Who here has sent their rifle to be accurized? What is your opinion on the service done? To me it seems like a reasonable option in lieu of going full custom or semi-custom initially. Worse case scenario is you have a re-barrel job if you are not satisfied with the rifles performance afterwards but I would think in most cases the performance should be there with good hand loads.

Some action work, stock work and bases & rings are all done so the cost to move on to custom shouldn't be too much more afterwards if that is the path you choose.

Hill Country is probably the most known for this but I found these others on the web. The Cross Canyon package seems interesting in the fact the remove the barrel. There are probably other shops that do this too.

http://hillcountryrifles.com/hcr/accurizing
http://www.hankinscustomrifles.com/accurizing.html
https://www.crosscanyonarms.co...e-accurizing-package

Other than some bedding and recrowning, I don't think I'd bother.. The problem is that you are still stuck with the factory barrel. You would be much better off to have the action work and so forth done in conjunction with a proper custom barrel job. The factory barrel will be of variable quality and the production chamber will most likely not be aligned perfectly. No amount of setting back and reaming can correct this. And some of those prices! ! Either I'm behind the times, or some of those guys are getting rich. I'd definitely shop around some more.

So either do a few simple things up to where it is no longer cost effective or producing results., and then rebarrel.

The old mantra of bullets, barrels, and bedding holds true in just about all cases. Two out of three only gets you so far.

Hill Country Rifles did us proud -- .270 Wby Mark V Deluxe like-for-like barrel replacement (was shot out). Accurate as advertized with Weatherby factory ammo.

No knock on any of the folks you listed but I would be much more inclined to work with a local smith that I trust than to send a rifle off to someone I don't know no matter what their reputation is.
No doubt you would be happy with the results either way.

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Other than some bedding and recrowning, I don't think I'd bother.. The problem is that you are still stuck with the factory barrel. You would be much better off to have the action work and so forth done in conjunction with a proper custom barrel job. The factory barrel will be of variable quality and the production chamber will most likely not be aligned perfectly. No amount of setting back and reaming can correct this. And some of those prices! ! Either I'm behind the times, or some of those guys are getting rich. I'd definitely shop around some more.

If the accurizing is done correctly, you can't use the factory barrel over again, the threads in the receiver will be re-cut and too big for the factory barrel.

To date I have had good results just bedding, re-crowning if needed and a good trigger job. Couple that with some good 'ol trial and error finding a good handload and I have been happy with the results. If not, I have moved the rifle on down the road.

I think I'll stock with that recipe but wanted to get some input on these services.

A match grade barrel, a correct bedding job and scope/mounts are OK and a standard hunting chamber and normal reloading dies and loaded with hunting style bullets and of course reload development......will get you just about all the accuracy you can get from the calibre and especially with around 270 Win and bigger.

The above assumes that the factory action is OK, that is, nothing wrong with it.

On the other hand if started with the same barrel and had the action trued/accurised or used a custom action, a neck turned chamber and custom made dies the gain in accuracy would be just short of fuck all. Sure it will be there but you would need to do plenty of group shooting for it to show up.

A very important point to keep in mind is how shooters test for accuracy and their resulting accurate that is posted. For example you might call a rifle as a half inch grouper but for me that same rifle might be a 1 or 1.25" grouper.

For example I include the first shot from a clean cold barrel and also the shot, a few hours later, from a barrel with cold hard fouling.

I've sent a couple rifles to Hill Country Rifles for the accurizing job and they worked as advertised.

I've also just had several rifle glass bedded and they also shot submoa. I think the quality of manufacturing today is such that many rifles will generally shoot submoa with handloads and sometimes with select factory loads.

I wouldn't send a rifle in for accurizing unless after glass bedding it I couldn't get it to shoot with select handloads. My local gunsmith told me most rifles he rebarrels with good quality barrels will generally shoot 3/4 moa, sometimes 1/2 moa without going to the expense of blueprinting the action.

I've considered having several of my rifles rebarrelled and the actions blueprinted but they're hunting guns. If they currently shoot 3/4 moa or one moa and I spend all the money to get em consistently to shoot 1/4 or 1/2 moa, I couldn't take advantage of the extra level of precision shooting from field positions anyway. So, I've decided as long as they shoot submoa, I'm good with em. That's enough precision for me. If I were into long range shooting I would probably see things differently.

I have found through the years that a new crown, proper bedding, a trigger job, and possible a good quality recoil pad(depending on caliber) will benefit accuracy to the limit that most factory chamber/barrels will shoot. I always check the run out of fired cases before doing any "accurizing" of a rifle. I also feel there must be reasonable expectations of accuracy for the rifle.

I like to shoot and hunt. I like to tinker with my rifles so they can be all they can be. But I don't understand the concept of sending off your HUNTING rifle and spending a sack of money to change it from a 1.5" shooter to a .5" or .75" shooter. One assumes the it shoots .5" from the bench. What does it shoot from field positions. I'm gonna opine that if you spent the sack of money on ammo and used it to practice, practice, practice, you'd be better off.

All depends what where and how far one plans on shooting.

I bed almost all my rifles and free float the barrel some have received new triggers.

This work I do myself.

So many new out of the box rifles shoot so well one doesn't have to do anything to them

Hill Country rifles are very good at what they do, and they do more rifles per year than anyone else. They also guarentee their work, and are very easy to work with. I wouldn't hesitate to send to them.

A proper glass beddin and perhaps a trigger job, will usually get er done on the average deer rifle..Big bores might need cross bolts, trigger job, recoil pad and glass bedding full length, and an action job to getcha 110% feeding and slick action on factory rifles..

Just do what the gun needs..

Curious if anyone else feels this way - I have a couple rifles that are .5" rifles, others are 1-1.5" rifles. While I know intellectually that shooting from a field position the difference should not matter, I shoot better with the more accurate rifle - confidence?

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Originally posted by 10generation:
Curious if anyone else feels this way - I have a couple rifles that are .5" rifles, others are 1-1.5" rifles. While I know intellectually that shooting from a field position the difference should not matter, I shoot better with the more accurate rifle - confidence?

One just gets spoiled I have rifles that shoot .5 to.

My favorite deer rifle is a savage 99 it is 1.5 inch rifle.

I have no trouble taking it hunting and killing stuff with it.

Unless one is shooting small varmints, target matches or longer ranges past 500 yards.

.5 rifles are not needed and trying to make all your rifles that way is just frustrating.

Bycareful bedding technique along with attention to reloading technique, I can get sub MOA accuracy from good military Mauser barrels that have good throats & crowns..

Loading the bullets out to just off the lands & developing lightly compressed loads with a low SD seems to be the key.

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Originally posted by wasbeeman:
I like to shoot and hunt. I like to tinker with my rifles so they can be all they can be. But I don't understand the concept of sending off your HUNTING rifle and spending a sack of money to change it from a 1.5" shooter to a .5" or .75" shooter. One assumes the it shoots .5" from the bench. What does it shoot from field positions. I'm gonna opine that if you spent the sack of money on ammo and used it to practice, practice, practice, you'd be better off.

+1

I have been a competetive shooter virtually all my life and am familiar with the difficulties of shooting at 600 and 1000 yards, but in the hunting field I still find it difficult to get the shot I want off, given the unknown range, wind conditions and the fact that the target animal may move or disappear at any moment. I find it difficult to imagine how an untrained shooter would react to the same conditions.

A rifle capable of 1/2 minute groups is of no use to a hunter who can't his an 8" paper plate at 100 yards under hunting conditions.

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What does it shoot from field positions

The rifle will still shoot.5 its the person behind the trigger that's the different.

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Originally posted by p dog shooter:

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What does it shoot from field positions

The rifle will still shoot.5 its the person behind the trigger that's the different.

That's true and my point was that if you use the money for ammo and practice, practice, practice you'll come closer to shooting that.5 under field conditions.

I agree with PD; I practice shooting standing, standing with sticks, sitting with a sling, and sitting with a sling and bipod at least once a week. I can hold below one MOA on both sitting positions with a .5 rifle, and often do that standing with sticks, but I can't with one that shoots over 1 MOA. Standing, it really doesn't mater if the rifle shoots .5 or 1.5.

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Originally posted by p dog shooter:

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What does it shoot from field positions

The rifle will still shoot.5 its the person behind the trigger that's the different.

I had a bull barreled Mossberg 800 in 22-250 that was claimed to be deadly accurate. My best groups were in the 1 to 1.5 range. That was my best. I thought it should do better. I lent it to a local sharpy with a bit of a reputation and asked for his opinion. He tried for the next couple of years before I retired to buy it from me, offered a good bit more than it was worth.

Written in stone: If it shoots under an inch leave it alone, don't even turn a screw in it!

I have always found that most any rifle will shoot pretty close to MOA with load work, unless there is a bedding problem. Taking steps like bedding and trigger work will usually make it so a rifle can be relied upon in actual hunting conditions. What full blown accurizing usually yields is a gun that is easier to find accurate loads for with a wider variety of components i.e. powders, bullet weight and style, etc. I think you would be hard pressed to buy a new rifle these days that would not be a suitable hunter of deer sized game to 300 yards right from the box. If it is not that way with the load you want to use, then trigger, then bed/stock, then crown, then barrel-chamber-action. Just what I've observed. A half minute hunting rifle isn't needed, but it never hurts.

For what it's worth, these .5 moa hunting rifles exist more often in cyberspace than reality.
I've shot too many factory matches against guys that swore their rifle was an absolute one holer. When they found out we did really weird stuff like measuring groups and such, they more often than not, didn't come back.

I would agree with you Wasbeeman at distances beyond 100 yards. Even MOA at say 300 yards and beyond becomes very difficult without a great deal of practice and that is where the rest of the components outside just the rifle really begin to come into play. It also depends a lot on the day. I am sure there are many days that a lot of guys myself included couldn't shoot .5 with a vice mounted laser pointer. I think though, nowadays there are more rifles capable of it than shooters on any given day.

My experience, with an admittedly low sample size, is that if you want a rifle to shoot well under an MOA out of the box, get a Savage or a Browning X bolt.

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Originally posted by Quintus:
I think though, nowadays there are more rifles capable of it than shooters on any given day.

That! You can send your rifle off to someone that will guarantee that after they lay hands upon it, it will shoot 3 shots into .5moa. What they don't guarantee is that YOU can shoot 3 shots into .5moa.