Fixing a problem child rifle

[BP in ME]

Here's a pretty straightforward video showing improvements that you can make to a rifle that doesn't seem to be as accurate as you'd expect. It's too basic for any of you competitive or long range shooters but I'm just a hunter so some of the stuff is new to me. For example, I never knew what "lapping a scope" meant. Always sounded a little kinky to me. And I've never paid any attention to how you might go about developing a rifle-specific load.

If you're in a hurry or have a short attention span, you might want to skip the first 4 minutes. It's mostly backstory about how the previous owner couldn't do any better than a 3 MOA group and, like most hunters, concluded the rifle was a POS and got rid of it. Pretty nice set-up by the end

[Javelin389]

[MacIntosh]

Its a good video, but imo doing all of those things is overkill most of the time, and it seems from the video he just assumed a lot of problems before throwing parts at them--he may have had prior knowledge or just not included his full process in the video, but I dont think that's the best way to approach it for most people. My personal approach on a relatively newish modern bolt gun would be to 1) tear down the rifle and make sure everything is assembled well and properly torqued, and check out the action to stock fit--ie is the barrel floated or not, is the action properly torqued into the stock, and is it causing any obvious stress as it's tightened. 2) if it has an optic on it that I'm not immediately getting rid of, I'm re-mounting and checking base and ring alignment and torque before I do anything. If I shoot that optic I'll be bringing one of mine to the range to swap the scope out so if there is an issue I can try a known-good scope with it to isolate if its a rifle problem or a scope problem. I'd say starting with a good quality factory rifle thats torqued well, 90% of the issues I have run into are loose action screws, obvious uneven barrel contact, or poor scope mounting; and another 9% is poor testing methodology when shooting that masks what you are really seeing or bad scopes. 3) then I'm trying a couple different types of ammo, all stuff I'll likely shoot and can readily buy. The only time I might consider modifying anything before shooting it is if my re-mounting everything identified an obvious problem with action fit into the stock or uneven scope mounts, etc or if there was a part that I knew was a problem already (obviously broken reticle, catastrophically bad unadjustable trigger, etc which I would already have accounted for when I bought it). Id say its a rare bolt rifle that wont shoot at least 1 out of 3 types of factory ammo reasonably well--I dont mean .5moa, I mean 5-shot groups in the neighborhood of 1.25" or less, which is more than fine for most hunting rifles. Up to this point in 99% of cases I havent sunk any money at all into the gun, maybe a little elbow grease. Only at that point after I've shot some decent-round-count groups through what I know to be a properly mounted and torqued system, and it still wont shoot--only then would I decide whether its worth putting $ into. My guess in the video is that bedding that stock--that already has a internal chassis system--would have done very little if anything if it hadnt been outright screwed up by the factory--seemd like that might have been the case. (I might bed an un-messed-with stock if it was a wood stock or a composite without a chassis block). guessing that the combination of using good solid mounting protocol for action and scope, combined with a very reliable scope, fixed 99% of any issue, and that adding an aftermarket trigger just made it a little easier to shoot consistently, rather than actually making it shoot better. I dont reload, but I also believe it's unrealistic to think that reloading is going to do anything more than make a small incremental difference in how a rifle shoots, so if it is unacceptable with 3/3 types of factory ammo I likely am not going to put $ into it unless it makes sense to rebarrel it or do major stuff. If you have a relatively precise rifle that shoots consistently, after that point is when it makes sense to me to start doing the little things that will make small, incremental differences in how it shoots--make sure crown is good, bed it, load development, etc. to take your 1moa gun down to a 3/4moa gun, or whatever the math ends up looking like. To me, approaching it this way (redoing everything before even shooting it) only makes sense if you are 100% going to max-out what you tweak on the rifle up to and including having the action trued and rebarreled if needed.

[Skeet'r89]

Yeah, the guy that sold him the rifle probably took his bad scope and rings off to put on his new rifle that probably won't shoot either. Yes this guy went a bit overboard from the get go. Putting a new trigger in!!. Of course the guy did say that he would have probably kept the rifle even if it needed a rebarrel. He likes the action, and stock.

[BrianKF]

Would've been nice if he would have shot a group before doing all that work. It may have made a difference to that particular rifle but how much and if any who knows. Still some good tips though.

[rid 05 198]

[BP in ME]

Its a good video, but imo doing all of those things is overkill most of the time, and it seems from the video he just assumed a lot of problems before throwing parts at them--he may have had prior knowledge or just not included his full process in the video, but I dont think that's the best way to approach it for most people.

I agree but I thought he said something about not wanting to spend a lot of time and effort trying to pinpoint the problem. For someone who has the equipment and skills to do the work, it's an option. For the rest of us.....not so much. Also makes a difference if you have a range in the back yard vs driving half an hour each way. I took it as him just wanting to demonstrate each of the upgrades and fixes. If I had to replace the barrel and trigger on any rifle, I'd probably just buy a new one.

I think it's like getting a classic car. You can tinker and replace only what you need to get it running smoothly or you can overhaul it bumper to bumper. Time, money, skill, and enjoyment in the process all factor in.

[MacIntosh]

Thats true. Guess Im just a cheapskate at heart, hate to toss a good part. And I like that diagnosing process. But youre right.