Vertical stringing

[Laguna Freak]

How does the OP determine baseline CBTO? I strongly recommend the Alex Wheeler method. I had doubts before I tried it. It is repeatable and can clear up where one really stands before getting random numbers that later on will cause issues.

Baseline = chamber dimension.

I too was a skeptic before Jud96 and mikecr introduced the concept to me via this site. I studied the PRB articles and applied seating depth progression to one of my rifles/loads. Its worked out well and was a more direct route to accuracy. Take a read in the articles. What do you have to lose? Besides, I think Wheeler agrees that seating depth ID is step 1 or 2 in load development.

 

[Alex Wheeler]

Its good your chrony is not touching your barrel.
Forgot looking at the chrony for now, its not going to tell you anything, just look at the targets.
Powder charge and seating depth are your two main tuning tools. Neck tension and primer choice are important, but you should find decent accuracy first. Ladders are good for roughing in a load before shooting groups and picking components. If the ladder looks bad, no point in shooting groups, try a different powder. If none look decent, pick a different bullet and start over. Once you shoot a ladder that looks decent load some at the powder charge that looked good and adjust seating depth, then fine tune the powder charge. Now you have a base line load to try different neck tension and primers. Always shoot a few different powder charges surrounding your load when trying neck tensions or primers because they can move the node. I would expect a customer to try at least 2-3 powders and 2-3 bullets through a decent powder charge and seating depth window before accepting a rifle to inspect for accuracy issues.

 

[MAD10]

OP why do you think a gunsmith is your answer? You do realize they will do exactly what many in this thread have suggested and charge you handsomely for their time and rightly so? Which could easily turn into the cost of a new barrel job?

If you are confident you've tried all you can or are not interested in trying what others have suggested then why not just pull the barrel and have a new Bartlien screwed on and send the suspect barrel back to Bartlein?

As you know a Bartlien with brake and smith work is about $1000ish. A gunsmith taking the time to do all the investigative steps many have suggested could easily reach that price and there is no guarantee they will find the issue.

 

[asd9055]

Im not a gunsmith, but this is the torque on the barrel, so I think the author meant 65 ft lbs

On firearms...it is inch-lbs. If you try to put 65 ft lbs you will break the screw

 

[Gord0]

On firearms...it is inch-lbs. If you try to put 65 ft lbs you will break the screw

Yeah, 65 ft/lbs is a bit much for a 1/4" screw

 

[bigngreen]

On firearms...it is inch-lbs. If you try to put 65 ft lbs you will break the screw

He was referencing the barrel so it's foot pounds!

 

[asd9055]

He was referencing the barrel so it's foot pounds!

Barrel, makes sense. I personally would not touch the barrel on a bolt action rifle. I do not have the experience!

 

[25WSM]

Barrel is just a threaded piece of steel like any bolt and action has threads like any nut. No science involved. But you need a barrel vise and action wrench. Nothing mysterious about it. Put anti seize on it and screw it in till it stops. Tighten to the torque you prefer and your done. Seems everybody prefers a different torque value. But just past hand tight will hold it on forever. Most bench rest guys I know use around 35 pounds. I don't think it makes much difference. Action screw torque makes a bigger difference.
Shep

 

[asd9055]

Barrel is just a threaded piece of steel like any bolt and action has threads like any nut. No science involved. But you need a barrel vise and action wrench. Nothing mysterious about it. Put anti seize on it and screw it in till it stops. Tighten to the torque you prefer and your done. Seems everybody prefers a different torque value. But just past hand tight will hold it on forever. Most bench rest guys I know use around 35 pounds. I don't think it makes much difference. Action screw torque makes a bigger difference.
Shep

Thanks Shep. You are always a wealth of information. I just worry about alignments. I just don't know enough.

 

[asd9055]

It doesn't take very long for a cartridge to heat up in a hot chamber. It's one of the first lessons I learned shooting benchrest. If a wind change happens and you have to wait, don't shoot that round into your group or use it for dope. The old timers taught me well.
Shep

Shep, do you use a chamber cooler? If yes, which one?

 

[25WSM]

The barrel and action self aleign themselves. The angle of the thread faces self center when they tighten. I do not use a chamber cooler. When I shoot in a match there is not enough time to use it during the relay and there is enough time for cool down between relays. Once you learn your barrel it's easy to correct for heat induced issues. I had one barrel that shot 5 shots right perfect and then the next 5 would progressivly go down. After I seen what it did I just held off for the last 5 shots and shot many 5 inch groups with it. That's actually the barrel I got 2nd place with at the world open. I probably could have loaded the last 5 shots with increasing powder charges but it was so consistent I just held off.
Shep

 

[25WSM]

Us 1000 yard guys really hammer out barrels with heat. During the sighting stage we usually shoot 10 shots in about 5 minutes but 3 or 4 of them are in the last minute. Then we hammer 10 rounds off in less than 30 seconds. So 13 or so rounds down range in 1.5 minutes makes for a very hot barrel. But we still manage to shoot 3 to 5 inches quite often.
Shep

 

[26Reload]

But...if you lay a fish on its side..
are the lateral lines still lateral...or vertical......

 

[Canhunter35]

@Joefrazell have u done a seating depth test since starting the thread?