Results: Load Development & Accurizing (part 4)

[AJ Peacock]

FCH,

Nice job on your work so far. It takes a lot of discipline to document everything as you do it, when you'd rather just be racing forward.

I really enjoyed your posts and look forward to seeing the targets from your next foray at the range.

AJ

 

[Hired Gun]

Why not put a little compound on the aluminum bedding blocks (skim bed) to give your action a nice place to sit? Right now you only have two very small points of contact as shown in this picture by the worn spots that indicate your action is moving around.


On a Weatherby the way the aluminum chassis is cut there is no support under the recoil lug. Bedding must be put in there to support it or it bends the end of the action down as the front screw is tightened. On a Remington the accepted practice is a little clearance under the lug so it doesn't hold the front of the barrel up as front screw is threaded directly into the action and needs its support right around the screws. This is part of why pillar bedding is popular for the Remington action.

 

[woods]

Hey Hired Gun

So you are saying that in this picture

I should bed on top of the metal bedding block around the screw?

 

[FullCurlHunter]

For those of you that have been following, here are my targets for 81.5, 81.7 and 82.0 grain loads.

81.5: Believe it or not, shot 1 & 2 are in the exact same hole.

81.7: I cannot figure out how 81.7 was all over the place. I should note that shot 3 was from a well heated barrel and was rushed a bit as there were some guys waiting on me so that they could head down range.

82.0: Shot 3 was a designated "Flyer" as I yanked the trigger a bit I believe.

After this testing, I believe I am going to go with 82.0 grains of H4831. This winter, I would like to glass bed and float the barrel. I am struggling to understand/believe that shaving the pressure point out of the barrel will not affect this testing and which power charge shoots the best.... I also want to do some further testing with 81.5 grains as I think that showed some promise as well. I think two 3 shot groups is not enough to "finalize" my decision on the appropriate load. Also, I have to finish up this testing as we are now less than a month away from my western deer hunt.

Again, I appreciate all of your thoughts!! This has been a great process and I have learned quite a bit about processes and my rifle which I think is most important!

 

[FullCurlHunter]

Also, I forgot to mention that I find it interesting that this second group at 81.5 and it center of the group was nearly 2 inches lower than the initial testing group. The gun was cleaned (not removed from action) and no other settings were changes on the scope. The only variable that was drastically different was there was no wind the second shooting day compared to the first. Will a cross wind (10-15 mph) make a POI higher?

Also, 82.0 were only .5" higher in regards to the center of the group for group 1 and group 2 on both days...

Interesting I thought.

 

[Hired Gun]

Yes. skim bedding is a very thin coating right over the metal.

This was my first one. I never photoed the others as they came out much better. This one the barrel is fully floated.

Before

Closeup of front all scored up. This one isn't drilled. I may redo it someday to make it look better but it shoots so good I'm not touching it for now. I bed the Weatherby lug 100%

Wet MarineTex. Not shown in this picture is I did put a couple wraps of tape around the action screws to keep them centered in the screw holes

In the oven so to speak. No screws so the action and barrel are fully relaxed.

Front all cleaned up and cured. It is so thin it chipped out a little around the front action screw when I lifted it out of the stock. I didn't drill the front block on this one so where it is super thin it chipped. I didn't have this problem on ones I did later.

It chipped out around the rear screw but but over 90% was intact to support the tang. I have done 3 Accumarks and all 3 did the same around the rear screw. They still all shoot good though. If they were for someone else I would have touched it up.

 

[royinidaho]

I went back and viewed your rifle in Part 1.

The barrel isn't all that light plus I wouldn't quite know haw to bet the pressure point on a fluted barrel

The only thing I'd do different in the bedding instructions, above, would be to fully bed the recoil lug all the way around and the bottom. This is mostly personal prefrence. That's how Kirby did my AM and its how I've done every thing since I saw that.

Also, I'd run bedding material at to or almost to where the barrel begins to taper.

BTW, I'd also settle on that load, validate the drop chart and begin hanging some fur/hides on the garage.

 

[Hired Gun]

Here we are all put back together.

Well, how did it all work?

This is how the 257 shot before

This was my first group after bedding my 257Wby.

Another the same day.

My Weatherbys work okay.

Note: The bedding details are ofmy 300Wby. The groups are from my 257Wby.

 

[ol mike]

Fullcurlhunter ,

I think you should take the advise of Hired Gun and Dave -and float the barrel ,you're taking the time to do load developement that you might have to retune later when you do float it.Cut to the chase float it now -i'm sure your load will change very little.
Your gun will be/stay much closer to POI once you float the barrel.

When you get ready to bed it -use a true bedding kit -it will give you a more generous amount of time to work w/ the bedding -marine tex sets up pretty quick -too quick for a first timer.

I'll throw in a couple of bedding tips i use.

Look at the amount of volume it will take to fill the area you are bedding and put a sufficient amount in -too much makes a mess.

Have some paper towels w/ gun oil ready to wipe off any excess bedding material.

Wrap tape [enough wraps of electrical tape to touch the stock] around the barrel until it has filled in the floated area -that way when you put the gun into the bedding you won't have the front of the barrel touching the stock and the rear action screw in the air .
This will keep you from digging the recoil lug into the bedding and pushing the bedding material back ,meaning if the barrelled action isn't being held down by the screws the front of the action and barrel will mash the bedding wrong.So- that tape will keep the action and barrel sitting level in the stock.

After cleaning up the bedding around the edges -i take a black permanent marker and color the edge of the bedding black -it makes the lighter colored bedding material disappear.
It makes a good looking shadow effect between the action and stock.

Get some clay model material -clay -you can get it in the crafts section at x-mart.
Use it to keep bedding material from going into areas you don't want it in.
Take a small piece -rolled up round and put it at the front on the recoil lug so the bedding doesn't squish forward farther than you want.
Take a knife and cut it square to the stock so that you have a nice backing for the bedding to go up against.


Good luck w/ your hunt and business! -Mike

 

[Freebore]

Gentlemen,
I have to disagree with floating the barrel on an Ultra Light Weight. I don't think that Weatherby put all effort into R&D to not have the pressure point. I fully agree on the Accumarks that the barrel be floated as this is the way they come from the factory too. The barrel has to have side good clearance of the stock too.
.
I have 2 Light Weight both in 257 and they both shot their best with the pressure point. As a matter of fact they didn't shoot worth bucket of mud with out them even after several different load combo's
.
As for the flutes, just fill with modelers clay and build your dams with the same for installing the pressure point with bedding compound. they trick is getting the right the right height for the right pressure. Just measure the height BEFORE removing factory bumps. What I did was to use cut credit cards (a good thing) to get the the right pressure and height then miked them.
.
All my 3 Weatherby's have the recoil lugs fully bedded.

 

[davewilson]

if you have a gun that shoots better with a pressure point, i'll almost bet the farm that the receiver/ bolt lug/ barrel fit is not very good. a PP will cover this up to a degree. that's why it's common for production guns to have it. ask the smiths on here how many guns they build with light barrels where they have a pressure point at the front of the stock. i'm not going to say never, but it's rare.

 

[Freebore]

Dave,
My point exactly. Factory production rifle receiver, barrel, chamber, bolt face and lug areas. The reason for the pressure point to be needed. Granted, the first thing I normally do is to remove the pressure point on any rifle I acquire. This has proven to be of better accuracy. He (Full Curl) could try it with the point removed. His rifle may be of the few factories (Weatherby's light weights) that benefits from it. I bet his load is going to be changed.
My experience with the lightweight barreled Weatherby's is to have a pressure point. Once the factory barrel is shot out and a replacement installed all pressure points are out even if it's a factory match contour. Pending blueprinting the entire action too.
.
Like I said this is my experience with them.

 

[FullCurlHunter]

Excellent, thanks for all of the information guys! I still havent been out to the range yet to confirm 82.0 grain load with some more shooting in hopes of getting it sighted in to where I want it for hunting purposes.

This winter I plan to glass bed the action and potentially remove the pressure points. If I do remove the pressure points, I am going to take clay and make an exact mold of the current pressure points so I can make new ones just like the current if the gun does not improve with floating.

From the recommendations, it seems that fully bedding the recil lug/block is recommended on the weatherby mk v action.