I have a Weatherby Vanguard in 7mm Rem Mag (stainless / synthetic) which is three years old. The target that came with the gun showed about a .63 group from the factory. I have been able to regularly get MOA or just below with both Nosler Accubonds and Speer 145 BTSP loaded behind RL22. The gun also shot well with IMR 4831.

This summer I ordered a laminate stock from Boyd's because I was tired of the tupperware and kind of bored. With the kind help of an accomplished rifleman, we glass bedded the rifle. I also had the trigger done by a local gunsmith who transformed it into a thing of beauty that crisply breaks at 2.5 lbs, light years improvement over the creepy gritty thing I had before the trigger job.

With a sense of anticipation, I loaded up a number of bullets with the IMR 4831 I had on hand, and 160 grain Sierra Gamekings, because the store was out of Accubonds and my friends have always had great accuracy with the Gamekings.

No matter what I have done, and I have tried so many different charges my head is spinning, the accuracy is beyond erratic. I then went back to my old Nosler / RL22 load that the gun very much liked before the new stock was put on. Best I could get was a little over 1 1/2 inches. While soe would say that's okay for hunting, It's not what I am looking for, or what the gun has produced in the past. The other troubling thing is that the groups are so erratic.

I am very discouraged and frustrated. A few people I respect have commented that I should have patience and try a few new powders until I hit one the gun likes, as the harmonics can change with a new stock, and the barrel is now free-floated, as opposed to the pressure point that existed previously in the tupperware stock.

I would welcome the input of experienced people who have switched stocks and found their gun no longer shoots the way it used to. As well, I would welcome recommendations on powders for me to try, keeping in mind I will be shooting 160s, as someone in our hunting party always has a moose or elk tag.

I guess what I am saying is I want informed opinions by people who have had a similar experience or firsthand knowledge of one. Not random advice which is not always helpful or a lecture on what is acceptable hunting accuracy. i know these things already.

My thought are to keep looking for loads that work with the barrel free-floated or add a pressure point to duplicate the original stock.

BTW. A gunsmith looked at the stock after it was bedded and felt the job was fine. Also I have loaded rounds that are touching the lands and others that are seated .017" off the lands.

quote:

the barrel is now free-floated, as opposed to the pressure point that existed previously

So put it back.

I have a 378 Weatherby that had been bedded by a gunsmith and it was 1.5-2.5" groups with whatever I tried. I took it to a different gunsmith and the first thing he checked was the bedding. He had a device that he put on the stock and an indicator on the barrel. When he loosened the front receiver screw the indicator jumped about.030". He rebedded it and the indicator only moved .002" when he did the same test. The first group after he rebedded the action went in .85" with a load I had tried previously. All of my Weatherbys are free floated but I have talked to a few that swear they have to have a pressure point. I guess that just varies from gun to gun.

I once got an FN commercial 30-06 Mauser cheap as hell ($100) because the barrel was orroded all to hell. A friend who did custom gunsmithing on the side and I were talking and he had a beautiful piece of walnut nd a new Douglas barrel that someone ordered and then changed their mind. he gave me a smoking deal to fin the gun into the stock and rebarrel the rifle with that barrel. It was rejected because the guy asked for a 1 in 12" twist, then chenged his mind and went with a 1 in 10" twist. I shoot more cast bullets than jacketed so the 1 in 12" barrel was fine by me. The finished rifle was gorgeous and after sighting in shot a .375" group. That rifle would do anywhere from .375" to .75" depending on how well I shot on any particular day. Perfection right? Not hardly. I sighted it in 3" high at 100 yards. The next time out it still gave tight groups but not at 3" high at 100 it might be 5" los and to the left or just about anywhere else but never where I wanted it to be. Thay prety piece of wood was the most unstable POS I've ever owned. I put the gun back into the original factory stock and while it was fairly accurate, I knew things could be better. About this time, I'd been job transferred to Tucson and IIRC, it was 1981 or maybe 1982 that I heard about McMillan stocks. So one day, I hopped into my vehicle and drove up to Deer Park AZ and had a talk with them, looked at a couple of stock styles and bought one. I got home and glass bedded it, put a better scope on the gun and sighted it in with some factory ammo I had on hand. Average groups run right at 1.25" with my pet load. I suppose it could be better but this is a hunting rifle and the groups are consistant. Normally my pet load for the 30-06 is either the 180 gr. Sierra Pro-Hunter or the 180 gr. Nosler Partition loaded to about 2700 FPS. Lately I've been playing with some Sierra 165 g. game King HP bullets I got a deal on. I'd planned on using them in a .308 but decided to try them in the 06. First shootings show some promise of groups in the MOA or less range. Guess I'll just have to tinker with them a bit more.
Paul B.

One assumes that you have checked and made sure that the new stock is not touching the barrel at any point, even after the barrel heats up. Next you want to see if the action is being twisted as you tighten the action screws. And, as posted, free floating a barrel is not the straight road to Jeruselem that some would have you think. Use biz cards as temporary shims and put some up pressure back on the barrel.
Have another shooter shoot the rifle. And take the scope off and remount it to ensure everythings tight. You might want to try another scope while you're at it.

If you can rig up a dial indicator to accurately measure movement when loosening the action screws it will be a huge troubleshooting gain. You should check no only movement vertically but see if the action twists while tightening.
As mentioned, gradually shimming the barrel for a pressure point is the next step after checking the bedding, and scope mounting. The only thing you changed is the stock. So harmonics changed somewhere causing the issue. Bedding is most likely. I've seen at least one bad bedding job shoot great with shims under the barrel. The guy who owned it just kept business cards in his cleaning kit. Not the real solution but proof that harmonics can be messed with and tweaked with success.
The Sierra bullets I doubt are the problem unless the twist is slow but even then I'd expect better too. Nate

I broke the plastic stock on a steyr M-III professional in 30-06. It shot the best groups I ever experienced in a rifle shooting factory load 165 gr winchester failsafes at the time. I sent the rifle out and had a new stock built. I had it bedded and when returned wouldn't shoot that load for crap. i ended up having to go to a 150 gr Federal Vital shok and still only got 1" groups. I then started reloading and found a load that stacks again. it's frustrating but keep trying. If the new laminated stock is pillar bedded, make sure it's torqued as the builder suggests. Good luck!!

quote:

I would welcome the input of experienced people who have switched stocks and found their gun no longer shoots the way it used to.

Take the rifle out of the new stock, put it back in the old stock - use the same load that has always given you your best groups with the original stock.

The barrel may not be free floated. Be sure there is sufficient space all along the channel to accommodate barrel vibration. For me, that's .030", but the real gunsmiths here might have different opinions.

Thought I'd give a brief update. After receiving advice on this thread, and via pm, I did a few things in hopes of finding a load that improved accuracy from the way the rifle was before I replaced the tupperware with a laminate stock, glass bedded, and had a trigger job:

1) I reamed out the action screw bolt holes that had a bit of epoxy resin that had made its way in, possibly causing some stress / binding.

2) I sanded the stock as the gap on the left hand side of the barrel was very narrow. I opened it up to .030" to make it equal with the clearance on the other side, ensuring it is completely free-floated. Two business cards no problem.

3) I backed off my seating depth to 0.020" off the lands.

4) I continued to try new charges with the powders I had on hand, as well as testing out three new powders I had never tried out of this rifle.

In the end, after considerable experimentation, I hit upon two combinations that offered, what is for me, exceptional accuracy out of a hunting rifle. In fact more than I was ever expecting.

The first was 56.5 grains of IMR4831 behind a 160gr Sierra Gameking, resulting in a .368" group. Best the gun had ever shot, by a longshot. The only fly in the ointment was that another member of this board, was pulling the trigger because I was beginning to doubt my own abilities after not being able to get anything to group with what was once a fairly non-fussy rifle. I hugged him like it was Christmas morning!

I then took the gun back and proceeded to knock off a .398" group using a different load, this time 69 grains of Retumbo behind the same 160 Gamekings. Man was I happy. My buddy is an accomplished marksman with trophies to attest to his skill - I don't have anything except venison and moose in my freezer to attest to my abilities I started to do a bit of a jig and offer up thanks to the good Lord - good thing there weren't many at the range They may have wondered if I was in the sauce, I was so excited.

In any event, I was elated to find that a bedding and trigger job indeed did make my gun more accurate, plus it looks much prettier with the Boyd's forest green laminate stock than the black tupperware it came with.

Thanks for all those who offered constructive advice. Sometimes load development takes much time and patience than we may anticipate. In total, I ended up trying various loads and seating depths with the following powders before finding the gun's sweetspot: RL 22, RL 25, IMR 4831, IMR 4350, and Retumbo. Another thing that changed was my gun now clearly has a preference for mid-range milder loads, rather than the hot loads it used to like.