Thread: Load development/Gun Smith

Hey @Dev just make double sure no part of the barrel is touching your rest when firing, you won't believe the amount of people that swear they aren't touching the barrel on their rest yet they do. I know it is such a basic thing but it will throw your bullet all over the place. I did this myself a couple of times in my early days of shooting and I refused to admit I could do it but I did and it is the first thing I make sure of before I pull the trigger now. Good luck

Yep nothing is touching barrel when using bipod or rest and is fully floating.
Have just inspected the recoil lug closely. The lug is 6mm thick and the lug grove on chamber is 6.14mm.
The .14mm Clarence is on the front of the lug which is where I would think needs to be hard up given the way it recoils.... stock try’s to stay put against shoulder and chamber/barrel moves back where the recoil lug would take the hit otherwise it’s relying on the action screws?
Here’s a pic of chamber lug grove, can even see bedding compound on front of grove where the clearance is, which I feel should be hard against the recoil lug...?

Originally Posted by Dev

Yep nothing is touching barrel when using bipod or rest and is fully floating.
Have just inspected the recoil lug closely. The lug is 6mm thick and the lug grove on chamber is 6.14mm.
The .14mm Clarence is on the front of the lug which is where I would think needs to be hard up given the way it recoils.... stock try’s to stay put against shoulder and chamber/barrel moves back where the recoil lug would take the hit otherwise it’s relying on the action screws?
Here’s a pic of chamber lug grove, can even see bedding compound on front of grove where the clearance is, which I feel should be hard against the recoil lug...?
Attachment 105417

That gunk on the front face of recoil lug groove looks like a problem to me. And suggests the bedding job might be source of your issues.
Can you get your hands on (borrow) another stock to try your action in? Preferably a B&C or carbon fibre stock. Your POI will change but groups should improve and settle down in consistency

If there was a problem with the rifle as the way its beded or lose scope etc it would be consistently Inaccurate and wouldn't shoot a 1moa group one week and shoot like scattered buck shot the next.

My advice put it back together, torque the action down correctly. Don't use anything with copper remover to give it a clean, go shoot a box of ammo down range, go home clean it with solvent like carb cleaner. Keep doing that till you notice the groups starting to open up (probably after 150 rounds) once that happens your copper equilibrium is to much so youl have to really get stick in with your hoppes 9 and bore brush to clean it out. Now the accuracy and groups will be up the shit again till you have resettled the copper equalibrium again (my tikka took 20 rounds to Settle down). It is not necessary to clean the copper out after every hunt or trip to the range. You must be the only person with an Inaccurate tikka if this is not the case.

Not being a tikka owner, it seems wierd that the recoil lug is not part of the action.

Looking at the photo's of your stock I think the problem may be that the forend of the stock is not stabilized. All plastic stocks that are pressure bedded in the factory should have the forend stabilized once they are free floated.
And yes clean the gunk from the recoil lug slot in the action, it is normal to have clearance between the lug and action.
To stabilize the forend you can either buy this product or use something like Devcon or JB Weld and maybe a bit of carbon fiber arrow shaft to really stiffen it up.
As a test tap the forend of the stock under the barrel with you hand, if you can here it hitting the barrel with only a light tap more than likely that's your problem and would explain the varied group size's.

Looking back it’s quite common for it to group 2 then I flyer which I’ve considered it to be, normally the first shot so assume it’s just the clean barrel or me, then sometimes it just sprays everything
I know the clearance in the recoil lug/action recess would be normal but really feel that the Clarence should be at the back of the lug, as when it recoils it would do bugger all..?

The barrel is fully floating and the stock doesn’t come close to touching the barrel, I would have thought a flexi stock could be more a problem if it was pressure bedded like factory?

I do have another stock there, will consider that when time allows.

Originally Posted by Dev

.....I know the clearance in the recoil lug/action recess would be normal but really feel that the Clarence should be at the back of the lug, as when it recoils it would do bugger all..?

Yes, clearance is at the back and top of the lug. Full contact at the front i.e. needs to be square on to action slot. Check if there is movement between the barrel and stock when undoing the action screws, particularly the front one. A very small amount is usually acceptable but not anymore than that.

Sorry can't help you with this one on one as I live in the NI.

2 shots close together and a flyer is usually a bedding issue. Take it to a good gunsmith for a second opinion

I may have brushed over a few comments, but firstly that lug looks like its set to low in the bedding. Suggestion: Try/borrow a different stock and see how you go? Individual round loads can also affect POI.

@Dev how are you getting on with this issue?

Cleaned out the broken bits of bedding compound and made sure the recoil lug is hard against the action recess this time as it should be.
Done one quick trip to the range with 4 rounds which grouped well.
Pretty confident it’s good to go now so have loaded more rounds up to re-check, hoping to get to range this week.
Will update....
Cheers

Originally Posted by Dev

Cleaned out the broken bits of bedding compound and made sure the recoil lug is hard against the action recess this time as it should be.
Done one quick trip to the range with 4 rounds which grouped well.
Pretty confident it’s good to go now so have loaded more rounds up to re-check, hoping to get to range this week.
Will update....
Cheers

Awesome to hear


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Bloody good one @Dev I hope it all goes well for you

Thanks to everyone who gave advice and all the good offers.
Was the bedding/recoil lug that gave me the dramas.
Tried the same loads again today and they punched though the same group as last week, tried some 200y shots and were bang on.

Looking back at results etc it all makes sense to me but never really considered it to be the bedding as it was bedded by a gunsmith...
However on the plus side After all this have learnt a fair bit about reloading and shooting the rifle.