. He gets frowns from his prospective clients because they say he is trying to make a custom out of their factory presentation.. He tells them flat out, if he can't do AT LEAST THAT, to take their project to another 'smith..

 

[Trapper243]

It is a package deal. I can only do what I do in the field , because of the components, the "Smith", and me. I am still trying to catch up to all the other parts. What a wonderful time to be a shooter.

 

[58weasel]

Amen.