Bedding a Whitworth .375

08 July 2004, 01:51

John Frazer

Getting ready to finish restocking my Mark X Whitworth .375 -- I'm putting it in a Boyd's JRS laminate. The straighter comb, larger butt area, and extra weight proved most welcome at the bench -- in fact, felt recoil was less with the 1/4" Boyd's pad, than with the factory stock + 1" Decelerator.

This rifle has a second recoil lug on the barrel and I've bedded the rear of both lugs and the tang in Steelbed, plus crossbolting behind the magazine.

Accuracy as tested is OK, but maybe a little behind the factory wood. The factory stock was bedded pretty tightly to the barrel, and I'm wondering if I should follow that lead and skim a layer of Acraglas full-length in the new stock. Of course the barrel is pretty heavy, given the hole that it's asked to support...

Any thoughts?

08 July 2004, 05:00

buchsenschmeid

Can You tell us what "OK" accuracy is?
1 1/2" groups
2 1/2 inch groups?
What load are you shooting?

08 July 2004, 07:24

John Frazer

Quote:

Can You tell us what "OK" accuracy is?

1.5" or so -- usually was right around 1" in the factory stock. Load is the 270 Hornady SP w/ a maximum charge of RL-15.

But, the actual difference is probably a little less since all I had on hand Monday was a few practice loads made up with brass that had uneven neck thickness or excess neck runout, something this rifle seems unusually sensitive to.

12 July 2004, 15:37

John Frazer

Well, I'm even more perplexed now.

I free floated it from the back of the barrel lug and tried it again. The reduced practice loads that I tried last week, shot about the same (about 2" at 100 yds.).

But the one group that I shot with a full power load (270 Hornady SP with 73.0/RL-15) absolutely went in the toilet -- 2.91". When loaded in nice concentric brass, this is a reliable 1-1.5" performer at 2700 fps as recently as this January. Velocity was a little higher today (90 deg. F. vs. whatever it was in January) but I felt like I was shooting fine, so after that one I packed it in.

These loads were full-power plinkers loaded in less concentric brass, which seems to matter a fair bit in this rifle, but I've never seen that much of a difference. All the screws, scope mount, etc. are nice and tight.

This week I'm going to load up some more full-power rounds, as perfect as possible in every respect, and try again next weekend with both stocks. If the new stock still isn't shooting right, I guess I'll try a duct tape pressure point at the forend tip. But any other suggestions would be more than welcome.