accuracy decrease after trigger and bedding job, help needed!

[mehavey]

We're dancing all around the issue.

OP:
What you have now doesn't work.
Free-float the barrel back to about 1" from the front recoil lug and see/adjust from there.

[stagpanther]

I still think this is most likely much ado about nothing. There are not many reputable smithies who can stay in business over the long haul by charging for work that makes a gun shoot worse. I agree that it's probably nothing more than finding the right receiver screw torque to get the best mating of the stock. I'd check everything else as well--scope base, rings etc.

I recommend getting a box of hornady's 270 American whitetail (very cheap factory ammo)--very average bullet but a very consistent loading by hornady--and see how it does. I've shot it in some marginal 270 rifles and at 100 yds it very rarely fails to achieve 1.5 MOA or under in my experience.

[Bart B.]

Originally Posted by mehavey

Free-float the barrel back to about 1" from the front recoil lug and see/adjust from there.

Yes. At least a 1/16" clearance from fore end to barrel. All the way back to the receiver. You need clearance under all the barrel because it expands as it heats up. That suggestion puts a variable force on the barrel changing how it vibrates as bullets go through it.

If you have the wherewithal to measure how much the fore end bends up as the rifle rests on it, you should learn the thickness of a dollar bill for clearance isn't enough.

[HiBC]

Quote:
The push rod idea came from trying to stiffen up the poor factory plastic stock's. I've never done it myself of don't know that it works.
I've done lots of cheapo Tupperware stocks by savage and ruger by marinetexing the foreend channel and sometimes dropping an aluminum tube in-- definitely vastly improves the stock, though I usually end up filling the rear of the stock as well since they too tend to flex with the slightest pressure in the comb/grip area.
__________________

An older brother had a name brand,highly regarded Royalex canoe. . Royalex is an ABS/Vinyl laminate with a foamed core that makes a pretty good hull..I don't recall whethr the gunwales were wood or aluminum. There was a screw every 5 r 6 inches through the hull and the gnwale,the length of the gunwale.

Winters get cold in Montana. Because the hull materal and the gunwales had a different coefficient of expansion, The hull cracked at each screw.

When you rgidly glass a pushrod in a forend,you are essentially making the forend a bimetal strip.

Good luck with that.

I initially experimented with bedding the chamber area of the barrel with the receiver. I later cut the epoxy out that was contacting the barrel.
What works for me is zero contact with the barrel,allowing for sling tension and barrel whip..
Outside influences on the barrel are inherently inconsistent.

[stagpanther]

Winters get cold in Montana. Because the hull materal and the gunwales had a different coefficient of expansion, The hull cracked at each screw.

When you rgidly glass a pushrod in a forend,you are essentially making the forend a bimetal strip.

Good luck with that.

I initially experimented with bedding the chamber area of the barrel with the receiver. I later cut the epoxy out that was contacting the barrel.
What works for me is zero contact with the barrel,allowing for sling tension and barrel whip..
Outside influences on the barrel are inherently inconsistent.

Winters get cold in Maine too. : ) The aluminum tubes I use are aircraft grade high sheer resistant but can also flex under load--just like an aircraft's wing does. I haven't observed any issues so far in the ten years I've done them--to be honest as cheap as the stocks are I regard them as throw-away anyway suitable for bashing about in the woods, which I have no problem accomplishing, so even if one fails--which so far hasn't happened, I probably wouldn't care. Costs me all of $20 or so in materials, and if I can get a $275 axis to shoot like this I don't pay much attention to what could possibly go wrong with it.



But as with everything I post, take what I say with a grain of salt and just because it works for me it may not for anyone else.

[pwc]

Everyone agrees, check the torque on the screws. A torque wrench/driver is a precision tool. So what is the "standard" for action screws?

[kilotanker22]

Remington recommends a maximum of 45 inch pounds on their synthetic stocked rifles. I would venture a bet that wood stocks can be more easily damaged by action screws than Synthetic so I would use a little less. Maybe 20 to 25 inch pounds? Someone else may have to chime in on the wood stock torque specs.

I have had a few Remington rifles with a very similar issue. One was a 700 BDL in 300RUM. Shot pretty darned well with 180 grain Sierras and IMR 4350. I bedded the action to the stock myself and never bothered to remove the pressure point. Afterward it did not shoot as well. So I removed the pressure point and opened the barrel channel and then it shot better than it did before. What worked for me may not work for you.

[ReloadKy]

Loose action screws is the the culprit. Tightened the screws down appropriately and put 4 shots under an inch and 3 of those 4 shot were at 0.606 inch.

[10-96]

Loose action screws is the the culprit.

Happens. That culprit bit me in the rear several years ago. I put myself on a ramen noodle and pork and beans diet to save up for a CZ527 Varmint .223. Within 200rnds it was grouping horribly. I swore I checked the action screws! Took it out and same thing, so to the back of the safe it went. A solid 2 or 3 years later, I'm cleaning out the safe and grabbed the offending CZ by the end of the stock and barrel- felt movement. The front screw was actually loose enough to feel movement between the action and the stock. And long story short- it's now back to usual CZ expectations of .5 or less.