We are in the middle of our fasting month, Ramadan.

Relatively quiet from adults coming to shoot.

Only the kids continue shooting.

Seeing a Remington 700 HB rifle in the rifle rack, I thought of shooting it.

Shot reasonably well, but nothing to write home about.

I took the stock off, and noticed it had a pressure point forward under the barrel.

So decided to try something.

My powder measure had W 760, and seems right for the 22-250.

I loaded a few rounds with 2 bullets.

A Lapua 55 grain soft point, and my old standby, the Brawand 52 grain match bullet.

I shot all these, plus factory ammo from both Winchester and Remington.

The rifle was in standard factory configuration, with the pressure point in tact.

I have removed the pressure point, the barrel is basically free floating now.

Will shoot the same loads, and see if there is any difference.

After that I will bed the action, and shank of the barrel.

Then see what improvements come out, if any.

Anyone wishes hazard a guess??

quote:

Will shoot the same loads, and see if there is any difference.

After that I will bed the action, and shank of the barrel.

Then see what improvements come out, if any.

I have found this works. For the better

I’d bet it shoots better with the action bedded and the barrel free floating.

Apart from my Mauser 404 I don't own any rifle not free floated and I mean "free floated", not just sliding a playing card under the barrel but a deck of playing cards. The use of bipods and suppressors is pretty much universal for us here now so you need good clearance to prevent the opposing forces of the forward mounted bipod and suppressor weight closing the gap between barrel and channel in the stock.
It seems all the plastic stocks that are not free floated from the factory have pressure points under the barrel so I remove these on our rifles and some more to give good clearance around the whole barrel channel. I have only ever seen better results from free-floating.

My plastic stocked Browning X-Bolt comes free floated from the factory so much so I could just about fit my spaniel in the barrel channel

I've just acquired an Interarms Whitworth 'stalking rifle' in 7mm Rem mag, as an indulgence. Though maybe decades old it looks brand new and the wood-to-metal fit is so close I'm reluctant to fiddle with the bedding, at least until I've tested it.

Has anyone had experience with these particular Zastava Mausers?

Here are preliminary results.

First group is with the rifle as is from the factory.
That is it had a slight pressure point towards the front of the forearm.

Second group is after I removed this pressure point.

The barrel was not free floating in the strict sense, as a piece of paper struggles to pass between the barrel and the forearm.

After this was done, I have cleaned the barrel channel, and bedded the action and the straight shank of the barrel for about one inch ahead of the action.

Now the action is bedded - Devcon Titanium is what I use.

I will shoot it with different loads and will post all the targets, including those mentioned here, together.

WINCHESTER 55 SP 0.930 1.354
REMINGTON 55 POWER LOKT 1.187 0.581

UNKNOWN LOAD 1.014 0.539
35.4 VVN 140 BRAWAND 52 0.981 0.624
35.5 W 760 LAPUA 55 SP 0.869 0.722
36.2 W 760 LAPUA 55 SP 1.173 0.520
36.9 W 760 LAPUA 55 SP 0.713 0.631
37.6 W 760 LAPUA 55 SP 0.823 0.751
38.3 W 760 LAPUA 55 SP 0.963 0.362
39.0 W 760 LAPUA 55 SP 0.553 0.625
36.0 W 760 BRAWAND 52 0.519 0.576
36.7 W 760 BRAWAND 52 0.359 0.541

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

WINCHESTER 55 SP 0.930 1.354
REMINGTON 55 POWER LOKT 1.187 0.581

UNKNOWN LOAD 1.014 0.539
35.4 VVN 140 BRAWAND 52 0.981 0.624
35.5 W 760 LAPUA 55 SP 0.869 0.722
36.2 W 760 LAPUA 55 SP 1.173 0.520
36.9 W 760 LAPUA 55 SP 0.713 0.631
37.6 W 760 LAPUA 55 SP 0.823 0.751
38.3 W 760 LAPUA 55 SP 0.963 0.362
39.0 W 760 LAPUA 55 SP 0.553 0.625
36.0 W 760 BRAWAND 52 0.519 0.576
36.7 W 760 BRAWAND 52 0.359 0.541

Saeed,

What does the first number after the bullet weight, and the last number represent?

Best group size and average group size?

These are the group sizes for 5 shots.

First is as the rifle came from the factory.

Second is after I have removed the pressure point.

I have bedded the rifle and free floated the barrel.

Will shoot the same loads and post them.

Of the ones I have done, most shot better. A couple, no real improvement.

Here are the final results.

First group is as was from the factory.

Second group after I have removed the pressure point in the forearm.

Third group after the barrel was free floated, and the action was properly bedded.



WINCHESTER 55 SP 0.930 1.354 0.953
REMINGTON 55 POWER LOKT 1.187 0.581 0.689

UNKNOWN LOAD 1.014 0.539 0.621
35.4 VVN 140 BRAWAND 52 0.981 0.624 0.598
35.5 W 760 LAPUA 55 SP 0.869 0.722 0.626
36.2 W 760 LAPUA 55 SP 1.173 0.520 0.586
36.9 W 760 LAPUA 55 SP 0.713 0.631 0.612
37.6 W 760 LAPUA 55 SP 0.823 0.751 0.698
38.3 W 760 LAPUA 55 SP 0.963 0.362 0.463
39.0 W 760 LAPUA 55 SP 0.553 0.625 0.668
36.0 W 760 BRAWAND 52 0.519 0.576 0.472
36.7 W 760 BRAWAND 52 0.359 0.541 0.464

I have found that every rifle is different.

I have had good luck with bedded actions at tang and receiver ring and free floated barrels. This is my preferred set up. Seems to work more often than not.

But I have also had good luck with bedded actions as described above and fully bedded barrels. This usually works best with heavier profiled barrels for some reason.

And I have also had good luck with bedded actions as described above and with free floated barrels except for a pressure point near the end of the fore end! This seems to work well with some but not all light profiled barrels.

A constant is that bedding the action at tang and receiver ring always seems to help.

I would be curious to see what will happen with your rifle if you put the pressure point back in it after having bedded the action.

Not trying to make more work for you, but it is a configuration so far untried.

BTW, that is how Kleinguenther used to custom bed the German-made rifles he sold under his name with the first one-half MOA guarantee in the industry.

You can do it easily, Saeed.

In my day and even now match book covers or the like and a little bit of two-part epoxy would do the trick.

I know it's maybe too much work to test a mere theory on an already well-established accurate rifle.

Still, why do we have this short time on Earth but to test such crazy ideas?

Not to save the place, that is for sure.

None of us can do that.