I have a Remington 700xcr in 30-06 for 2+ years. After sighting in the rifle and shooting a few groups the last couple of years. I find the rifle shoots larger groups than I want. The rifle groups at 1 1/4". I am using Federal Premium with 165 ballistic tips. The scope mounts are tight and I'm using a Leupold vx7 scope. I have other 700's that shoot better. A blued 700 in 30-06 with a wooden stock [the one I replaced with this stainless 700 synthetic stock] shot well under 1" with the same ammo. While checking out the rifle I decided to see if the barrel was free floating. I noticed that it has a pressure point near the end of the stock. I am toying with the idea of sanding it out in search of better accuracy. Does anyone have any experience with better or worse accuracy after removing it. I am aware that this is a hunting rifle but it bugs me. I will also change to 180gr bt's and see what happens.
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Free floating the barrel is standard practice. The only thing that should touch the barrel are the threads of the action and recoil lug.
You have a factory rifle, shooting factory ammo, that will shoot 1 1/4" groups and your complaining? On most every rifle I've seen, when the pressure point was removed the groups opened up. A hunting rifle is designed to shoot 1-3 rds at a time not long strings like tactical or bench rest guns. The pressure point is what makes most rifles shoot very well until the metal starts getting hot and starts moving around, something you don't see in a true hunting situation. The first rd out each time, is the deciding factor with hunting rifles.
Using a tool for other than it's designed or intended purpose can be disappointing, a hunting rifle is not a tactical rifle. Don't believe everything folks say about XXX rifle can do XXX group at XXX yds all day long because if that was the case, their guns would be in a museum and their names would be known in the shooting world.
Using a tool for other than it's designed or intended purpose can be disappointing, a hunting rifle is not a tactical rifle. Don't believe everything folks say about XXX rifle can do XXX group at XXX yds all day long because if that was the case, their guns would be in a museum and their names would be known in the shooting world.
I've had rifles that shot better with a free floated barrel. I usually glass bed the lug area and free float the barrel on my 700 rifles. I have a couple rifles that shoot better with a front fore end shim. One of them has a thinner barrel. It is a Winchester featherweight. The shim really does help on that rifle. My 300 Winchester, model 700 has a 26 inch barrel. It didn't shoot very well with a floated barrel. I put a shim back in with epoxy (near the fore-end) and it made a big improvement in accuracy.
So, my advice would be to try free floating your barrel. If it shoots worse you might experiment with various shims that exert various amounts of pressure on the fore end area.
Also experiment with various factory loads, or reloads and find a load your rifle likes best.....An inch and a quarter group may not be too bad with factory ammo. I recently shot a four shot 1/4 inch group with one of my model 700's. It took a lot of experimenting to get that.
So, my advice would be to try free floating your barrel. If it shoots worse you might experiment with various shims that exert various amounts of pressure on the fore end area.
Also experiment with various factory loads, or reloads and find a load your rifle likes best.....An inch and a quarter group may not be too bad with factory ammo. I recently shot a four shot 1/4 inch group with one of my model 700's. It took a lot of experimenting to get that.
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The pressure pad dampens barrel vibrations. All the previous postings have good info about pressure points. You can always put in another pressure pad if you remove the current one, and don't like the way the rifle shoots..just use shims as suggested above. Pressure pads with synthetic stocks that don't swell or warp with changes in humidity, temperature and so on can actually help skinny barreled rifles shoot better for a couple of rounds as noted above.
Playing around with a rifle to see if you can improve it can be fun, or it can be frustrating as hell if you find that you wrecked what used to be a fairly decent shooting rifle. As long as you don't do any permanent damage to things, why not play around with removing, then if needed, replacing the pressure pad?
Playing around with a rifle to see if you can improve it can be fun, or it can be frustrating as hell if you find that you wrecked what used to be a fairly decent shooting rifle. As long as you don't do any permanent damage to things, why not play around with removing, then if needed, replacing the pressure pad?
