Blueprinting action

[Robinhood493]

How important is blueprinting a factory remington action? The reason I am asking is that I'm thinking about following the videos Brownells has on building your own rifle with tools they sell without a lathe. I have heard that blueprinting will only get you that last small fraction of an inch in accuracy. The tools to do this job is around $600 from brownells. If it will get you that extra 1/8" group, it is not that important to me for the cost. Any opinions will be appreciated.

 

[1denogean]

i would like to know this also

 

[C.O. Shooter]

http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f94/blueprinting-remingotn-action-video-mcr-73667/

Maybe this will help!

 

[B23]

I'm not a gunsmith nor have I ever built my own rifle before so take this for what you wish.

In my opinion factory actions are just that, factory actions. Meaning they are mass produced and my guess is the tolerance specs. and quality control are much wider than say a custom action.

How I see it, by not having you action blueprinted you would be taking the risk and hoping your action is closer to the minimum side of factory specs.

For me, it would be the best $200-$250 you ever spent just to eliminate one, potentially big, variable from the gun building scenario. If for some reason it didn't shoot like you wanted it to atleast you would have peace of mind it wasn't the action.

 

[IdahoCTD]

I've built my own guns for right at 20 years now and have trued very few Remington actions. I have lapped the lugs but generally don't spend the time truing the whole action because I've seen more differences in the accuracy of individual barrel than the difference in a trued versus untrued action. If squeaking every last bit of accuracy out of a gun is what you want then by all means do it. I've had some crazy accurate rifles over the years with no more than lapped lugs so that tells me the individual barrel is more important than any other component.

 

[1100 Remington Man]

When I burn out my barrel, I just planning on having a Quality barrel put on it & that's it but I don't plan on shooting beyond 800 yds & will put on a # 4 contour to keep Weight down.

 

[Bart B]

'Smiths have been squaring receiver and bolt faces to their barrel tenon axis then lapping bolt lugs to full contact on Rem 700 and Win 70 ones for decades. That's all that is needed if the receiver and tenon thread axes are well aligned. A stronger firing pin spring helps, too.

 

[Outlaw6.0]

I thought this was an exceptional blerb from a well respected 'smith in my neck o' the woods:

"Since you asked and since I had this very conversation yesterday I'll answer it based on my experience.

I'm a car guy and a dragster fag in particular so I'll use it as an analogy.

If we go Pro Stock Drag Racing and want to be competitive we can't show up at a race with anything less than a normally aspirated 500cid engine making right around 1350hp. It don't matter how many .401 lights you cut, you won't win.

If you spend lots of time and money fussing and such you might find an extra 15-20hp that other guys don't have. In the world the rest of us live in 15-20hp isn't even worth mentioning. We'll never appreciate it in a street car and 99% of us aren't capable of putting it to the pavement anyway even if we did have it.

However, if your back in the pro stock car and your racing someone like Warren Johnson's kid then 15-20hp is a zip code of advantage.

Much is the same with precision rifle building, but it comes in two folds. Actual real world performance and the perceived gain/confidence boost it gives you as a shooter.


First you have to find that 1350hp. That starts with a premium grade barrel. All the action truing in the world won't fix a lemon. Neither will bedding, trigger jobs, optics, yada, yada.

All of those items fall into that 15-20hp category.

Action and bedding work make a great gun exceptional, but the gain is small and its expensive.

Next is the perceived value and the confidence it inspires in you as you pull the trigger. If you have the mindset that only an accurized receiver fitted with a great barrel will deliver the performance you must have, then that's all that will satisfy the bill. Anything less and your going to wonder/doubt your equipment when/if (WHEN) a shot comes up that isn't on call.

SO, receiver work is worth it if it's worth it to YOU. It's also worth it if your the caliber of shooter that averages in the HighMaster classification rating. (97% or better-not easy to do/maintain)

Hope this helped, but I fear it'll just put more doubts in your head. It's the truth though!

Please know that I don't say this as a shooter who's owned a dozen or so custom guns built by various marquee shops all over the US. My comments come from building a few hundred of these kinds of guns over 14 years in a variety of flavors for folks all over the world. It's just what I have observed over the years and my opinions/thoughts/findings are consistent with other builders who've been doing it as long/longer than I have.

C."

 

[IdahoCTD]

I agree with what he said Outlaw. If your shooting competitively or you only build a few custom rifles in your lifetime then by all means go all out. I do my own work and build quite a few rifles a year so it's only for my benefit or lack thereof. I've had more accurate rifles with untrued receivers than with trued receivers so like I said before I believe the barrel is by far the most important part with the installation a close second. I'm not sure the average person could measure the gain from truing a receiver unless it was over the course of lots of rounds and targets. It would be a interesting test to chamber a barrel on a untrued receiver and shoot a couple hundred rounds for groups and then set it back and true the receiver to see the gain. Granted there will be a slight gain by shortening the barrel just due to the increased stiffness.

 

[Outlaw6.0]

I agree with what he said Outlaw. If your shooting competitively or you only build a few custom rifles in your lifetime then by all means go all out. I do my own work and build quite a few rifles a year so it's only for my benefit or lack thereof. I've had more accurate rifles with untrued receivers than with trued receivers so like I said before I believe the barrel is by far the most important part with the installation a close second. I'm not sure the average person could measure the gain from truing a receiver unless it was over the course of lots of rounds and targets. It would be a interesting test to chamber a barrel on a untrued receiver and shoot a couple hundred rounds for groups and then set it back and true the receiver to see the gain. Granted there will be a slight gain by shortening the barrel just due to the increased stiffness.

I saw it as a great presentation in analogy. Something that everyone, seasoned shooter or first timer, can understand. I can say that every custom rifle i've build (non custom action) has been trued. Do they shoot? yup. Would they have shot w/o truing? Probably so. When I'm dumping a couple (or several) grand into a custom, a couple hundred bucks isn't going to sway my decision one way or the other..... Or maybe it has.... after moving to custom actions, I don't see any 700 based customs in the future. After all, buying the 700 & truing it is closing in on the cost of some custom actions...


t

 

[Sully2]

Contact these guys in Oregon...Action Works [[email protected]]

They have Rem 700 actions already blueprinted...ready to go and they are
$570 shipped for blued and $615 shipped for SST.

I had my 25-06AI built on one of their actions and I'll go right back to them in the spring when I start my next rifle

 

[Bart B]

SO, receiver work is worth it if it's worth it to YOU. It's also worth it if your the caliber of shooter that averages in the HighMaster classification rating. (97% or better-not easy to do/maintain)

My comments on truing Rem's and Win's are what the high masters did years ago before tube guns became the norm in high power competition. I have a High Master high power card in my billfold. Virtually all of the HM's preferred Winchester receivers as they are much stiffer than the Remingtons as well as having other features that are better than the Remington ones.