Remington 597HB accuracy

Adriaan

Adriaan

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Purchased a Remington 597HB to get into rimfire precision shooting Production division.
I have tried 13 different brands of ammo and the best grouping I could get was 1" at 25 meters.
I have cleaned and checked the barrel.
Checked the crown and chamber.
Cleaned the action.
Free floated the barrel with reduction of from of the stock.
Torqued the actions screws.
Torqued the rail scope mount.
Don't know what else to try and get this rifle sub MOA like it's suppose too.
Any advice would be appreciated!
 
Adriaan said:
Purchased a Remington 597HB to get into rimfire precision shooting Production division.
I have tried 13 different brands of ammo and the best grouping I could get was 1" at 25 meters.
I have cleaned and checked the barrel.
Checked the crown and chamber.
Cleaned the action.
Free floated the barrel with reduction of from of the stock.
Torqued the actions screws.
Torqued the rail scope mount.
Don't know what else to try and get this rifle sub MOA like it's suppose too.
Any advice would be appreciated!
Click to expand...

Are you shooting from sand bags or a front rest?
 
I’ve had rifles that hated 15 different types then 16 was magic! Does sound pretty bad for 25m I would understand if that was 50m!
Sadly you can spend more money then it’s worth I get the if ya really like the rifle but every once in awhile there’s a real bad apple.
What have you tried for target ammo? And ditch the scope to try something else I’ve seen guys loose hair over that one and not cheap ones either.
For just the heck of it recrown the barrel as well.
That should keep ya busy good luck!!
 
As mentioned above, always try it with a scope you know works well. Make sure the scope works good on another rifle.

Parallax can cause issues as well. What is your scope set up for in terms of parallax? Is it adjustable?

I don’t have much experience shooting 25 yards. All my .22 shooting is predominantly 50 yards so it’s hard to compare accuracy.

I wouldn’t expect great accuracy out of a Rem 597. To be honest your groups sound fairly reasonable. If you can produce ~2.5” groups at 50 I would say that’s as good as you can expect. I think the 597 is a little more accurate than the 10/22 but they both suck.

Personally I think trying a bunch more ammunition types is a waste of time. Sure some ammo works better than other ammo, but having a consistent supply is impossible. You might find some brand of ammo that works excellent but there’s issues with that. The ammo may be hard to get at times, and there’s no guarantee that it will be the same next time you buy it. Theres a good chance next time you buy what should be the same ammo it’s actually a little different and doesn’t work as well.
 
Coleman has some good points but is way off base in others.

He is right in that you shouldn’t expect great accuracy from a 597, an$ i dont from mine with the ammo I’ve tried either. But 2.5” is completely unreasonable as far as acceptable goes. Using cheap ammo I was getting about 3/4” at 50 yards. We would play battleship and it wasn’t uncommon to shoot two extra shots than what the game required as a minimum.

I have found that American Eagle has worked well out of mine, but I’m still looking for better.
 
ScottMisfits said:
Coleman has some good points but is way off base in others.

He is right in that you shouldn’t expect great accuracy from a 597, an$ i dont from mine with the ammo I’ve tried either. But 2.5” is completely unreasonable as far as acceptable goes. Using cheap ammo I was getting about 3/4” at 50 yards. We would play battleship and it wasn’t uncommon to shoot two extra shots than what the game required as a minimum.

I have found that American Eagle has worked well out of mine, but I’m still looking for better.
Click to expand...

Admittedly I haven’t played with a HB 597, only my buddies regular 597.I am not sure if the HB version has any accuracy gains over the standard barrel. I know with the 10/22’s the difference between the HB and sporter barrel is negligible.

If you are getting 3/4” groups with a 597, that is very lucky. 2.5” is what a HB 10/22 is generally capable of.

I would have to see that to believe it.
 
Even my 10/22's, which I don't think are as good as the 597's, were doing much better than 2.5" at 5 0 yards. Maybe more range time is needed for your buddy? I don't know, and I'm.not trying to be rude but that is horrible.
 
Sub-MOA accuracy (less than 1” @ 100yds) should only be expected from a target grade .22lr rifle with match ammunition. I would imagine that anything around 1” @ 50 (~2MOA) would be excellent accuracy from a 597.
 
To many variables.

Are you using a rest? A bag? Propped up on a table?

Do you have the upgraded trigger, or the stock one?

Presuming you’ve done all you can to eliminate yourself from the equation, keep trying different ammo. 5 round groupings should be enough.

I too had an issue with finding the right one. I saw 3” groups at 50 meters at worst, and inside a quarter at best. The cheapest ammo for me, turned out to be the best (winchest wildcat, stuff that comes in 555 boxes. Cant recall weight). Primo Cci mini mag stuff was some of the worse, for me.
 
Thanks everyone for you response and ideas.
Yes I have limited all user errors and tried sandbag and bipod. I shoot sub MOA with my MKii Fv and SK rifle match ammo.
Got this one for my son to use in the production division.
Using Vortex scope that cost twice as much as the rifle.
I'll try testing more ammo.
Thanks again everyone!
 
I too prefer the 597 over the 1022. They're not perfect but I find they're great shooters once tuned a little. There are a lot of things to check but one that hasn't been touched on yet by the others is to check to make sure the front action screw is bottoming out. If this is happening, the action will still be loose in the stock. Probably not enough to see or feel but enough to shift slightly between shots. Some shave down the front screw a millimeter or so to be sure it isn't bottoming. Another thing to check is that the receiver isn't cracked at the barrel wedge. If the barrel has taken a hit on the side, sometimes this will crack the receiver housing. You'll have to pull the action out, trigger group off, unscrew the barrel retaining wedge and remove the barrel, to see if it's cracked inside. Obviously I'm sure you would have noticed it being cracked on the outside. This would cause the barrel to wander around with every shot. When reassembling, be sure not to over torque the screw holding the wedge. This will crack the receiver for sure. Good luck. I haven't had a 597 yet that hasn't been made to shoot very well while spending no money on expensive upgrades. Good luck
 
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