I have a Remington 700 243 HB that I got used, it dont have a scratch on it and the action is clean and the bolt looks like new. The rifle just cant have been fired many times. I got it at one of the local gun shops at a "real bargan". After shooting it several times with diffrent loads, bullets and varing OAL from max to min I still cant get a group smaller than 1-1/2" and its not consistant, some left, right, up and down. It looks more like a 00 shot gun pattern. The action has been glas bedded and I have a good scope. In fact I have tried two diffrent ones. Can anyone think of something I can do short of a re barrel and if so would a 257 roberts work with the action and mag, or can it even be done in a 257 Roberts. Im stumped!

Hello,
The last thing the bullet "sees" as it exits the barrel is the muzzle/crown. Take a magnifying glass and inspect for any, smallest even, nicks, edges, etc. in that area. Prior to doing a rebarrel, take to local 'smith and ask him to inspect and recrown if necessary.
Your particular rifle and caliber should deliver excellent accuracy unless a problem as above exists and/or wrong load/weight of bullet for twist, etc. is being used. Try some factory loads after the crown is checked. Good Luck.

did you say that the barrel is free floating?

Is there a bipod attached and the screw from the bipod is touching the barrel?

Steve,

This may not be practical for you but I'll suggest anyway. Move the rfile to another stock (HS Precision for factory Remington HB because of aluminum bedding blocks) and shoot test groups. This will indicate if bedding problem exists. It sounds like the barreled action is under stress if not a scope problem.

I had already thought about geting a Sniper,varmit style stock but this piece has been glass bedded and the barrel is free floating. The Guy who did the work on it is one of the most sought after smiths in our area. Yesterday I was at the Gun Shop were I bought this rifle and I started talking to one of the guys I see in there a lot. He was looking at a Styre 7mm08. I mentioned the fact that I liked HB rifles and he said,
" I was looking at a HB 243 in here a few weeks ago that was sharp, a real nice Rem VLS but his bud that works there told him that it had been owned by two diffrent people and traded in because it was a piece of crap. The guy that ownes the place sent it out and had it bedded trying to get it to shoot straight". Now I'm pissed, I am in the place every other day, I buy thousands of dollars of stuff there a year and I get sucker punched. Hey thats ok, I'm going to get that rifle shootin dead on hole for hole what ever it takes. LOL I think!

Follow drivers advice. Anyone can glass bed an action, but getting it right takes a little talent. Let an experienced eye have a look to see where the problem lies. More accuracy problems have been solved by simply recrowning and rebedding than almost everything else combined. However, sometimes the problem ends up being a bad barrel. This where a good gunsmith can help.

No offense intended but ensure the barrel is spotlessly clean. I once had a 6mmRem 788 go from a 6moa rifle to a sub moa rifle with a good scrubbing.

Listen to the good advice you have recieved here, and take your dollars elsewhere in the future. Also give a look at the bearing surface of the bolt lugs to see that they are mating and evenly seated.

Couple things. I had a friend that bought a brand new HB 308 Ruger. Wouldn't even shoot under an inch at 50 yards with various match ammo and a T16 Weaver. We slugged the barrel. It was 310 in the grooves. Ruger wouldn't make it right. He sold it. So slug the barrel make sure it's within range of what a 243 should be. If it is scrub it like the one post said. Also you might try the old business card shims under the barrel just back from the tip of the forearm. Some barrels don't like to be free floated. From what you said about the bullets printing high, low, left, and right suggests to me that either the action is moving somehow in the stock or the scope is lose or bad. I would think a dent in the crown, or any other abnormally of the crown would send the bullet off in the same direction all the time, not a good group say off to the left for example, but off to the general direction. Not all around the clock like you are getting. Most 243's I've seen in any brand are pretty accurate.

Joe

Steve,
Are you shooting some extremely long or short bullets? You may be using something too long for the twist.
Try the 75 to 85 grain bullets with 4350 and 3031 and see what happens.

in order of effort/what I would try

(assuming good consistant loads .0275" off the lands)

(non-invasive first)

clean the barrel with foaming bore cleaner?

loosen the action screws, slip a fold business card under the barrel about 2" back from the tip of the stock... retighten screws and try again.

slug the barrel

talk to remington, see what they will do with it

if nothing

glassbed by a GOOD gunsmith
recrown if barrel slugs okay
rebarrel/sell (note- it is the right thing to do to note the barrel does not shoot well)

jeffe

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
(assuming good consistant loads .0275" off the lands)

What's the significance of this?

And,,, how in the hell can you get that kind of tolerance on a seating depth. I hope it is a typo.

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
sell (note- it is the right thing to do to note the barrel does not shoot well)

Unless you are trying to unload a piece of shit.

Hey thanks guys, I'm going to try a few more bullet and powder combinations after a real good bore cleaning. If that dont work off to the gunsmith I go. Hey the rifle is worth a re barrel if it comes to it and if we didnt have to work at things every now and then we would never learn a thing but every time I think about the hole deal and how it went down it makes me want to FART BLACK SMOKE!

Iknowmyspellingsucks!

quote:

Originally posted by malm:
Follow drivers advice. Anyone can glass bed an action, but getting it right takes a little talent. Let an experienced eye have a look to see where the problem lies. ..... This where a good gunsmith can help.

This is very true. Years ago, I bedded one of my very first sporters but the thing wouldn't group worth a darn. I was ready to trade it off or make a boat anchor out of it but luckily a fellow I went to GS school with was in town and he quickly identified a problem with the bedding. After we rebedded it things were right as rain. It has become the rifle I have used most in the last five years, my go to rifle.

Tickles me the number of people who think that to get a rifle to shoot well, the first thing you have to do is to hog out of the barrel channel, before even finding out how the thing performs to begin with. Granted, a heavy barrel SHOULD shoot well without needing any dampening pressure being applied by the stock, but that ain't always the case!

If there's nothing wrong with the crown, my next step would be fooling with the barrel channel IF the action is bedded well to begin with......

I too had just bought a rifle that "should "be very accurate but all I could get was baseball size groups at 100yds.Turned out to be a faulty rear scope mount. Found thanks to a members advise here......

Is it a factory barrel or a custom barrel? if coustom check the twist, I had a rifle one time would only shoot 85gr bullets well because of the twist. It would put all of them in one hole at 100yds, switiching to heavier or lighter bullets opened the group. Altohugh it would shoot 100 gr pretty good.
Mike

The cleaning of the action and barrel would be first on my list, along with polishing the bottom of the recoil lug to ensure that it's not touching in the bottom of the bedding.

More times than not, if you've had someone inexperienced that bedded the rifle, they'll either not tape the bottom of the lug or not know to remove material from it, causing a teeter-totter effect on the receiver everytime it fires.

If that doesn't work, mic the cases to see what your chamber is doing.....as in is it producing out-of-round or excessive sized cases.

Slap her back together and try again.......Still won't shoot???

Crown is the next on the list.

My guess is the bedding is the culprit and may even have to be completely redone in order to verify how bad it was done in the first place.

Another item that was mentioned that you most definitely want to be sure of is the scope mounting. Use a scope from another rifle that produces consistent results and mount it on the rifle securely, ensuring everything is good and tight.

99% of the time what you describe is either bedding or scope.....out of that......the crown gets the nod at least 50-60% of the time as well.

Just don't sweat it......pretty damn hard to keep a Remington in that caliber from shooting well....I've seen it, but it's pretty rare.

.243's can be very sensitive to barrel fouling. Try cleaning the bore down to bare metal and retesting.

Funny I didn't read where anyone suggested returning it to the place that sold it to you.

the chef

I called Remington and told them my delima. They ran the Serial # and they said the rifle is 13 years old. I cant beleve it, it is to clean and doesnt have a bit of slop in it. He also told me that they have found that if you float the barrel all the way out to the end it gives big problems...he said that it needs to be a little snug about 1-1/2" from the end and from the factory all VLS HB rifles have a place in the end of the stock to keep the barrell and action from rocking and viberating. It has a 1 in 9-1/8 twist so it should handle a heavy bullet. I got some tipton truly remarkable bore solvent and scrubed the barrel till I wore out a new bush down to a 22 cal and I'm goin to shim the stock with a piece if cardboard and see what happens.

Sometimes cutting your losses is the best bet -- especially if you don't have a gunsmith buddy who will work for trade.

#1 on top of my list.... Absolutely #1 is scope bases and mounts. If you have a mag base dial indicator -- you can find out if it is the base or mounts in about 30-seconds.

If not, the next best check for base/mounts is shooting a group, then tapping the front base Left with the plastic butt of a screwdriver for each of the next 5 in another group. Did the group center move? Tap it right, shoot another group... Move to rear base... Tap left, shoot group, rap right, shoot.

On the other hand....

13 years old varmint gun.... You may very well have a shot out barrel. No telling how many shots have gone down that pipe, or whether a previous owner shot a whole box or three 'o 20 rounds in like 2-min and burned out the throat.

After the scope mount/base check...
Slugging the barrel will tell you lots.
Muzzle end, and chamber end... Oversized at the
muzzle probably means somebody tore into it with a cleaning rod from the muzzle. If it is smooth and running 0.247".... maybe someone else firelapped it 1st -- and ruined it.

Best regards

John