A Bolt and accuracy...an oxymoron?

[longrifle]

I shot a Remington 700 rechambered in 7MM STW for several years. Someone offerred me too much money for it(at the time) and I sold it. Been trying to buy it back ever since!
I replaced it with an A Bolt Synthetic Stalker in 300 WSM and topped it with a VX-1 3x9x50. For the life of me I haven't been able to get any accuracy near MOA with this stock Browning. The best groups are still 1 1/2" or better at a hundred from the bags.
I'm not a handloader but I've tried numerous factory offering in various bullet weights with no acceptable results. Any tips or relevant experience? Where would you start? Be gentle, I can't throw the Browning in the River as much as I've been tempted a couple of afternoons on the range...

 

[bates132]

A) buy a new scope...
B) get the trigger worked..

 

[7 loader]

Bates said it right. I also would add, make sure that the barrel is fully floated by folding a dollar bill in half and runnig it to the action it should pass freely. Synthetic stocks should not touch either. gun)

 

[LRSickle]

I haven't seen an out of the box Browning A-bolt that shot well. Not that there aren't any, I just haven't seen any.

 

[zuba]

I must have got lucky, my .270 stainless stalker soots better than I can. Winchester balistic silvertips shoot under an inch at 100. That was before the trigger springs. The barrel on mine was free floated though, that might have something to do with it... midway has trigger springs that make it feel a lot smoother

 

[7 loader]

I don't know alot about brownings. But if I'm right the trigger is adjustable. Just make sure to have a trigger guage. You don't wan't the gun to go off wile cycling the bolt. 2 TO 3 LBS should work.

 

[ScottB]

Seems the best place to start is to start handloading.... Then the ammunition will be made for that rifle.

Of course the trigger needs some love too.
Not sure I'd say to dump the optic, but after you've made some loads that the rifle likes....maybe?





Scott

 

[mcseal2]

I've had two, a 280 and a 270WSM that both shot under MOA when I got them. The WSM I still have, and it had a Bell & Carlson ultralight stock with the aluminum bedding block and a 2lb trigger kit installed when I got it.

I have had my VXII 3x9 on the same rifles as my 4.5x14 VXIII's with the finer VH reticle and I think it makes a 1/2 to 3/4" difference in my group size for me. I like the 3x9 for low light but it can't compare with the 4.5x14 with a fine reticle for precision work. It may just be me being used to the finer reticle, but I don't shoot groups other than establishing zero with the 3x9.

I also have a 6.5x20 VXIII for working up loads on a new rifle, I use it on my prairie dog gun for the summer and them pull it off for load development in fall and winter.

The brownings have been very nice rifles in my experience. A trigger kit and a limbsaver pad are the first things I buy to help my accuracy out with a browning.

 

[goose]

Had an abolt 300wsm, one of the best shooting rifles I've had out of the box. With factory ammo shot several groups under an inch, best being 5/8ths. I ran into a problem I could not figure out and couldn't get it under 2"..turned out to be carbon fouling that was hard to get out. Shot great again after that.

 

[johnnyk]

Never owned an A-Bolt but I have shot a dozen or so while doing load development for other guys/friends. I never did try factory loads in them and all left my possession shooting 1/2" (or better) groups at 100yds with loads tailored to that rifle.
I have to agree with mcseal2 on the scope issue. A 3X9 is great for general purpose hunting but when doing precision work, I have to bump up the magnification. JohnnyK.

 

[J E Custom]

I shot a Remington 700 rechambered in 7MM STW for several years. Someone offerred me too much money for it(at the time) and I sold it. Been trying to buy it back ever since!
I replaced it with an A Bolt Synthetic Stalker in 300 WSM and topped it with a VX-1 3x9x50. For the life of me I haven't been able to get any accuracy near MOA with this stock Browning. The best groups are still 1 1/2" or better at a hundred from the bags.
I'm not a handloader but I've tried numerous factory offering in various bullet weights with no acceptable results. Any tips or relevant experience? Where would you start? Be gentle, I can't throw the Browning in the River as much as I've been tempted a couple of afternoons on the range...

There is no reason that any bolt action can't be made to shoot as long as it has a good barrel.

The thing about any factory rifle is that you never know what your getting until you shoot it.

If working up loads for it doesn't work then you have to go to the next step, Pillar bed and
float the barrel. if it still won't shoot , chances are it has a poor or bad barrel.

I have found factory barrels with lots of run out (Crooked/bent) also bore diameter varied
3 to 5 thousandths from one end to the other. also the rifling process went bad and the rifling
actually skipped and misaligned. Crowns are sometimes very bad also.

So when I hear how bad a particular brand of rifle is and that they just won't shoot it is
normally just a bad experience with one rifle and the person is understandably upset.

But in truth he was just unlucky enough to get a bad one or never tried to solve or figure
out what was wrong.

So If a rifle has a top quality barrel and all of the smithing is good it should shoot.

I don't have a A Bolt at this time but if I did I'm sure it could be made to shoot very well
the only thing that is in doubt is the cost to make it shoot.

No rifle will shoot with a bad barrel no mater how much the smith does (He can help it but
He can't fix it).

My recommendation would be have a smith that knows and likes A Bolts look at and try to
figure out what it wrong if everything looks OK then you may have to have a custom barrel
screwed on and a good chamber and crown cut .

Remember ; factory rifles are cheep in order to sell and quality control is not very consistent
Plus barrels are the very minimum quality to keep the price down and profits up.

If they used $400.00 to $500.00 Custom barrels think what the price would be.

A good example is the Remington Custom shop rifles are $2500.00 to $3500.00 for the
same caliber in a production rifle that cost $400.00 to $900.00.

Sorry about your troubles and I hope you find the problem.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Moman]

I have had a similiar experience as Goose with my sons 270 WSM A-Bolt. Groups were all over the place. I don't brush bores too often but this one needed it as it was carbon fouled pretty bad. After that I took some Montana Extreme Copper Killer to it and got a lot more copper out than I thought I would. The next shoot it shot the same loads at 0.35 with 3 shot groups and 5 shot groups will hover right around 0.5". It's a tack driver if the bbl is clean, but a real turd when it fouls. It now has 440 rounds through it and is still a fouler, but if I keep up on it, it's a great shooting gun.

 

[Tom264]

Seems some said dump the optics but I say dump the rifle.

JKing...

Seriously like J E Custom said as long as the barrel is good there is no reason why the rifle cant be made to shoot.

I have a friend a while back tell me about his Ruger 77 25/06 woes.....it was printing 3" groups at 100yds and was about to peddle the thing but hated to because he loved the wood stock on it and loved the way it felt in his hands also didnt feel right about selling someone else his troubles.

Anyway I asked him if I could play with it a few weeks and he said yes.

First thing I did was glassbed the action and got the barrel freefloated then torqued to specs. next was to take off the scope and mounts and reinstall everything nice and snug, after I did this I lapped the rings and reinstalled the scope all nice and square.

I then had it recrowned with a new floorboard style crown and had it reblued.

I then cleaned the snot out of the barrel and while at it checked the throat....it was still in good shape though you could see a ever so slight bit of erosion....ever so slight.

He is not a handloader and I am so instead of factory ammo I searched for someone elses pet accuracy loads with Barnes bullets.....(the bullet he was hoping it would shoot) I loaded up about 50 cases with varying grains and did a quick ladder test and saw where it liked to keep em fairly close and continued so on until it was shooting a smidge less than an inch groups at 100...with more time and even different bullets and weights it would probably even do better

I took the gun back to him with the loaded bullets and asked him to shoot it and get back to me....he called me the next day practically in hysteria saying he has never shot that good ever before...the tightest groups he has ever shot with anything and asked me what was the cure.

In hindsite I guess I should have did the mods in a step by step process to see which did it but maybe it was the combination of all of them.

Now whenever he runs out of ammo he gives me a shout and his empty brass for me to reload for him.

He doesnt plan on selling it and is glad he let me play with it.

 

[JWP25]

In my experance with my a-bolt's with synthetic stocks that would not shoot tight groups the stock was touching the barrel . they were free floated but when the forearm was supported on a rest or by bi-pods there was enough give in the stock to let them make contact. Upgrading the stock to a Bell & Carlson Medalist with full lenght aluminum bedding block. I cut my group by 1/2 without doing anything else.