Anyone have luck with Accumark?

[Laelkhunter]

Weatherby must have changed their routine then. When I was looking at a 300 WBY Mk V at my local gunshop, he took three out of the back stock room, and I looked at all three. I was first looking at the test targets, then the stocks with the best looking wood-grain patterns. I chose one that the test target had three holes in about a 3/4 inch group, and had the best wood grain of the three (although all three had beautiful wood).
The target had the rifle ser # on it, the load used (180 grain), and the shooter's initials. Maybe they don't do that anymore for all the rifles.

 

[horsefor4]

After reading this entire post I am very surprised to hear all the trouble with customer service at weatherby I live very close to paso robles my experience has been very positive any repair has been done for free they have re barreled a 300 wby that was shot out twice for very little money they have tried to trade me rifles it is one of the very first mark 5 oh and still accurate. The people that assembly their rifles are not gun smiths. They are super nice people.

 

[revturbo9967]

its been a long time since ive posted on the issue so heres my update on my mark 5 .338lm. i gave a good look at my stock and action and indeed did have a ton of movement when i loosened up the screws. i gave it a tight bedding job and loaded up 5 rounds each of .5 gr increments from 92-94 gr of retumbo with 300 gr accubonds. each 5 shot group was 2-2.5 inches.

im ready to throw this thing in the river. ive never seen a rife that is such a pain to get any kind of grouping. i have close to 300 rounds down this thing and havnt seen a better group then 1.5 -2 inch at 100 yards, and that may have been a fluke

 

[Hired Gun]

Just clarifying that when you say tight you don't mean you used the screws during the bedding process for anything other than locating the holes. One zip tie over the opened bolt over the rear tang and one zip over the end of the barrel that is centered in the free floating channel by tape. The screws were not bottomed in any way.

Weatherby stocks are kind of temperamental off of bags. It's not a target stock. The shape is wrong for that. I usually have to play with how much pressure into my shoulder to get it to group the best but once I find it the groups shrink dramatically. Loose usually works best for me. Almost free recoil.

Another problem with any rifle with this much recoil is, are the swivel studs contacting the bag at any time during recoil? I either use my mechanical rest to get well behind it or remove it.

Accumarks also seem to like bi pods as long as they are forward loaded.

I wish you lived closer. I have yet to see an Accumark (in person) that doesn't just shoot, especially after a little tuning.

Take it and one of your other best rifles out and go try some 300 yard groups. You might be surprised. The other rifle is a control to use the same rest and in the same conditions. Keep us posted.

I build a lot of Accumark styled clones and they almost always shoot better at distance than what the 100 yard groups indicate they should shoot. Put one in a McMillan A5 and they are a completely different acting animal. They are much easier to shoot on paper up close.

One other point of concern. Be sure you are not using windage adjustable base rings on the heavier calibers. They will move.

 

[revturbo9967]

Just clarifying that when you say tight you don't mean you used the screws during the bedding process for anything other than locating the holes. One zip tie over the opened bolt over the rear tang and one zip over the end of the barrel that is centered in the free floating channel by tape. The screws were not bottomed in any way.

Weatherby stocks are kind of temperamental off of bags. It's not a target stock. The shape is wrong for that. I usually have to play with how much pressure into my shoulder to get it to group the best but once I find it the groups shrink dramatically. Loose usually works best for me. Almost free recoil.

Another problem with any rifle with this much recoil is, are the swivel studs contacting the bag at any time during recoil? I either use my mechanical rest to get well behind it or remove it.

Accumarks also seem to like bi pods as long as they are forward loaded.

I wish you lived closer. I have yet to see an Accumark (in person) that doesn't just shoot, especially after a little tuning.

Take it and one of your other best rifles out and go try some 300 yard groups. You might be surprised. The other rifle is a control to use the same rest and in the same conditions. Keep us posted.

I build a lot of Accumark styled clones and they almost always shoot better at distance than what the 100 yard groups indicate they should shoot. Put one in a McMillan A5 and they are a completely different acting animal. They are much easier to shoot on paper up close.

One other point of concern. Be sure you are not using windage adjustable base rings on the heavier calibers. They will move.

here is some info on my rifle. the rifle has a bell and carlson fully adjustable stock. i bought one after i couldn't get a good cheek weld. the barrel as close to a 1/4 of clearance to the stock, so its not touching what so ever. when i bedded the action, i did use the screws to hold the rifle in place. so maybe that could be an issue although im not sure how. the scope base is a ken farrell magnum base with recoil screw with a set of seekins 34 mm precision rings. everything is torqued to spec

 

[Hired Gun]

If you use the actions screws to hold it in during bedding it places stress on the action. It only takes 3 inch pounds to bend an action. You got rid of the movement but stressed the action over the irregularities in the stock. Next time just use studs to align the action over the screws holes but don't put any nuts on them. While test fitting the only places that will touch the metal are a small area behind the rear tang and then where the tape centers it in the stock. The rest is floating over wet epoxy. That is a stress free bedding.

The Farrell base is possibly the worst fitting Weatherby base on the planet. He said this gap is intentional to make room for epoxy. He charged me 30% restocking fee to return it. Loosen the rear end of your base and check the clearance. If it taps, (most do a little) be sure to bed it to get rid of the binding your scope tube is in. The only Weatherby base usable out of the box is the NEAR base but it still needs checked.

As bad as this looks it is missed most all the time by the average do it yourself guy. It usually shows up when you take a test pass with a lapping bar.

 

[revturbo9967]

If you use the actions screws to hold it in during bedding it places stress on the action. It only takes 3 inch pounds to bend an action. You got rid of the movement but stressed the action over the irregularities in the stock. Next time just use studs to align the action over the screws holes but don't put any nuts on them. While test fitting the only places that will touch the metal are a small area behind the rear tang and then where the tape centers it in the stock. The rest is floating over wet epoxy. That is a stress free bedding.

The Farrell base is possibly the worst fitting Weatherby base on the planet. He said this gap is intentional to make room for epoxy. He charged me 30% restocking fee to return it. Loosen the rear end of your base and check the clearance. If it taps, (most do a little) be sure to bed it to get rid of the binding your scope tube is in. The only Weatherby base usable out of the box is the NEAR base but it still needs checked.

As bad as this looks it is missed most all the time by the average do it yourself guy. It usually shows up when you take a test pass with a lapping bar.

my base was the exact opposite of the one you have shown. the front had the gap, but it was no where near as big of a gap. maybe .020-.025? i gave it a light skim coat and there is not any movement in the scope base when i tightened it down

as far as the stock, i didnt know that. this is my first bedding job. i guess go back to the drawing board.

this is the most frustrating rifle on the planet. my 400$ .270 weatherby vanguard out of the box can shoot 1 inch or better all day long. this thing has yet to give me any type of accuracy and ive tried everything.



and thank you for your information

 

[Salar600]

don't give up my friend when you'll have fix all these small details, it's gona be a hammer.

I shot my Accumark, stock from the factory, for years with good results. This year I decided to bed it and lap the rings... Oh my god, what a new rifle!

 

[MudRunner2005]

He's exactly right, keep replacing things one at a time (like the barrel) on an already overpriced rifle, and eventually it WILL be like a "whole new rifle"...Then it will finally be a shooter.

 

[cacsrx1]

I have 2 Accumarks, .257 and .300Wby. Both are fantastic shooters out of the box. They both shot factory ammo well and Bergers in front of H1000 even better.

 

[revturbo9967]

He's exactly right, keep replacing things one at a time (like the barrel) on an already overpriced rifle, and eventually it WILL be like a "whole new rifle"...Then it will finally be a shooter.

i just bedded the action so we will try again. i have high hopes

 

[MudRunner2005]

i just bedded the action so we will try again. i have high hopes

No sarcasm, I sincerely hope you have better luck with yours than I had with mine.

I'm still a bit callous over the whole ordeal, but I'm no longer ****ed off like I was a year ago. I still won't own another one, unless they are only asking the price of what the Mark-V action itself is worth.

The thing that probably fanned the flames the most for me, was that the same people who love to tout about a $400 Remington ADL from Walmart having a scrap-heap barrel, love to throw up the BS-flag on a high-dollar rifle being a lemon, and make it somehow YOUR fault. The 2nd thing that irritates me, is that Weatherby's Vanguard rifles carry an MOA guarantee (and their Sub-MOA and Range Certified models carry a sub-MOA guarantee), but their high-end $1,600+ rifles are only guaranteed to 1.5" 3-shot groups at 100 yards. That seems completely backwards to me.

My rifle had a severe manufacturing defect in the barrel (regardless if it was Weatherby's or Criterion's fault). But with that aside, the more I think about it, the more I feel like the super-long Weatherby freebore is what attributes the most to these rifles being really finicky, because you can't get the bullets close enough to the lands for consistent results. In my rifle, using a Hornady COAL gauge, a Berger 115 VLD would literally fall out of the end of the case before it would hit the lands. It was ridiculous how long the freebore was on that rifle.

 

[revturbo9967]

No sarcasm, I sincerely hope you have better luck with yours than I had with mine.

I'm still a bit callous over the whole ordeal, but I'm no longer ****ed off like I was a year ago. I still won't own another one, unless they are only asking the price of what the Mark-V action itself is worth.

The thing that probably fanned the flames the most for me, was that the same people who love to tout about a $400 Remington ADL from Walmart having a scrap-heap barrel, love to throw up the BS-flag on a high-dollar rifle being a lemon, and make it somehow YOUR fault. The 2nd thing that irritates me, is that Weatherby's Vanguard rifles carry an MOA guarantee (and their Sub-MOA and Range Certified models carry a sub-MOA guarantee), but their high-end $1,600+ rifles are only guaranteed to 1.5" 3-shot groups at 100 yards. That seems completely backwards to me.

My rifle had a severe manufacturing defect in the barrel (regardless if it was Weatherby's or Criterion's fault). But with that aside, the more I think about it, the more I feel like the super-long Weatherby freebore is what attributes the most to these rifles being really finicky, because you can't get the bullets close enough to the lands for consistent results. In my rifle, using a Hornady COAL gauge, a Berger 115 VLD would literally fall out of the end of the case before it would hit the lands. It was ridiculous how long the freebore was on that rifle.

I completely agree with you on the cheap weatherby carrying a great guarantee yet the far more expensive mark 5 does not. It's kind of insane if you ask me. I have an older mark 5 in 300 weatherby and it has been a great rifle. My current mark V in 338 lm has been a head case from day one. Some of this is due to my learning curve with rifles and reloading as well as being new to the 338lm caliber all together. This rifle seems to have a freebore ( if I checked it correctly) which is workable. The 300 gr accubonds I've been trying to get to work can be loaded to .020 off the lands and be loaded into the mag. I'm running a 56mm objective lens as well as a base that pushed the scope a bit higher then I liked, so I needed an adjustable cheek piece. I went with a BC fully adjustable stock right from day one without every firing the rifle with the original stock. I'm convinced the action was jumping around and I have since bedded it twice, (first time was a mess) . I'm going to give it another good scrubbing and see where it goes from here.

I've been close to wanting to throw this rifle in the river, or cut it into pieces due to it being such a frustration. So I feel your pain

 

[Hired Gun]

Ed Weatherby is really stepping up the program at Weatherby. Check out www.weatherby.com for all the new stuff including the new Mark 5 accuracy warranty. Weatherby | Mark V