Trued Action

[BradleyH]

So, hypothetically speaking here. Would you or would you not, true an action without swapping the barrel?

I saw in some previous threads where many users frowned upon this, and with good reason. But i was reading the Designated Marksmen review by Mel over at SC.
Bolt Action Designated Marksman Rifle Conceptual Proposal - Sniper Central
And he was able to achieve Sub 1/4 MOA by taking a SPS V .308 and,

-Cut the barrel down to 16 In
-True the Action
-install a AWC stock and bed it

Now granted this was all done by Tac ops but should it be the same for most other smiths?

 

[Onoko]

You can true the action and leave the barrel and barrel threads as is but you may not get that 1/4 sub moa. It kind of depends on the barrel, if you got a great one or not. The smith could cut from the rear and rethread and chamber but contour is changed also. Usually you would swapout the barrel so the smith can realign the threads and straighten the barrel. The rifle usually shoots well out of the box I would just wait to do it all at once and change out the barrel.

 

[LRJammer]

I cant imagine why one would go to the expense of action truing and the time involved that it is gone to the smith and not replacing the barrel with a quality barrel. You might get lucky with the factory barrel, and then again you might not. For the time and money involved, why take chances?

 

[BradleyH]

I see what everyone is saying, and I personally agree on replacing the barrel also. It stood out to me though that he did it with a factory barrel

 

[bjay]

i think if you got at LEAST a sub moa out of the box riffle.no reason to do all that till barrel totaly toasted.IMO i wouldnt even do it on my cheapest (worst) bolt action.ill save to action for a better built later.and do all those extra work

 

[damoncali]

Sub 1/4 MOA is half truth at best. The finest benchrest rigs with 2 ounce triggers shot under match conditions with lots of wind flags and precise reloads do that - 5 groups of 5 shots, average under .250" with plenty of witnesses.

Trued up factory actions with stock barrels do not. For a sanity check, run a ballistics calculator for a 1 mph crosswind on a .308 and see what that would do to a group. It's damn hard to shoot holes that small!

"Shooting sub-.25 MOA several times" is exactly equivalent to "did not shoot sub .25 MOA, but shot something bigger and I disregarded the bigger groups".

If you expect that level of accuracy, even from a custom build by a good smith, you will most likely be disappointed.