I have a 243 7600 that would make a nice drag around varmint gun. Problem is that the only thing I have that shoots really well in it is light (13 gr) Blue Dot loads under Varmint Grenades. That gives me one holers at 50 yards. I can get <1 inch at fifty with 55 gr CTs and Blue Dot.

I have not pushed the VGs or the Cts at full speed yet. Everything else I have tried is abysmal. the worst is 4" at 25 yards for Factory ammo. 90 gr Speers go into 3-4 inches at 50. 58 gr VMaxs are about the same. 85 br TSXs run about 8 inches at 100.

I have never owned a rifle that was this awful, and I am fixing to not own this one. Before is goes away, is there anything I need to be looking for? I don't think it's a nice enough gun to spend the money on rebarreling.

quote:

I don't think it's a nice enough gun to spend the money on rebarreling.

Sell/trade it for a 700 ADL in the same caliber. It will be easier to get it to shoot. There are people who specialized in accurizing the 760/7600 rifles but, I don't know who. I doubt if it is the barrel that makes it inaccurate but, all those metal parts thrashing around when you pull the trigger.

Have you compared factory ammo in it?
You might try holding the fore end with your hand between the bag and the forend. Then don't squash your face against the butt so hard. And last but not least make sure your scope is good and it is mounted properly. I have several 35 Rem pump guns with open sights including one 760 made in 1952 and they all shoot much better than your rifle.
Unless you are Mr Magoo you should be able to shoot better groups than what you described above with iron sights.

I started out with it with a Bushnell 3-9 and changed over to a Leupy VXII 1-4. The consistent inconsistency ruled out scope and mounting problems. I replaced the bases and loctited them down.

The bolt locks up good and tight, the forearm is not any different than an '06 I have that shoots most everything very well (nothing outside of 3" yet).

The one remarkable thing I have found about the beast is that it was filthy like it had never seen a patch down the bore filthy. Took two weeks to get somewhere near right.

Bore looks OK. I could live with the limitation of Varmint Grenades only I suppose, but I seriously doubt they'll shoot well if I start pushing them fast enough to work out at 200.

I will go as far as recrowning, but I can't really see that being the problem since it shoots the VGs just under 2000 fps so well.

My inclination is to just dump it, but with that little Leupy on it the thing sure makes a nice little drag it around on the ATV gun for dealing with pests.

One other thing...This makes me have some hope...even the Remington Corelokt factory loads that shot 4" at 25 yards never key holed. Nothing ever key holed. At any range.

Maybe it's just one of those guns that will never come around.

quote:

se,

quote:

I will go as far as recrowning, but I can't really see that being the problem since it shoots the V

Have you pulled the barrel off and looked through it from the breech? It is PIA but it can be done.
You might verify it has no pitting near the chamber. You might also make a Cerrosafe casting of the throat and first 2 inches of rifling then measure the groove diameter. If you don't have Cerrosafe you might use a pure lead fishing weight and drive it in with a hardwood dowel.
Bad barrels are not magic but sometimes your eye ball just can't see the problem.
I had a really bad barrel one time. It was on a barely used single shot of a well know make. It would put 3 shots out of 5 on a 24" square target at 100 yards. Once I think I got all 5 shots on the paper for an 18" group. I finally pushed soft cast lead bullets through it and found tight spots at the barrel band and at the front sight band. I sent it back to the factory and they rebarreled it at no charge. It shot groups under 2" after that.

accurizing the factory rifle explains lapping the barrel to the reciver on those.

I have a 270 Win in a 7600 that will out shoot most of my bolt actions. Clean the bore and clean it again, and then give it 50 strokes of J-B or Flitz.

quote:

Posted 05 June 2008 16:45 Hide Post
I have a 270 Win in a 7600 that will out shoot most of my bolt actions. Clean the bore and clean it again, and then give it 50 strokes of J-B or Flitz.

I have an '06 that the worst I have seen out of is still under 3" at 100. It only did that when I started pushing 130 TSXs pretty hard. Most of the time starting loads with it are under 2" and it will bring any bullet I have tried in it under 1" with more or less normal work ups.

I think I'll pull the barrel off and work it over some more.

Unlike the Remington semi-autos of the same configuration, the 760-series of pumps has generally been capable of pretty good accuracy. The very first thing I do with a 2-piece stocked rifle that is not shooting well is to make sure the buttstock thru-bolt is torqued to the proper specs. Then, if the accuracy does not improve, I put a rubber pad of truck innertube rubber in to barrel channel at the forend tip to dampen vibration, if the rifle's design will permit. If not (such as here), I try to make sure that nothing is putting undue pressure on the barrel at any spot from breech forward.

Have you checked the bore for a bulge. I have seen many 760, 7600, and 742 with a slight bulge about 1"-1 1/2" from the muzzle. The best way to realize a bulge is to push a tight patch through the bore. If the rod "jumps" from little resistance you likely have a bulge, which of course will throw accuracy.

I took the time to pull the barrel off the beast yesterday.

First thing was that the barrel screw (actually the slide mount) was nowhere near tight enough to suit me. Found greasy gunk between the lug and the receiver. Wore out a brush scrubbing from that end. Got a whole lot more stuff out of the barrel from near the throat.

Any of the three could easily be cause for the thing to shoot like that. I now have serious questions about how in hell one of those things ever shoots decently. That is just the plain worst rifle barrel mounting that I have ever run into. Scope mounts on the receiver and the barrel is held in place by one piss ant 5/16 screw through the lug an inch below the bore line. Pull the trigger and that barrel will move some. Maybe not much, maybe a whole lot, but it sure as hell won't stay in one place by design. I guess that the one I have that shoots well the barrel returns to the same place after the shot with very good consistency. I can maybe live with that, but I sure don't like it.

What I learned from a crappy shooting 7600.

This one was filthy. Bad filthy. When I pulled the barrel off the gunk between the barrel and the receiver was enough to make it shoot bad let alone the crap in the barrel..

To remove the barrel remove the forearm. Find a punch or screw driver that fits the holes on the forearm mount as closely as possible. Unscrew the mount. Tap the barrel until it comes loose. Clean the receiver, barrel and inside the receiver. Twice. Reassemble and crank it down as tight as you can.

Shoots into two inches now without working loads up.

I wil second the sugestion from SCG6555. Another thing to check is the barrel nut, is it tight? When you are resting the forend on the bag does the forend touch the barrel? Last but not least the crown, many are slightly less than "perfect". Most 7600 rifles will shoot 1-1/2" groups.

www.duanesguns.com

It's definitely fixed! Shot some 3' groups with some hot loads today. 58 gr Vmaxes at 35-3600. I have no doubt that it will drop down below 2" when I back the load off and find what it likes.