I've been chasing my tail in circles. Shooting components (wasting them basically), trying to make the gun accurate.

It helps to have a gun that's now right.

I have had problems getting this rifle to shoot since I first got it. Sometimes it groups great, then never repeats. I took it to my gunsmith to have the barrel set back; the factory throat is much too long to be able to seat a bullet to the leades and still use the notoriously short Model 70 magazine box.

He got the gun in barrel vise and got ready to take off the barrel and said he's never seen a barrel that loose. The weight of the wrench almost was enough to unscrew it. Anyway, he set the barrel back and re-chambered it.

The target you are about to look at was shot at 500 yards. It's an Audette's Ladder. Individual shells are loaded each at a different charge weight and fired consecutively at the same point of aim. To analyze the ladder results, consecutive shots that group together show the charge weight range that the gun likes.








Group 1 measures about 1.3" high and 2" wide.............unreal considering none of the shots were at the same charge weight and the 500 yard distance. Virtually no vertical dispersion. Horizontal is due to the slight breeze.

Group 2, the high velocity node is about the same but up at max load.





I settled on an optimum load of 75.5 gr.............



Thanks for all the help and input it has improved my loading. I bought a Co-ax press and competition bullet seaters. The chambering job made all the difference in the world. I seated the bullets .005" off the lands for the ladder development and it looks like that's where they'll stay; I'll have to do more testing.

Really glad to hear it all worked out for you. Best of luck with it.

What is the caliber of the rifle and what length model 70 action are you using?

agr516,

It's a Win Mod 70 .300 Win Mag. It's out of the custom shop, but still a factory chambered rifle until now. It has "Classic Sharpshooter" stamped on the side of the barrel. My gunsmith, Score High, did all the work including pillar bedding, tactical muzzle break, setting the barrel back and re-chambering.

It's in an H-S Precision stock from the factory. I put a Mark 4 on it











The longest cartridge that fits in the magazine right now is 3.395". Score High is taking out the little blank in the mag box to increase the max OAL it will hold, and adjusting the bolt stop.

Removing that blank box will allow you to handle cartdidge lengths up to that of a 300 Weatherby or a 7STW. I am not familiar with adjusting the bolt stop. I don't see how it is possible to get any more length out of a model 70 action once you have removed the blank spacer from the magazine. If there is something elese that can be done because I have 300 Weatherby that I would love to be able to load longer length rounds for.

Woods sent me a link to Midway USA's website for a product I can't now recall the name of. It was "Willy's Box" or something like that. It is a replacement magazine box for the Win Mod 70. They probably have others available.