Gunsmithing What can go wrong

[GasLight]

Hello all, I was just doing some thinking, and wondering what can go wrong when building a gun. I mean factory remingtons are put out in rapid fashion, and most seem to come in under 1 MOA capable, and some even are real accurate. So, this got me to thinking, when a custom rifle is build, what can happen to make them not shoot really small? A bad barrel? A bad chamber? Where are the problems that can make a custom rifle go real big?

Thanks

Dave

 

[deadly0311]

Re: What can go wrong

shitty trigger, bad chamber job, messed up bedding, bad barrel, bad muzzle crown. Numerous things

 

[GasLight]

Re: What can go wrong

How bad do those things have to be to cause a custom barrel to be 3-4 MOA capable?

Just wanting to know how bad things have to be to get a bad rifle, when there are so many factory guns out there shooting 1MOA and better? Does Remington and Savage just have it that figured out? Why the complaints on how bad Remington's tolerances are...

Dave

 

[deadly0311]

Re: What can go wrong

the remington chambers and throat are long as hell, there lug surface contact is hit or miss. Not really sure how they get them to shoot as good as they do with some of the stuff that is wrong per say within the rifle. Im not a smith so i couldnt tell you how bad any of that would have to be for the rifle to shoot 3 or 4 MOA, but if you have a gun thats doing it i would check all the torque values and the scope before i went and starting looking into the action and chamber. Im sure that HateCA, WNRoscoe, or Terry Cross will chime in here and let you know the low down on it

 

[treebasher]

Re: What can go wrong

Funny I was just talking with a custom builder here in Billings the other day and we got on this same subject. We were talking about barrels and he said on the rare occasion when he has a rifle that he built and it won't shoot it is almost always a bad barrel. Now remember that this is a builder that works up loads for all of his work so he knows if they shoot or not.

But as deadly pointed out this is assuming that there are not any other problems with the rifle.

 

[Victor N TN]

Re: What can go wrong

I've had a couple of dozen new barrels. From several different makers in several different calibers. When installed on an accurate action with a good bedding job and a premium trigger, a crappy barrel / chamber can make or break a good rifle. Some barrels you can't make them shoot bad with any bullet. Some barrels you can't make shoot 1 MOA... much less below.

Most custom barrels are capable of <1 MOA. Most custom barrel makers make barrels that will shoot that way. I don't have access to ANY barrel makers records. But I'm going to guess that probably < (less than) 1% are returned for workmanship or quality issues. And probably at least SOME of those were exchanged to pacify the buyer. And the barrel probably wasn't bad. (I have a Rock returned barrel on my 1K rifle right now. It has shot .066", 5 shot groups at 100 yards and under 5" groups at 1K.)