I found this on another forum discussing M700 with heavy barrels (Senderos and Varmint models):

quote:

Originally posted by Bigdaddytacp:
... just remember the stock/action screws are torque sensitive and want equal torque and too tight makes them shoot all over the paper...from one who learned the hard way!!!

Is this the general observation of this board?? I.e. that M700s (with heavy barrels) won't shoot if the action screws are tightened too much, and does that mean one has to employ a torque wrench to tighten M700 screws for best accuracy??

If so, what would be the reason for this?? The action being too bendable?? And does this apply to a rifle with a glass bedded action as well??

Do the action screws have to be tightened an equal amount on a M700, as opposed to the front screw being tight and the rear screw just being snug??

When loosening and tightening your action screws, what are the indications of your bedding being (in)correctly done??

- mike

I have found that the actual amount of torque is not as important as the consistency of torque between the action screws.

Whenever one screw is tighter or looser than the other it allows the barrel/receiver to flex and pivot off one of the mounting points.

An easy way to visualize this is to take a piece of 2x4 and screw one end to something with two screws in the same position as your action screws would be. Now loosen one of the screws a little and pull up on the end of the board and see what happens.

If the forward screw is looser the board will pivot upward and away from that screw...if the rear screw is looser the board will use the front screw as a fulcrum and try to push the rear screw down. If you have both screws equally tight then they act in tandem and everything moves together.

If you can tightened one screw and watch the action or the barrel move in the stock that is usually a sigh the rifle is not bedded properly.

The Senderos and the like are sold in H-S Precision stocks which are very sensitive to screw tension. The sweet spot is usually somewhere between 55 and 65 in. lbs.

None of the normal stock crap applies here; the v-block (unless glass bedded) requires specific tension. Period.

I 'm a believer...I use an inch pound torque qrench to assemble mine. 50-55 inch pounds on the tang screw, front one gets 32 in. lbs. may not be "the way" but it works very well.

quote:

Originally posted by skb2706:
I 'm a believer...I use an inch pound torque qrench to assemble mine. 50-55 inch pounds on the tang screw, front one gets 32 in. lbs. may not be "the way" but it works very well.

Every one is different. If that works on yours, more power to you.

I haven't found it to be too sensitive in my Model 700s, but they all have pillars and/or glass bedding, even the synthetics with the aluminum v-block are bedded to support the action. Without pillars or fully bedding the action, you DO need to pay particular attention to the amount of torque on the action screws.

Mho: Back in March of 1990 I bought a Remington 700 PSS (Police Sniper Special) in caliber 223 Remington.
Imagine my surprise and delight when the first 5 shot group out of that Rifle measured .362" at 100 yards!!!
Then I fired another 5 shots (the last five of the ten loads I had for testing that day) and that group measured .293"!!!
Wait - I am not done!!!
It gets better!!!
Then I came back on another dead calm day (according to my loading log notes) in April of 1990 and fired 5 more rounds that went into an amazing .219"!!!
This Rifle is simply the most accurate non-custom Rifle I have ever purchased! Not counting my Remington 40X's and they are in a different category.
Now at the end of that initial Varminting season I disassembled that amazingly accurate heavy barrelled 700 Rifle to clean it and as I did so I used my brand new Snap-On inch/pounds torque wrench to remove the hex-screws. I noted, exactly, the torque reading when those hex-screws began to loosen - as I wanted to reset those screws to the exact torque they came from the factory.
The torque readings to loosen the action screws was 35 inch/pounds front screw and 44 inch/pounds rear!
I use that setting to this day in that Rifle.
So if 9 pounds difference (30%?) front to rear is considered overly "torque sensitive" then so be it!
That Rifle has served me extremely well for 15 years now.
I will admit that most everyone I know and trust that torques their Remington action screws uses more torque than this Rifle uses (I have never tried any other settings in this Rifle) but my motto is - don't mess with success"!
And I will admit that I set my numerous other Remington heavy barrelled Rifles at higher torque settings!
Long live Remington!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Yeah, but how many times has the bolt handle fallen off of it?

You know, I’m kidding!

On another note as per our other conversations, I just picked up another Unertl scope. A beautiful 8x external adjustable Vulture that is going to find a home on a Remington 40x .22LR I’m building up.

My own 700's are all pillar bedded into mcmillan stocks and I tighten the action screws good and tight using a small allen wrench.Over the course of several years the actions have been removed several times and retightened without the use of a torque wrench and no difference in accuracy has been noticed.

Thanks for all the replies guys, much appreciated!

It seems like most people do not torque their M700 actions screws to a particular setting, although some do and fare well this way. There also seems to be general concensus (if that is possible in shooting in general and on AR in particular ), that a well bedded action should be less susceptible to torque problems. That probably makes sense.

I have been a bit surprised reading how some of you seem to torque the rear screw more than the front. That is pretty much contrary to what I have believed (been taught) thus far. Interesting.

- mike

I torque mine with the wrench,..but then I know what they came out at,..so that's what they go back at.

After some testing, I found my Sendero to shoot its best when torqued at 53"lbs.