Accurizing factory rifles

[Fireball Fred]

stevens 200

i have to agree with Pete. i got a stevens 200 SA in 223 and it is accurate enough for g-hogs or yotes to 250 yds. i paid give or take roughly 200 for my rifle new. Fred

 

[P Corncob Bob]

Can I rebarrel/true and pillar bed my Abolt micro-hunter to a comparable level of accuracy or am I wasting my time and money? If its not a worthy action to begin with, I am not going to bother with it.

Jaybic:

I agree they those that feel Remington 700's are much to heavy for a "walk about" rifle, and appreciate what you are attempting to do.

I have never heard of an A-bolt that did not shoot well, not saying there might be some out there.

My gunsmith whom trues a good number of actions and rebarrels same, mentioned he had only trued just a few A-bolt actions in 10 years or more. He also mentioned when truing a A-bolt action, very little is needed as tolerances are tight.

Personally I know several people with A-bolts and they will not part with them, which I feel speaks highly of Browning's quality and quality control.

I would recommend following:

Thorough cleaning a barrel using solvents for powder, copper, and carbon fouling.

Try Reloader 19 powder. Velocity may "slightly" suffer, but in my experience accuracy picks up. Be prepared to clean bore with those solvents listed above after every 25 rounds or so. Consistent bullet tension and bull seating depth are key. If you use a ram type press, ensure consistent operation each time a bullet is seated.

Inspection of optics and associated mounting. If you have a Leupold scope, have them inspect and repair any mechanical looseness.

Inspect trigger to break consistently at same pull weight. Inconsistent pull weight is indicator of trigger, sear, or firing pin problems. This sometimes can be corrected by cleaning. Adjust trigger pull weight to as light and consistent as "safely" possible.

Do not float barrel as accuracy for lightweight contours in my experience seem to like being tight. Torque action screws to a known inch pound setting. 35 inch pounds would be a good place to start.

None of above should cost that much, so you wouldn't be wasting your time or money, and most certainly wouldn't be waiting a couple of lifetimes for something you may not be satisfied with.

Hope this helps ?

Cob

 

[RugerOldArmy]

Bad Advice:

Jaybic: Jamie I have several Remington 700 <snip>
I get ALL the accuracy I need from these "walking type Varminters"!
For the last decade I stay as far away from the custom barrel makers and the Riflesmiths as I can possibly get!
<snip>
VarmintGuy

...and it doesn't seem genuine...

Yet in this post:

<snip>
I had a full custom Varmint Rifle built in caliber 17 MachIV on a Remington 700 action.
It was going to have a 26 1/2" Lilja barrel fitted to it.
Unfortunately the Lilja folks had shut down their 17 caliber barrel making for a time and I had to re-order a barrel through the fine folks at Shilen.
My barrel is also heavy of contour and is 26 1/2" long - recoil is NOT a problem with this wonderful shooting Rifle!
Using "un-sorted" Remington 221 Fireball brass I obtain excellent accuracy with this Rifle!
<snip>
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Consistent BS, lol, gotta love VG's posts.


Better advice:

I would tell you that all those years I spent tinkering with handloads and factory rifles.......good enough for under 1 moa most of the time.
HOWEVER, the good looking girl won't go out with you until you ask her.....my way of saying...have an aftermarket BARREL fit to your rifle and start out AHEAD.
I'm not saying factory barrels won't produce. Some will. But you will usually be very happy with taking the step that will really crank up your rifle's accuracy--a HIGH QUALITY BARREL.

<snip>

Don't cheat yourself, try a great aftermarket barrel and use the factory barrel as something to support tomato vines.
<snip>

 

[tricrown]

Euro trash

We have a Deer rifle class at our shoots for some years now. A lot of different sporter rifles have been on the line. Tikka T3 Lights at a little over 6lbs. are very popular and in general outshoot any other factory sporter gun in the $500 range. Many, probably most, will be close to a ½” 3 shoot average at 100 yards. If you have $300 more, Sako’s new A7s weigh in under 6.5 lbs. With either you could be ready to go out of the box.

 

[onomrbil]

Rebuilt Factory Rifle Accurizing

First, some rifles respond to a precision rebuild differently. I had a Remington 700 trued by one of the gunsmiths you will find listed on this site. We used the new factory barrel and trigger, etc., and when the dust settled I had an acceptable varmint rifle. Not great, mind you, but good enough to hit chucks with. Another factory rifle done by the same gunsmith was a Type 99 Arisaka that had started life in the late 1950s as a 22-250. We installed a Brux barrel, did nothing to true the action, did nothing to the Timney trigger, chambered the thing in 22-250, and got a rifle that shoots right along with my top-notch varmint rifles. Go figure...