Need some advise

[K22]

K22,
I guess that to a certain extent, I am old school. I grew up in the hobby doing my own work, adjusting triggers, floating barrels, and bedding actions, all with wood stocks. I have never purchased a tupperware stock, nor am I likely to, because they do not lend themselves to becoming the sort of finished project I expect to be able to produce. This is not to say that they cannot be part of a rifle that performs satisfactorily, depending on what your accuracy goals are. To illustrate this let me tell you about a strapping young building inspector that a friend of mine and I ran into at a local range. He was shooting a Remington 700 in 300 Ultra Mag, that was basically unmodified except for the addition of a decent scope and a bipod. He was shooting factory ammo. Having sheen that we were doing pretty well with our rifles, he asked us if we had any idea why his relatively new rifle's accuracy might have deteriorated. Instead of his usual 1 1/4" groups, he was shooting groups that had increased to around twice that. After asked about how he was cleaning the rifle, and looking in the muzzle and down the bore from the breech end I determined that it did not seem to be unusually dirty, so the next thing that I asked him about was if he had checked the action screws to see if they were tight. He didn't know that that was even something that needed to be done. He had never touched them, so I got out my Chapman screwdriver kit and found the correct Allen bit and checked the screws. They were loose, about a quarter turn, so based on experience and feel I tightened them to about the maximum that I thought that the stock ( a plastic one) could take, without problems. After that he shot another group, that I could hardly believe, shooting at a featureless orange aiming dot, that was about 8" in diameter, off the bipod, he shot a group that could almost be covered by a dime. I told him that he should save it because it might be the best that he ever shot with that rifle, so he retrieved it, and I measured it, and noted the size of the group the date and the rifle on the face of the target, an signed it as a witness. Some months later another friend, who was the assistant city manager of the same town, told me that the fellow had framed the target and that it was hanging on the wall behind his desk. The point of the story is that if someone had told me that that rifle, with that stock, factory ammo, shooting off a bipod, at that target, had shot that group, I would have thought that it was back of the gun shop BS. Accuracy is where you find it, and sometimes it comes from equipment that you would not believe would work.

BoydAllen,

Last year my friend purchase a Remington Model 700 - 30 06 at Cabela's at an extreme bargain price. It was the SPS model I believe, the one with the cheap systhetic stock. With reloads (165 Nosler's and IMR 4350 - a load that works in almost all 30-06's) he was obtaining about 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 groups at 100 yards. We tested free floating the barrel with a plastic shim procedure before altering the factory stock. The groups dropped to about 1.00. We then removed the pressure points at the tip of the stock and the groups dropped to about 5/8". After he did some load development he's now shooting in the 1/2 moa range. I'm not suggesting that this will work all the time but I seen this work (significant improvement) with several Model 700's and 7's with systhetic stocks.

With that said, I've either glass bedded or replaced most of my systhetic stocks with after market stocks which further improved the groups. My point is that I was trying to share my experiences with the poster to offer some inexpensive things he might try to improve the hunting accuracy of his rifle. In no way do I believe that those factory systhetic stocks are a good choice but if your resources are limited, you can sometimes improve them significantly by free floating the barrel.

The one exception I've encounter is the Weatherby Supervarmint master. Mine has two pressure points about 3 inches to the rear of the tip of the forearm of the stock. This rifle shoots in the 1/4" range (with tuned reloads) so I've never messed with it although I was tempted. I should mention, the stock while systhetic is very high quality and stable. It should be, it's a $1,500 rifle.

Speaking of old school, I've been shooting and reloading for 40 years - I'm pretty old school also but I'm willing to learn and try to improve; this web site has been a great resource me. My game in varmint hunting which requires a high level of precision and accuracy.

 

[BoydAllen]

You write a good post.

 

[Doris123]

Sounds interesting!!

 

[LHSmith]

Having re-read the post, I noticed the O.P. may be assessing his .243's performance with too small a sample size. How many groups have been shot with this gun, particularly that 4" 200 yard outing?
Again, without any kind of condition reading ( wind indicators), any group size may be meaningless.

 

[tome]

I just went thru the process w/ a 243 sps varmint...used an H-S stock and a Jewell trigger w/ bolt release and safety...shooting reloads..70 gr HPBT sierra.. using Varget..with the Remington barrel and no other work done..this rifle will shoot 5 shot groups from the bench @ 100m into .5 groups..the Remington barrel really pleasantly supprised me.i have 2 LRPV Savages that shoot that good..so i just followed the Savage formula..a better stock with a bedding chassis and a better trigger, and it works.the Remington shoots on a par with the Savages. Save your old stock and trigger if you ever sell , because you sure won't get your money back once you add the trigger and stock. my $500 sps with the H-S stock..$300 and the Jewell trigger $235..is a $ 1035 SPS..but it does shoot

 

[GrpShrinkr]

The gun is a wood stocked sporter weight barrel with a Burris 4x12 AO. the shooting was done from a bench with a lead sled for a rest. trigger pressure was steady until the shot went off. I learned my lesson last spring with shooting more than 3 round at a time. When I shot the 200 yard group horizontal was ok it was vertical issues. I am still learning but don't know anyone close by that shoots long range. To teach my and or show me what I am doing wrong.

You might want to check to see how much pressure is being exerted on the barrel. If it is too much it will cause the vertical stringing you are seeing. To do this take a bathroom scale and place it on your table and set it to zero. Then push up on the barrel with your thumb while pushing down on the front of the stock channel with your finger and place a dollar bill between the pressure point and the barrel. Rest the barrel across the scale and while holding the butt of the rifle between your legs pull down on the forend of the stock with one hand while pulling on one end of the dollar bill with the other. Just as the dollar bill starts to move read the scale. If it is over 7 pounds sand a little off of the pressure point and try it again. The easiest way to do it is to loosen your front action screw a little and take a quarter sheet of sandpaper and put it between the pressure point and the barrel and sand some off. Tighten up the front screw and read the pressure again. Continue this process until it reads 6-7 pounds then shoot it and see if that helps. A properly designed pressure point will decrease the amplitude of the barrel's vibration which will decrease the group diameter. This is because a shorter or heavier barrel will vibrate with less amplitude than a thinner or longer barrel. The pressure point dampens the barrel's vibration from the the action to the pressure point and shortens the vibrational length from the pressure point to the muzzle. You can find more information on this subject at: http://www.rifle-accuracy.com/harmonics.htm

Good Shooting to You,

Jim

 

[fredhorace77]

Here's what i would do...
1.Get the trigger adjusted.
2. Free Float the Barrel
3. Glass Bed the action
4. Install a quality scope..with AO if ur going to be shooting past 100yrds. which most hunting scopes are set for.
5. Purchase several different types of Factory Ammo, if thats what ur going to stick with. And go shoot.
Also make sure u have a good rest to shoot off of...and remember your shooting a hunting rifle not a benchrest rifle...so free recoil and other benchrest procedures will not work for a hunting gun

 

[doc gordon]

LISTEN TO BOYD,HE IS A LIVING LEGEND IN MY EYES AND MANY OTHERS,I'M 67 SO IVE BEEN AROUND AWHILE!I DO THINK EVERY ONE IS TRYING TO HELP YOU AND THAT'S WHAT IS SO GREAT ABOUT THIS SITE.

 

[Bigcountry8530]

Thanks for all the input guys.

 

[longbow]

Google "Remington Crisp" an old article in Varmint Mag for adjusting your rem trigger. For nothing else it tells you how to to know your trigger. Hope it helps, when your done there move on to the next variable . Pete