A few weeks ago I read a post on another forum from a fellow who was unhappy with his VTR. He was getting groups that were 2” at best. He had the trigger adjusted and had others shoot it and no one was able to improve to better than a 2” group.
I contacted him to see if he wanted to sell the rifle. I thought it would be interesting to buy it, shoot it and see what it would take to improve it to .5 or better. It could be kind of a project rifle. When finished I could sell it and not lose anything. We came to terms that I believe were fair to both of us and yesterday the VTR arrived.
I took it out to the shop and began to look for anything that was obviously wrong with it. I examined the muzzle, the 2 piece scope mounts, checked the trigger, the stock and the bolt. I did find that the finish had been worn off the underside of the barrel where the stock contacted it, so it was obviously not free-floated. In fact it looked like there was quite a bit of contact and rubbing going on. The image below shows the point at which the stock was rubbing the barrel raw. I was pretty convinced that any problems this rifle had were due to the stock rubbing the barrel. I also found that the trigger broke at 2.5 pounds nice and crisp….most of the time. It was very inconsistent breaking at 3.5 a couple of times and at 1 pound a couple times but mostly at 2.5 pounds. I think it had been adjusted well; it had very little creep and almost no over-travel.
Today I mounted a Wonder Optics 4.5-14x50 WoTac 3rd gen scope and headed to the range. It was a beautiful day in central Ohio with clear skies, mid 60’s and a wind I’d estimate at 5 mph no value. It was a perfect day for the range. I set up my lead sled and a target at 25 yards to bore sight it. I couldn’t find my laser bore sighter this morning and I have found that the BSA bore sighter I have is junk…hey it was free so don’t hate on me for having anything BSA. So I used the old fashioned way and used the bore and my one good eye to get on paper.
My plan was to zero the scope using some cheap ammo and then shoot for groups with some mystery AMAX that came with a barreled action I picked up not to long ago. I zeroed as best I could with the Winchester 147 gr 7.62mm white box, but it sprayed that stuff all over the map, there were no discernable groups. I was sure this rifle was not going to shoot with that stock on it. After I zeroed and tried to shoot some groups with the Remington stock with the AMAX I was going to put the barreled action in a Bell & Carlson light tactical and see how it did.
I know the AMAX were factory Hornady rounds but I don’t know the weight of the bullets, there was no box when they showed up and I only had 20 of them. When I loaded up the AMAX something magic happened, the first group I shot was 5 shots at 1.125” center to center. What in the world, this was with the factory stock still on it; there was no way this rifle should be shooting like this. I started in on the second five shot group and holy cow….it was .75” center to center. I was floored to say the least. I switched to the B&C stock not knowing what to expect. I managed to get a .75” 3 shot group after re-zeroing with the new stock. And then the magic ended. I went for a 5 shot group and the rifle started vertical stringing indicating it was time for me to let it cool and/or clean it, but now I was out of the magic AMAX cartridges!
Needless to say I was blown away by the results. It was absolutely not what I expected and I can’t explain it. I also want to defend the fellow I got the rifle from by saying he was shooting off a bipod which I believe would put more stress on the contact points in the stock on the barrel and he was shooting prone (I believe) as a rule which is more difficult that shooting off a bench and certainly more difficult than shooting off a lead sled. Pics of groups are below.
I’ll probably still end up tearing this rifle down, blueprinting the action, cutting a 700P barrel I have to 18” or 20” setting it back and rechambering and putting the whole thing in a nicer stock with a decent trigger and selling it. But, I had fun with it the way it is today.
I have a funny story too. There was a fellow at the range at the bench right next to mine who had the exact same rifle except he had a Nikon range finding scope. Before I started to shoot he bragged about how accurate his rifle was, I thought sure it could be; you know these VTR’s seem to be 50/50 as to whether they’ll shoot or not. He was shooting brown bear ammo and surplus ball ammo. I didn't pay much attention to him until I was leaving and he was standing there looking at his target, so I walked up and laid mine down next to his. He had no group, it was just sprayed all over everywhere, my target had the groups described above and pictured below. He looked at his them at mine and asked me if I wanted to buy his VTR. I will offer to sell it back to the guy I got it from for what I gave for it to be fair to him.
This is the first 5 shot group with the AMAX ammo with the VTR still in the Remy stock, it came in at 1.125” CTC.
This is the second 5 shot group with the AMAX ammo with the Remy Tupperware stock. .75” CTC for 5 shots!
This is the only group I could get while the rifle was in the B&C stock before it started stringing. .75” CTC 3 shots.
I contacted him to see if he wanted to sell the rifle. I thought it would be interesting to buy it, shoot it and see what it would take to improve it to .5 or better. It could be kind of a project rifle. When finished I could sell it and not lose anything. We came to terms that I believe were fair to both of us and yesterday the VTR arrived.
I took it out to the shop and began to look for anything that was obviously wrong with it. I examined the muzzle, the 2 piece scope mounts, checked the trigger, the stock and the bolt. I did find that the finish had been worn off the underside of the barrel where the stock contacted it, so it was obviously not free-floated. In fact it looked like there was quite a bit of contact and rubbing going on. The image below shows the point at which the stock was rubbing the barrel raw. I was pretty convinced that any problems this rifle had were due to the stock rubbing the barrel. I also found that the trigger broke at 2.5 pounds nice and crisp….most of the time. It was very inconsistent breaking at 3.5 a couple of times and at 1 pound a couple times but mostly at 2.5 pounds. I think it had been adjusted well; it had very little creep and almost no over-travel.
Today I mounted a Wonder Optics 4.5-14x50 WoTac 3rd gen scope and headed to the range. It was a beautiful day in central Ohio with clear skies, mid 60’s and a wind I’d estimate at 5 mph no value. It was a perfect day for the range. I set up my lead sled and a target at 25 yards to bore sight it. I couldn’t find my laser bore sighter this morning and I have found that the BSA bore sighter I have is junk…hey it was free so don’t hate on me for having anything BSA. So I used the old fashioned way and used the bore and my one good eye to get on paper.
My plan was to zero the scope using some cheap ammo and then shoot for groups with some mystery AMAX that came with a barreled action I picked up not to long ago. I zeroed as best I could with the Winchester 147 gr 7.62mm white box, but it sprayed that stuff all over the map, there were no discernable groups. I was sure this rifle was not going to shoot with that stock on it. After I zeroed and tried to shoot some groups with the Remington stock with the AMAX I was going to put the barreled action in a Bell & Carlson light tactical and see how it did.
I know the AMAX were factory Hornady rounds but I don’t know the weight of the bullets, there was no box when they showed up and I only had 20 of them. When I loaded up the AMAX something magic happened, the first group I shot was 5 shots at 1.125” center to center. What in the world, this was with the factory stock still on it; there was no way this rifle should be shooting like this. I started in on the second five shot group and holy cow….it was .75” center to center. I was floored to say the least. I switched to the B&C stock not knowing what to expect. I managed to get a .75” 3 shot group after re-zeroing with the new stock. And then the magic ended. I went for a 5 shot group and the rifle started vertical stringing indicating it was time for me to let it cool and/or clean it, but now I was out of the magic AMAX cartridges!
Needless to say I was blown away by the results. It was absolutely not what I expected and I can’t explain it. I also want to defend the fellow I got the rifle from by saying he was shooting off a bipod which I believe would put more stress on the contact points in the stock on the barrel and he was shooting prone (I believe) as a rule which is more difficult that shooting off a bench and certainly more difficult than shooting off a lead sled. Pics of groups are below.
I’ll probably still end up tearing this rifle down, blueprinting the action, cutting a 700P barrel I have to 18” or 20” setting it back and rechambering and putting the whole thing in a nicer stock with a decent trigger and selling it. But, I had fun with it the way it is today.
I have a funny story too. There was a fellow at the range at the bench right next to mine who had the exact same rifle except he had a Nikon range finding scope. Before I started to shoot he bragged about how accurate his rifle was, I thought sure it could be; you know these VTR’s seem to be 50/50 as to whether they’ll shoot or not. He was shooting brown bear ammo and surplus ball ammo. I didn't pay much attention to him until I was leaving and he was standing there looking at his target, so I walked up and laid mine down next to his. He had no group, it was just sprayed all over everywhere, my target had the groups described above and pictured below. He looked at his them at mine and asked me if I wanted to buy his VTR. I will offer to sell it back to the guy I got it from for what I gave for it to be fair to him.
This is the first 5 shot group with the AMAX ammo with the VTR still in the Remy stock, it came in at 1.125” CTC.
This is the second 5 shot group with the AMAX ammo with the Remy Tupperware stock. .75” CTC for 5 shots!
This is the only group I could get while the rifle was in the B&C stock before it started stringing. .75” CTC 3 shots.
