I bought my wife a push-feed, post '64, .270 Winchester feather weight to match her .243.

But the gun has NEVER been accurate, (5" @ 100 yds). I've always loaded 150gr could this be part of the problem as the 130 gr is the standard it seems?

The stock touches the barrel. No way you could slide a paper dollar between the stock & the barrel.

I was wondering how hard it would be to bed the action & barrel. How much would a gunsmith would charge? It needs the stock shortened & a good pad installed too.

Should I just open up the barrel channel and see??????

KB,
If you have a dowl or deep socket that is slightly larger than the barrel channel (about 1/16") then wrap it with 60-80 grit sand paper and get to work sanding out that channel. You want about 1/16" on each side and 1/8" on the bottom of the barrel (as per Darryl Holland). Only sand from about 1 1/2" in front of the recoil lug to the front of the stock. Try shooting it again. If it still doesn't shoot then take it to a gunsmith and have them glass or steel bed it (cost is around $50-$75 here).
As for the recoil pad, find a good Limbsaver pad at Cabelas for $35 and install it yourself. Good luck.
I am no expert, but I try to learn how to do it from the experts.

If if is really shooting 5", that is pretty bad and I doubt that a barrel touching the barrel channel could make a sound rifle shoot that poorly. I'd suspect the crown and the barrel as being problems. Could also be a bad scope or crappy ammo.

quote:

Originally posted by CAS II:
If if is really shooting 5", that is pretty bad and I doubt that a barrel touching the barrel channel could make a sound rifle shoot that poorly. I'd suspect the crown and the barrel as being problems. Could also be a bad scope or crappy ammo.

I agree. Clean the bore really well. Check the crown. Pull the scope and check the bases. Re-install the scope making sure all is tight. Better yet, try a scope off of a rifle that you know is good. Go to 130gr. bullets and factory ammo. Check to see if the bedding is putting pressure on the action. To do this, check to see that all of the action screws (3 on M70's) are tight. Then loosen the screw in front of the guard a couple of turns. Now, slowly loosen the front action screw. Check to see if the barrel rises up out of the stock at the end of the forend. If it does, then you have a high spot between the front and rear screws that needs to be removed. If it doesn't, pull the barreled action out of the stock and look in the screw holes. The screws should not be touching. You can tell if they are because there will be a shiny spot where the screw is touching. Look in the barrel channel to see where the barrel is touching the stock. This will probably look like shiny black spots. It should touch with some concentricity. If it hits just on one side of the barrel channel. that would be a problem. Remove so that it touches concentrically. When I re-assemble M70's I tighten the front screw the tightest, the rear screw almost as tight, and the middle screw just barely snug. Also, be sure that the mag box is in correctly and not binding.
I would do all of this before I considered glass bedding and /or free-floating the barrel.

My 243 Classic Fwt. needed a pressure point to shoot it's best. I tried floating when I bedded the action, but had to add a pad at the forend tip to get it under MOA. I've been thinking about doing a full length neutral bedding to see if that would be as good, but don't want to mess with consistant 3/4" groups.

I've had a couple of the post '64 featherweights and the bedding they used was nothing more than a glob of what looked like hot glue. They also intentionally left the wood raised on the forward most part of the barrel channel to allow for upward pressure on the barrel. This also is a bad design as the wood there is so thin it ends up splitting the stock lenghwise. I'd suggest removing the factory bedding material (this can be done with your fingernail) and properly bedding the action and freefloat the barrel. If after trying it this way you feel that upward pressure on the barrel is necessary I'd use a pillar or bedding material in the forend (I use Marine-Tex). Good luck. Paul.

quote:

Originally posted by Karamojo Bill:
I bought my wife a push-feed, post '64, .270 Winchester feather weight to match her .243.

But the gun has NEVER been accurate, (5" @ 100 yds). I've always loaded 150gr could this be part of the problem as the 130 gr is the standard it seems?

The stock touches the barrel. No way you could slide a paper dollar between the stock & the barrel.

I was wondering how hard it would be to bed the action & barrel. How much would a gunsmith would charge? It needs the stock shortened & a good pad installed too.

Should I just open up the barrel channel and see??????

I floated the barrel and dual pillar bedded a Winchester Coyote for my brother in law.

Before I got it he was shooting about 2.5" groups which is completely unacceptable for a .22-250 varmint rifle.

After floating the barrel, bedding, and some trigger work it was shooting ~3/8" groups. He about split a lip grinning the first group he shot with it.

Important tip: The winchester is a flat bottom Mauser type action. I had to put it in the mill to machine a draft angle on the front and sides of the recoil lug so I was sure I'd be able to get it out after the epoxy cured. You can do the same thing with a file if you are careful.

I made up some brass pillars, machined grooves around them to make sure they would epoxy into place. I bedded it from even with the front of the recoil lug back to the magazine well, then made sure the action didn't touch any place else except on top of the rear pillar. It worked likea charm.

I used the same bedding scheme when I dual pillar bedded my two mini-Mauser action CZ527s.

+1 on what Tommyhawk suggested as a check list.

Fitch