Having fun helping a friend accurize his rifle

slimjim · Last edited by slimjim on Sat Aug 28, 2010 6:42 pm; edited 1 time in total

I took a friend to the shooting range last month. We have been doing more and more lately and have paired up to hunt elk in New Mexico. Anyway, after watching him shoot his Rem 700 BDL .270 Win, I thought there must be some problems with his bedding. His shots were spread out and point of impacts seem to wonder from group to group. If you put all the four 3-shot groups together, he was shooting over 3 MOA. I asked if he had had his rifle pillar bedded. He said the only work he had done to it since he bought it was a trigger job, which was pretty light for a factory trigger. So, I offered to pillar bed his rifle for him. I started working on it last weekend. Here is what I've found so far.

1) Black plastic forearm trim piece had a bump in the plastic that protruded out and touched the left lower quadrant of the barrel.

2) His front swivel stud had kept coming loose on him so he was tightening it often. It was just a wood screw and had even twisted out on him once. It was tightened into the stock enough that it had made contact with the barrel. I installed a press fit nut and machine screw. I’ll need to epoxy the rear one in as it twists out with light finger pressure

3) The holes in the stock for the two receiver screws weren’t even on center-line. I had started to use them as pilots for the 9/16 drill needed for the pillars but caught this just before I started to drill. Now I have the holes for the pillars centered.

4) The safety took about 20+ pounds of force to move into the fire/ready position. When the safety went off, the click was very loud. It looked like the safety mechanism was a spring ball set-up so I took it apart. The bevel on the hole in the safety position had never been machined into the trigger structure. I took a small grinder and smoothed that out. It operates nice now.

slimjim

Here is the stock prep'd and ready to be bed.

slimjim

Here is the safety. The fire position is beveled so the small ball bearing can ramp up and out into the safety position but the safety position never had a ramp machined into it. It sure looks like it was meant to be harder to get out of the safety position (bigger hole) than it was to get out of the fire position, but the force was way too much. The small ramp I ground in works fine and makes it fell like other Remington actions I've used. Took 3 tries to get the feel right.

slimjim

I'll pull it apart tonight to finish and trim the bedding. I sure expect it will shoot a "hole" bunch better (pun intended). I did run the bedding about an inch in front of the recoil lug. I usually do that when the barrel doesn't start its taper for an inch or two. This barrel started its taper immediately. I figure I always can grind it out if I need to.

I'll let you know how it turns out and shoots.

slimjim

The action wasn't too hard to separate. Clean-up went quickly and it was easy to trim the epoxy out in front of the recoil lug. This is the first time I used Brownell's Accu-Gel. It worked well. Now to the range later this week but not before I get the copper out of the barrel. There was significant copper fouling.

Elvis

Well???? how does she shoot now?

slimjim

Elvis wrote:

Well???? how does she shoot now?

Hoping to go to the range next Friday.

bracer

Over the years I have gotten some used and new rifles. Most shot smaller groups after doing one or more of the following. Glass bed the action ,free float the barrel, adjust the trigger, lapp the bolt locking lugs, recrown the muzzle, free float the magazine box, remove wood under the bolt handle. Pressure on the side of a barrel is a real accuracy killer as is a copper build up in the barrel.

bracer

Over the years I have gotten some used and new rifles. Most shot smaller groups after doing one or more of the following. Glass bed the action ,free float the barrel, adjust the trigger, lapp the bolt locking lugs, recrown the muzzle, free float the magazine box, remove wood under the bolt handle. Pressure on the side of a barrel is a real accuracy killer as is a copper build up in the barrel.

cbsweeney · Member Joined: Jun 18, 2010 Posts: 197 Location: New York

Very nice job Slimjim!
I have 2 more to do when you're not busy Wink

slimjim

It gets easier the more you do it. Where do you live in NY?

stovepipe

bracer wrote:

remove wood under the bolt handle.

Great point, never thought of that, ya got me to go check mine in the safe! (all good) Cool

slimjim

What a beautiful day at the range this morning. Clear blue skies and in the 70's. Overall, the gun shot better but I had done some handloads which did really well. Below is a target shot at 200 yards with factory 130gr Rem BTs. This is 2 3-shot groups. Better than the 7-inch spread from before but not great.

slimjim

Here are the groups with the handloads. This is 110gr Barnes TTSX with H414 - 59.0, 59.5, and 60.0 grains, respectively. The 60 gr ones are really strung out horizontally. So were the next group of Remingtons. I suspect the windage screws on the Leupold base are failing. I've had this happen before - they metal fatigues right at the base of the screw head and will eventually sheer off.

slimjim

Here are the velocities for the loads, averages, and deta from the previous powder charge. I think I'm going to load one somewhere between 59.0 and 59.5 grains of H414. Suggestions?

58.0 H414 avg 3244 fps
3244
3252
3236

58.5 H414 avg 3276 fps _ +32 fps
3267
3300
3262

59.0 H414 avg 3297 fps _ +21 fps
3284
3308
3300

59.5 H414 avg 3303 fps _ +5 fps
3316
3292
3300

60.0 H414 avg 3354 fps _ +51 fps
3350
3358
???? missed a shot