Action Screw Torque????

tunacan

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Feb 13, 2009
Messages
408
I recently built a 22-250 Imp on a Remington 700 Action. I have worked up a few loads for the rifle and found a couple that shoot great.
I took it out last week and shot several groups under .5" most of the groups were ragged little holes, the best group was in the .1s.
I ordered a Holland trigger spring and took the gun out of the stock in order to put in the new spring for the trigger and bolt stop.
I placed the gun back in the stock and torqued the screws back down. (stock is bedded)
I do not have a torque wrench but I think I have a good "feel" for how much it needs to be tightened.
I loaded up a few rounds today and went to the range....Groups were aweful (1.5") with no real pattern to them..(left, right, high and low)

My question is...Could the difference in torque on the action screws be the culprit of my ****** day at the range?
All of my equipment is sold, form is solid enough for repeatability of groups. Reloading is solid.
Thanks
 
You'll probably get mixed reviews on this. Most people will say a good bedding job and it shouldn't matter on the torque, some will say 65 in lbs no matter what others will say tune loads with different torque settings.

I think if the bedding job is done right the groups shouldn't change much, but I've always had tinkeritas and like to play with torque settings from time to time.

Don't know if that helped much, your sure to get all kinds of advice though.


Nathan
 
Action screws should be tightened to 35 inch pounds to 65 inch pounds depending on the rifle and
the service it is in.

If it has a good bedding it should not change much but if you first torque starting at 35 in/lbs
and go up in 5 in/lb increments until it shoots the most consistent.

Then each time you take it out of the stock, re torque at the same torque it should repeat.

When placing an action back in the stock always just snug it up and bump the butt on the floor
to help it find the best/original position and then torque to 1/2 the value and then to the final
original setting.

If it is bedded you should not torque as much as if it is pillar bedded.(The pillars will not
compress and can stand the full 65 in/lbs.

There are many post on torque so do a search and you will get plenty of info.

J E CUSTOM
 
Had the same problem with a 22-250 , model 70, in a bell & carlson medalist stock. Was advised to : after putting in both screws, to snug the rear screw first then the front screw. then repeat tightening the rear first and then the front. around 30 lbs on a wood stock, around 60 on a aluminum bedded stock such as the medalist. inch/pounds. IT WORKED ! HOPE THIS HELPS. Got the info from stockys.com
 
I was told by a very reputable gunsmith who is a sponsor on this site, that if the action is bedded properly, action screw torque doesn't do much and matters very little. They just need to be good and snug.??

Just what I heard. Is it possible could be something else? perhaps gun isn't fully seated back into the original bedding??

Just a thought,
 
I had the same prob with my 721 unbedded so I wouldnt remove it for the stock unless I wanted to resight it in. Just the nature of the beast. Its now bedded in a difrent stock no pillers Its not so susceptible to movment now. Now as far as tork specs yes there is a spec 1/4" fine thread on a 700 But the max will squish a stock unless it is piller bedded. Keep reading! Witch brings me to 1 of my stocks 700 synthetic SPS think out side the box bedding matreal here. what to use? just playing with it
 
It's easy to disregard most of this and whittle it down to saying "it's just a fricken deer rifle." Thankfully that position isn't taken by engineers who design stuff most of us take for granted when flying commercial or cruising around under the arctic circle.

Take it for what its worth, but this is what I learned:

I'm fortunate to have some pretty smart fellers for friends. One in particular lives in the Seattle area and makes a very comfortable living designing, developing, and evaluating fasteners for aerospace and nuclear submarine applications.

About 8 years ago I asked for his help on this very question. First, there isn't a "blanket answer" that covers everything. For the sake of this discussion we'll use a particular screw.

1/4-28 made from 300 series stainless. Popular now with many of the custom actions.

With this particular fastener you don't exceed 40 inch pounds. Period. If you do the fastener will yield because it exceeds the tensile loading capacity of the threads and you end up only chasing problems that really don't exist.

Different materials have varying degrees of lubricity, tensile strength, and surface hardness. All of which play into this.

You also must take into consideration the thread pitch. This is where friction coefficients, flank surface area, and shear angles also become important. Not to mention root diameters vs major diameter and the torsional/shear loading applied to the cylinder/shaft portion of the fastener.

Be that as it may if you sit and do the math the numbers are pretty close. One does not clearly outshine the other.

Don't forget also that the threads in the receiver are just as capable of being influenced. A kryptonite fastener is only as effective as what its being screwed into.

Excessive screw torque is attempting to mask a larger underlying problem: Poor bedding and/or incompatibility of components.

If your building a spaghetti M700 in a boomer with a barrel that resembles the axle out of an excavator in a featherweight sporter stock, then its likely the gun will perform poorly no matter how much tension is put on the guard screws.


Hope this helped.

C
 
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