Went to the range today to shoot my new SPR-22 Rem double rifle. I am not a happy camper. The triggers were atrocious, way over the limits of my trigger scale. Each had several specific catches before firing. Overtravel was horrendous.

Initial shooting was done with two factory loads, Remington's 405 grain ammo and Federal's 300 grain ammo. Upon firing at 50 yds, the left barrel printed on paper, but the right barrel did not. I was using a target in the middle of a white sheet from a Post-It Easel Pad. This is 31" tall by 25" wide. I adjusted the rear sight to get the hits from the left barrel centered. Elevation was spot on. Again, the right barrel never touched paper. Groups were 2 to 3" with the left barrel. There was no one else around to see where the right barrel was shooting.

I intend to take the buttstock off and try and clean the action. This may improve the triggers slightly. Will also spray some dry lube in them.

As everyone else has mentioned, the rifle MUST be held open to load and extract rounds. You cannot just drop them in. Got an extra hand?

Saying all of this, I'm still happy I bought the gun. (Is there another psychologist on the forum who will cure me of this masochism?) There is a lot of work to be done, but I'm sure that each of us trying something, we'll end up with the fun gun we thought we bought.
Max

thanks for letting us know.. i am still some what of a player for this one...

did you walk up to the target, if possible? I had to start at 20 yards with the 550 Flanged
jeffe

Start shooting at 5 yards and walk back.

Is the rifle designed to be owner regulatable?

Yep, owner regulated

I am curious. Will pay attention and try to learn something about this Spartan ordeal, before I suffer it myself.

Did you try shooting the right barrel first. I believe the rifle is regulated for the right barrel to be shot first and the left secondary.
The barrel is adjustable for right barrel regulation according the EAA Maybe you should try it that way first.before doing any adjustments. Just a thought

Am planning that shorter range shooting later this week. Hope to find out what is happening.
Tried shooting forward trigger first, then tried shooting back trigger first. Same result. Left barrel (back trigger) printed on paper, right barrel did not.
Will wait to adjust barrels (doesn't seem to be an easy way) until some info gets posted on the forum.
Also, the rifle is lighter than the shotguns. I felt every bit of the recoil. Have a Pachmayer triple-magnum pad that is going on very soon.

6.5 pounds? Might tickle Will.

Prof: Thanks for the report. Mine should be here late this week.

Another item on the shooting. My hands are small and it is a reach to the front trigger. Because of that, I rapped my middle finger (you know, the one with which you give the hawaian good luck sign to other drivers?) every shot with the front trigger. The rear trigger gave no problem. I'm wondering about "bending" the triggers slightly rearward to help. I do know I'm going to tape a piece of black mouse pad on the back of the trigger guard!

This is off the Bakail website about this gun:

"MP-221 "ARTEMIDA" features:
Stability of scattering and mean impact point. If a cartridge load has been changed the mean impact point of each barrel can be zeroed to a common center via ribless joint of barrel unit, loose fit of right barrel in the sleeve and a jack-type horizontal adjuster. "

I have no idea what this means

Got this a few minutes ago from Remington's service department.
REGULATING YOUR SPR22 RIFLE.


Your SPR 22 has three adjustments to help regulate your barrels.

1) Your rear sight is adjustable for windage . There is a set screw
in the front of your rear sight . To adjust right or left loosen the set
screw . Adjust accordingly and then tighten the set screw to keep
your adjustment. See Pic #1 , #2


2)Your front sight is adjustable for elevation. This is done by turning your front sight clockwise or counter clockwise . This can be done with a pair of flat nosed pliers or with your fingers . Turning your sight clockwise will raise your elevation and counter clockwise will lower your elevation . See pic #3 , #4


3)Your SPR 22 is equipped with a jack screw . This is located on the bottom of your barrel just in front of the sling swivel . Holding the barrel with the muzzle end upward you will see a slot in the middle of the bottom rib with a small wheel , with holes in it . This is your jack screw. Using a small pin punch turn your jack screw counter clockwise to bring your impact point inward and clockwise to bring the impact point outwards. See pic #5 , #6.

Prof: I'm glad you confirmed the jackscrew regulation adjustment. I'm sure these will be a bit of trial to dial in, but I have a good feeling that these guns can in fact be made to shoot. I'm having a ball just thinking of all the odd .45-70 loads I have around the place, from cast Lee 325-grain plinkers over 17 grains of Unique to 500-grain government compressed blackpowder loads to the heavier loads with the Remington 405 jacketed.
By the way, ff any new SPR 22 shooters need some basic double rifle theory, you cannot go wrong with Graeme Wright's "Shooting the British Double Rifle."

prof242

To help prevent getting your finger banged try this.

Hold the forearm TIGHT, grip the buttstock, TIGHT, pull the gun into your shoulder HARD,
put your finger on the front trigger all the way to the first joint, [this helps prevent doubling], put your face on the stock FIRM, when you fire the gun do not relax your muscles, after the first shot, come down out of recoil and fire the second shot [if necessary or desired], again do not relax your muscles until you have come down out of recoil.

Hold it like a poisonous snake.

CONTROL the gun, DRIVE the gun.

One of my friends used to get his trigger finger banged by his double, when I and another friend shot it we did not. It just might be your technique.

I might have read this wrong, but one of the things I noticed on mine that I thought strange was it was the LEFT barrel (back trigger) that you adjusted to the iron sights, and the right barrel (front trigger ) that moved point of impact on the right barrel. It took a box of shells to get mine right, but shoots ok now (30-06 version). Triggers truly suck though.
Rick

At 6.5 pounds, this will make an excellent Howdah pistol, even with the barrels left full length (600mm, 23.6") and with the rifle stock uncut.

Make a scabbard for it and wear it on the belt like a crossdraw handgun or sword.

Might fit well in an archer's quiver as backup too.

Or down the leg of a fisherman's waders in bear country. Ankle holster for the muzzles and garter belt on thigh?

RIP, You weren't supposed to mention those garter belts!

I have shot 40 rounds thru mine. Like Rojovin, I put a Leupold 1x4 in Kimber rings on mine. I bought a box of Winchester Super X 180 grain Power Points and reloaded ten rounds each of the Speer 200 grain and Sierra 220 grain to see if it just might like a heavier bullet. From the forty rounds I really think mine will eventually shoot close with the Power Points. I shot a group about 1 1/2 inches apart at 50 yards and then moved back to 100. As you screw the jack screw toward the forearm it "tightens" and makes the barrels cross and shoot apart. I worked with it, probably too much with the heavier bullets and did more harm than good. I finally ran out of ammo, but I think if I had had more of the 180 grain stuff, I could have gotten it to shoot well. From shooting mine, I am inclined to believe it might do even better with a 165 grain bullet. It seems to defy common double regulation but I "think" I can get mine to shoot acceptably. Has anyone taken the trigger plate out and worked on the triggers? Mine need a lot of work also. It is suprisingly light for a double rifle.

add another 400+ posts to my total. My profile got wiped out with the last website change. Doug

Magnum, I've taken the trigger plate out, stock off, etc. Using carburator cleaner and a toothbrush, I cleaned the inside of that action spotless. After that, I used a dry lube on the parts and put it back together to see how everything worked. The triggers were a heck of a lot better, but still heavy. What I'm going to do this weekend is take the whole thing apart and stone and polish each part. I have some cocking cams coming to allow the gun to open completely and stay that way.

Of concern to me is the extreme take-up or creep of both triggers. I'm not after anything match, but this is ridiculous. From watching the trigger movement and trying to measure the creep, I'd swear there is over 1/8" in each of them. I know that some is needed for safety, but...

Took it to the range this morning and got both barrels to shoot a parallel group at 15yds, about 10" between shots. After a little effort adjusting the jackscrew, got the barrels shooting about 4" apart and moved to 25yds. There again shot and adjusted. I guess I moved it too much because at 50yds, had the left barrel on target and the right off-target. Ran out of ammo so will go out again tomorrow to get this thing shooting right.

So far my experience with self regulation has not been a good one, personally I will never buy another self-regulating DR. I'm sure many AR members have had no problems but my first self-regulating rifle bit me so that's it for me.

Dirk

Been out the past two days trying to get this thing shooting right. It seemed to start shooting together, but then would jump.
This afternoon I noticed that whatever I did the rifle's right barrel might or might not make a change. A close look showed the jackscrew was slanted. There was no way the right barrel would be adjusted.
Will contact Remington on Tuesday and probably have to send the rifle to them for repairs. Glad I found this out before I did any modifications to the gun. They'll probably have to put a different set of barrels on it because it looks like the jackscrew mount is sweated on.
Oh, was getting 2" groups with the left barrel, but 8" groups with the right.

prof242
If they tell you to return the rifle it will go to EAA as they have the repair contract. When they repair or replace the rifle they will not return it to you. Their return policy is to only send to an FFL. I went thru this with them
and am now waiting for Remington to refund my money. Dave

Remington answered my email this morning. They told me to send the rifle back. I will do so. If I have the same problem with EAA, I think Remington and I will have a brouhaha. Since I'm paying the shipping there for repairs on a brand new rifle, they'd better do something.
Max

Remington sent me a return label. I would fight for return shipping

well, I am stilll dumb enough to get one...

just talked to bigluke, should have one in about 10 days

Just picked mine up this evening. Will try to shoot it in a day or two with the 300 and 405 grain loads to see if it will hit paper. Fit and finish is average, action is very stiff. Overall, good looking in a $10 whore kinda way, and I'm excited.

Oh yeah, trigers are something else. When I tried the first one, I had to drop the rifle down and check the safety to see if it was really off - 8# plus. Rear trigger was only about 6#, but had 1/4" of travel. UGH!!!!!!!!

"Overall, good looking in a $10 whore kinda way, and I'm excited."

Looking forward to your range reports!

John

Bought one of Luke’s 45/70s a couple of weeks ago and finally had a chance to pick it up yesterday from my FFL. Took it to the range today just to make sure it fired. All I did was take it out of the box, give it a little cleaning to get the “factory preservative†off and assemble.

First impression – Fit and finish was not bad and wood was not bad either when you take it for what it is – a budget end entry point double and not a $10k+ one. Trigger pull was long put positive – no trigger scale but they feel similar to other budget end rifles. No gritty feel in this one as someone else reported as it was in his. Again would it be acceptable in a medium or high end one, no. But, I can live with the triggers and keep $10K in the bank too.

The action is heavy and it is spring loaded in that you have to pull the action open and hold it open to drop in the rounds. It then springs back to about half closed. I’m trying to figure out the rational for this. The only thing I can figure is that when the barrels spring back to this half closed position, the loaded rounds can’t fall out – so conceivably you could carry it “open and unlocked†with live rounds in the chambers. Could be a good thing as it is “safe†for handling, walking etc. without fear of the rounds falling out, and could make it faster to get live rounds into a target from a "safed" weapon. It does make getting a second set of rounds reloaded pretty cumbersome as it uses extractors instead of ejectors. Oh..and the safety automatically is set to "safe" every time you open the action – good thing/bad thing depending on circumstances and point of view.

First shots - Based on the rifle's very lightweight, decided to just try some trapdoor level hand loads – 33gr of H4198 and 300gr flat nose hard-cast that should run around 1350fps I had lying around . Set the target at 25yds just to see if it could hit 8 ½ x 11 paper target. Was pleasantly surprised - recoil was like shooting a 410 with 3†loads. Right barrel hit about 2†right of bull and 2†low. Left barrel hit about 2†left of bull. Second set – right about 2†right, left about 2†left and 2†high. I did these four shots back to back and when I went to hold the barrels open to load the third set, the barrels where to hot to hold. Had to use my thumb on the center rib. Third set and even the rib was too hot to hold. Now in all farness this was six rounds in maybe 1 ½ to 2 min. So far to this point, it was six fairly quick shots on paper and POI was moving vertically for the most part and some horizontally with the horizontal movement in and not out. Put it down to cool for a bit. After about 10 minutes the barrels were still warm to the touch but you could comfortably hold them.

Did two more sets of two and the POIs still moved around a bit. In all fairness, I don’t know how much was gun and how much was me cause all I was doing was playing and just seeing how quickly I could reacquire the target and get off the second shot. Had to let it cool again after the second set.

Third time I picked it up I tried to squeeze off two, reload and get a second set off and into the paper. Let’s just say that between the extractors not being ejectors and the spring load that requires you to hold the barrels open makes a "combat reload" NOT something I would want to be staking life and limb on, even with practice. All in all I put 10 rounds down each tube and all 20 did seem to “pattern†within two inches on each side of the bull at 25yds.

Overall impression – for what it is (an inexpensive entry level double) it isn’t bad. I think the barrels are too thin to really do too much hot-roding on the loads as they heat up very quickly and at least from this first outing the POI shifts quite a bit as the barrel temp changes. Will try some trapdoor level 405gr loads next weekend and maybe a few hotter 300 gr loads for comparison. If it will push a moderately light loaded 405gr consistently at say 75yds or less, with its light weight it will be an absolute BLAST as a hog, deer, black bear gun or a good pack/truck gun

m3taco: My sentiments exactly. I posted my report before I even saw yours, and the experience was about the same.

The barrels are indeed wafer-thin, and before I'd shoot a Garrett Hammerhead or other hot load through it, I would tie it to a tire and pull the trigger with a string!!!!!!!!!

+1 For both of the above replies.

Guys,

I haven't looked inside the Remington doubles, but I suspect the reason your rifles are not staying open enough to load easy is the same problem that is inherent in guns like the Stevens double shotguns i.e. the sears are left short so in the event you do not open the action ALL the way to the stop the sears will engage the non-rebounding hammers and keep the hammers from going back to the fired position when you close the action. The hammer springs are pushing on the cocking levers forcing the gun to partially close when the gun is cocked. If the hammers return to the fired position resting on the firing pins and you place a loaded round in the chamber and close the gun it will fire, an all together unpleasant situation. What I've done in the past on some guns for selected customers is to lengthen the sears just enough to let the gun stay open far enough to be loaded easily. Just a word of caution, if you lengthen the sears you HAVE to open the gun fully to be sure the sears engage the hammer notches.

Hope this is of some help.