Accurizing factory rigs

[grit]

I have a few factory rifles I have added aftermarket stocks, bedded the actions, and tuned the triggers.

These rifles shoot 3/8 - to 3/4" 3 shot groups at 100 with my loads. I was wondering what kind of improvement I could expect from action accurizing, without changing barrels. I also wondered about the cost. And what a typical accurizing job entails.

I'd be grateful for the info. Thanks.

 

[James Jones]

I've got a coworker that had Chris Mathews of Long Shot Rifles accurize his rem700 VS in 308 ,he had the barrel cut down to 20" , the lugs were lapped , the barrel was set back about .250" and rechambered , the action bedded to the HS stock and the trigger was worked down to 2lbs , this gun will shoot around the 1/2" range with several factory loads and cinsistantly in the 3/8" range with good hand loads. I think this cost him around $200 with the shipping and all but he is very happy with the work.

I personaly think that the money would have been better spent on at least a half way decient barrel like a Douglas and a good chamber job.

 

[royinidaho]

The more consistently accurate your rifle the less cost effective additional processes such as action truing and such other things will be. Of course the addition of a custom fitted barrel along with the action truing will most always improve things but will it be worth the extra dollars over what you already have.

One other thing you could do yourself is lap the recoil lugs. Take a look at yours and see how they are fitting the action. If the bearing surface is only partial, uneven between the two lugs or one lug not even touching I bet there are those here that can tell you how its done. I've done a couple but it wasn't much fun and I'm not sure I did it correctly. I just transferred the technology from grinding valves on engines to the recoil lugs. However, it may cause some head space considerations.

Shoot'em out to 300 yds and you get a better feel, I bet...

 

[grit]

James,
You may be right about a good barrel being a better investment. Sounds like your buddy got a lot of work for two hundred dollars.

Roy,
I guess a better evaluation of how the rifles shoot would be a good place to start. Three hundred yard testing is a good idea. I do relatively little testing. I test when developing loads, and again before hunting season. But a few good consecutive groups and good es makes me happy. I do shoot a lot.

I'd be more than happy to check / lap the lugs myself. I'm a do it myself kind of guy. Don't have a clue what to look at.... I'll look into it.

 

[royinidaho]

grit,

Something I learned from Buffalobob was to shoot the drop chart, not project via computer projection. Thus if you're gonna shoot out to 1K actually shoot at 1K AND several different distances in between.

Once you do that, keep that load and there's no need for further shooting other than checking zero prior to the season.

It works well an saves bunches of ammo not to mention barrel life.

re the lugs: look at the back side, The shiny areas are the actual bearing surface.