I hope to soon be starting a rifle building project. The goal will be an exceptionally accurate HUNTING rifle. Not benchrest accuracy, but far better than "off the shelf" hunting accuracy. Since it sounds like many of you have had such rifles built I wanted to ask which of the following could/would/should be done to acheive this goal:

Rebarrel?
Square bolt face?
Lap lugs?
Aftermarket trigger?
Glass bed stock?
Free float barrel?
Anything I've forgotten?

I will be starting with a Remington 700 action if that dictates anything that does/does not need to be done. What things have you found to be most conducive to accuracy improvement in your projects?

Thanks in advance,
Bob

bobvthunter--

The least expensive way to do it is determine exactly *what* on the original rifle prevents it from shooting well ........and fix it.

On a factory rifle this is often nothing but a rough crown, or possibly a couple semi-simple things that can be repaired for less than a hundred bucks. OR it could take changing everything but the serial number to fix it. There IS NO set schedule of things that have to be done to attain accuracy. It depends on the rifle and what's wrong with it.

A year ago I traded a customer out of a Remington 722 in 244 Remington that seemed to be nothing but a worn out hulk with a nice receiver. Just for grins I mounted a 10x scope on it and shot some 20 year old reloads left over from a hunter class BR rifle now long gone.

Three shot groups averaged 2.5 MOA. (vertical stringing)

I removed the magazine box and removed .025 from the bottom and recrowned it. The re-crown was a simple one without removing the barrel. (Electric drill and brass lap)

I sold the gun with remaining ammo and a target with three five shot groups, the biggest of those groups was .710".

That rifle had never been glassbedded, free-floated, re-barrelled, lugs lapped or anything else. It was a stock rifle with a bad crown from the factory and a stock that had shrunk until the mag box bowed the action with the tang screws tight.

Simple, cheap, and easy to fix. It's also VERY common to find similar problems on similar rifles.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by JBelk:

The least expensive way to do it is determine exactly *what* on the original rifle prevents it from shooting well ........and fix it.

On a factory rifle this is often nothing but a rough crown, or possibly a couple semi-simple things that can be repaired for less than a hundred bucks. OR it could take changing everything but the serial number to fix it. There IS NO set schedule of things that have to be done to attain accuracy. It depends on the rifle and what's wrong with it.
--------------------------------------------------

Very well written. This is the scientific method, finding the problem is the first step and not just "fixing" everything!

Thanks for the help guys,

I may have phrased my question incorrectly. I would actually like to have a "semi custom" rifle built, as opposed to making a poor shooting rifle shoot better. Actually the rifle that I plan to start with shoots MOA with inexpensive factory ammo and would probably be capable of better with good handloads (haven't had it long enough to try them). Anyway, because I want to change the barrel length and contour to something other than Remington factory specs I had pretty much decided on rebarreling and probably shouldn't have included that in my original post.

I guess the way I should have asked the question is... If you were going to go the rebarreling route, what other accurizing work would you have done while you were at it? Or, when having a rifle built what procedures do you feel are the most effective to have done? Again this project will be a hunting rifle, but excellent accuracy will be expected.

Thanks again for the previous answers. I just asked the question wrong!

Thanks,
Bob

Jack, I picked up a 722 in 222 Rem for $100 about a month ago. It's a heck of a shooter and the stock was a diamond in the rough after I removed the finish. I will post pics on HA when I'm done with the project. Will be another month or so. I was really proud of that buy.

-Mike

i think mr belks response still stands.
get it rebarreled, the trigger work should be all of $15 for adjustment. maybe bed the action and a bit o' the barrel.
that might be all you need if that!
who is your smith in VT? i live in the northwest corner. i know of a few who work very reasonably.
adios and good luck.
woofer

whtlhntr,

I haven't had a lot of gunsmith work done before, I've pretty much been an off the shelf rifle guy. Having a project like this done would just allow me to do something a little different and tailor the gun to my needs/wants. I was thinking of going with the Island Gunsmith (South Hero, Vt.) depending on what I hear about the work he does. I haven't done a lot of asking around yet. Otherwise I would send the rifle out to someone elsewhere.

Thanks,
Bob

bob,
the island smith does good work but he takes A LONG time for what he is doing. it has no affect on the crafstmanship. he seems to have a lot on his plate.
another smith named lou laberge does nice work. he is beyond fair in pricing and very up front about time commits. he is listed in shelburne i believe. he has my weatherby u/l right now.
the atf was there the other day doing a "random" inspection. lou said they haven't been here since 58'!
anyway. give him a call. and good luck with your project.
woofer

whtlhunter,

Would you mind sending me an e-mail? I tried to send you one but it got returned. I would like to ask you a couple other questions about gunsmiths in the area.

Thanks,
Bob
rotty@zoo.uvm.edu

ok, this is whtlhntr. somehow i registered twice. this one will get you may email adress!
sorry about that.
you have mail bob..........