I went to the range this week following the Libby shoot to check my rifle.It seems I did not shoot enough of the Hornady's to see that they are not accurate.This caused me to set the rear sight too far to the left.The Hornady group had a spread of 8 inches to the left of the bullseye and 7 inches vertically.I tried to shoot as few rounds as possible in the weeks before as I was shooting both my Lott and 450NE and did not want to get beat up.
I did not think the rifle would not like both the Woodleigh 550's and the old 500gr Hornady's.
I felt discouraged after shooting that big group and thought the rifle had a serious issue.Immediately I drove back home and loaded some swift-A-frames then went straight back to the range.I fire 2 rounds and saw that POI was 8 inches way off to the left.I adjusted the rear sight and shot the group circled in yellow above.I ran out of rounds or else I would have fired a few more to confirm their accuracy.
Here is the target pic.Some of the Hornadys bullet holes are not shown as they hit 2-3 inches to the left of the target paper.
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The Lott at the Libby starting gate.
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So... picked up were I left off with the three shot group circled in yellow above.It was with A-Frames.The rifle was shooting all over the place since it was rebarrelled.I gave up yesterday when it shot the A-frames a foot to the right and all over the place.There was no doubt in my mind that there was something wrong with this rifle.I suspected one of the sights moving.They were not soldered but glued with loctite instead.I had experienced sights and screws coming loose off the Lotts before.I took off the rear sight blade and then unloosened the single screw that held the sight to the barrel.As soon as I started to undo the screw the whole sight sprung and popped off.The loctite was still wet.I was not surprised as I have tried to use the stuff on my 308 front sights and it did not work.When my smith said he would use glue I didn't think he meant red loctite.The rifle will be sent back to him and the sight will be soldered back on.I guess it will need re-bluing too.Anyways I hope this was the cause of the issue and it is the end of it.
I have been shooting a couple of my big bores off the bench now every week during a three month period trying to figure out issues.This is not a pleasant undertaking.

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Holy red liquid Batman!
That looks like an amateur gunsmith you got there.
I would not want to send it back for soldering and re-blue.
I would just clean it up with Gun Scrubber and 0000 steel wool,
then de-grease all parts again.
Then glue it on with J-B Weld.
I would trust that as much as solder, and a lot quicker and easier.
Can be near invisible after clean-up.
I have used J-B Weld a lot on scope bases and one front sight ramp on a Pre-'64 M70 rebarreled to .35 Whelen,
with a one-screw ramp attachment and no solder.
The ramp actually broke through that one screw hole while I was drifting the front sight bead with a punch.
No worries now, the J-B Weld is still holding, and invisible.

Rip ...

Is the hole fully threaded? Hard to tell there.

It's hard to not badmouth a smith that does that. That is a total mind-blower to loctite the mating surfaces and leave the threads raw like that. Possible confused employee? Plus, if they said 'nothing's wrong' , a passive attitude like that should be a red flag.
You are on the right track there sir.

From what I see there, assuming the threaded hole doesn't go through to the bore, clean it all up, install the screw most of the way in and observe the relation of the bottom of the sight to the barrel when you snug up the screw. Make certain that the screw isnn't "bottoming out" in the hole by twisting the sight base to see if it moves even slightly.


It seems obvious to me that considering it is a one screw attachment, the mating surfaces should be a perfect match. If they are, then use some blue loctite on the screw and let it dry before you screw it in to reassemble. That's what we did for yarn spool screws on yarn machines back in the day, except for using red loctite and letting it dry to give it extra grip.

If you need to mate the surfaces properly, I hope someone else will chime in here. I know what I would try. But, I'm sure the pro's on here know exactly what to do.

THE ONLY THING WE HAVE TO FEAR IS FEAR ITSELF.

quote:

I suspected one of the sights moving.They were not soldered but glued with loctite instead. The loctite was still wet.

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That's a sad state of affairs.
One thing to be said for the factory CZ 550 Safari Mag barrels I've had. The sights were nearly bomb proof . and the rear sight base, being integral to the barrel were unmoveable.