A buddy of mine was having a few accuracy problems for one of his 375 H&H's and we decided to try the David Tubbs firelapping system to see if it would smooth out the bore and maybe fix the accuracy problems. Basically the firelapping involves firing 10rds each with bullets covered in 5 different grades of progressively finer polishes imbedded in the bullets. So fire 10rds, clean thoroughly 5 times until you reach the finest grit.
Bit of a chore .

Anyway after all 50rds and 5 full cleanings I was going through the rest of the rifle and noticed the scope bases were each about a turn loose! Might have been the whole problem, maybe not. For sure it has has a mirror brite bore now.

The rifle is Winchester Pre-64 M-70 with Blackburn bottom metal, a Stickley integral 1/4rib,band & site barrel, Stocked by Winston Elrod:




Integral Rib, barrel band and sites:






Pretty nice stick of wood, suitable for a medium caliber:






With the scope rings et. all tightened up and ready to go I need to dig out some of my 375 or load up some more and see how she shoots now.

It's nice to have buddy's who let you borrow some of their toys ..........................DJ

She's purty!

That is one beautiful rifle, hopefully the process won't make it worse. Rick Stickley could really make a barrel, wonder what ever happened to him?

He was disenfranchised by Bollingers, who still use his designs for custom bases for Talley rings, and reproduce his milled barrels without paying him anything.

Ok I made it to the range today.

Nice day but pretty windy. Gusts up to around 20mph or so. My wind meter on the bench which is sheilded a bit clocked 17.4mph so I imagine that on the range gusts were 20mph or so. Temps 65 to 70deg.

I boresited the Scope by looking through the bore at a round target and adjusting the crosshairs.

I grabbed a couple different loads that I had laying around for my 375's. My favorite is a 300gr "X" bullet with 67.0grs of H-4895.

I fired one shot and saw it on paper, adjusted the scope to the POI and shot a 3 shot group. This is the 2nd, 3rd and 4th shots out of the barrel at 100yds after firelapping:






I tried my buddies favorite load for Plains game with the 375, 73.0grs of Varget and a 260gr Partition. He's got a roomfull of horns shot with this load. I tried it at 200yds, here's a couple of the groups:






So well, I was pretty darn happy.

I ended up shooting a little over 50rds through it. I had some groups larger of course but if it wasn't just me flinching, it could have just as well been a bit of wind.

The 300's shot more under 3/4" groups at 100. At 200 there were 3 that 2 shots touched and the 3rd was an inch or two horizontal, maybe the wind, maybe the #4 FPP reticle that subtends about 1 1/2 to 2" at 200yds, but most likely just me.

A neat thing about the 2 loads is that when the 260gr Partitions were on at 200yds, the 300gr "X" bullets were dead on at 100yds. You could use the 260's for plains game and longer range and the 300's for big stuff and close in without changing your site settings. Definately want to shoot more of both to make sure it stays shooting that way.

The rifle is back to being a shooter again. Plans are at the moment to try Tanzania next year. I may sneak along if I can do some serious saving up.

I think that most likely the big culprit for any accuracy issues were the loose scope Bases. But it's for certain though that the fire-lapping didn't hurt! .

Most of all it was a fun project that helped out one of the best friends a guy could have......................................DJ

Dr. Watson,

Did you try any post-Tubbs groups with the scope base rings backed off a turn loose?

Just wondering.

Regards,

Holmes

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Robinson:
Dr. Watson,

Did you try any post-Tubbs groups with the scope base rings backed off a turn loose?

Just wondering.

Regards,

Holmes

Such questions make one wonder if the scope bases are the only things with screws loose?

At least the bases were a simple fix ...................DJ