Frustrating build

[243Lapua]

I had somewhat of a problem with a Custom Build. Rem 700 with a 1-8 Broughton Barrel 243 Win .269 TN. Tried a couple of handloads and it just would group. 2-3" groups at 100 yards. Long Story short the problem was MIRAGE WAVES moving the target. I would go and test groups in the morning when there was morning dew and once the sun came out that evaporation was affecting my groups. Finally decided to wait and pick a cool and cloudy morning using the same loads, and what a surprise. My rifle was shooting groups considered bugholes. 5 shot groups were amazing. My 2 cents.

 

[rifle 57]

Before you put on another barrel try some wind flags you might get a surprise!

 

[dcederberg]

Thanks for the input but not the problem. We are getting narrowed down, will share when it's complete and shooting good. Thanks again.

 

[dcederberg]

Well time for an update on the .243, still shoots bad, on third stock. Took to a different smith today for him to look it over. One thing he found is he put a no go Guage in it and the bolt almost falls down, way loose! He is going to fix that for me and bed it, then we will try again. He thinks that is where the fliers are coming from. If that doesn't fix it I am getting a new barrel.

 

[cahunter805]

Wow! I'd have him check the action work and also the chamber to make sure the other gunsmiths work isn't as bad as his headspacing skills.

 

[dcederberg]

He is going to check everything he says. Really hoping this helps. Do you guys think the head spacing could be the whole accuracy problem??

 

[IdahoCTD]

No I don't think the slightly loose headspace is the issue. After all of that I think it was either chambered wrong or it's a bad barrel.

 

[Hired Gun]

No. A couple thousandths of head space means nothing to accuracy. Yours is only out of spec by 1/2 of 1 thousandths. Real excess headspace is easily compensated for at the reloading bench. It's the whole idea behind wildcats to blow out the case for more capacity.

 

[J E Custom]

From frustrating experience I would suspect the barrel it self.

+1

With everything else being good I would suspect the barrel. Shilen make good barrels but the only one of theirs that I will use is the select match (It has the tightest tolerances).

J E CUSTOM

 

[dcederberg]

Ya I suspect I will be buying a barrel real soon. I have not decided on brand yet. But it will be a little heavier than this one and probably stainless. Leaning towards a Benchmark I think. But , I will see what this smith comes up with first.

 

[IdahoCTD]

I'd buy a cut rifled barrel from Brux or Bartlein. Over the last 25 years I've had a lot more problems with button rifled barrels compared to cut. The exception to that is Schneider and I've used about all of the button and cut rifled barrels out there many times over.

 

[dcederberg]

That's really good info, I appreciate your help.

 

[bschneiderheinze]

I will never use a gunsmith that doesn't test fire rifles for accuracy before delivering them to the customer. If they can't get them to shoot at least 1/2 moa it should be back to the bench. That is how my gunsmith works

 

[dcederberg]

I think that's a good rule to live by. This has been a terrible experience.