Remington 700 free-floating barrel problem? PICS

mlebler

mlebler

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Here's the story, I have this older Remington 700 in 30-06 and I'm not getting very good follow-up shots (at the range and hunting). My brother shot a brown bear with it today but his follow-up shots all missed, he's still out in the woods looking for it as we speak. I took a look at the rifle and it's apparent that the fore-stock is a little wrapped to one side. I also slipped a piece of paper along the barrel and the fore-stock to check it the barrel was free-floating (heard this is important for those follow-up shots when the barrel heats up and begins to warp). I found that the barrel was only touching the stock in one spot and seems to be the side it is wrapped towards......No amount of words can really "show" you what I'm talking about, so here are some pics I just took to help explain more:

This is the rifle itself
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The paper stops here when slipped down in between the barrel and fore-stock
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The paper was slipped in mid-way and can move freely until that same point as mentioned above
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Where I'am pointing is the spot where the barrel is indeed touching the stock
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As you can see, the fore-stock is warped to one wide
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Now I'm no expert, but could this be the problem to our crappy follow-up shots (besides our own shooting technique of course)? Is there any way this can be remedied? Let me know what you think! :)
 
mlebler said:
My brother shot a brown bear with it today but his follow-up shots all missed, he's still out in the woods looking for it as we speak.
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I would work on his shooting first.

follow up shots are never as accurate as a well placed first shot. so I would be suprised if freefloating was thae cause of your problem.
 
Yes it coul be the problem. You can releive this part with Sandpaper. Also a proper bedding of the action would help, it helped cut the groups down more than half on mine!
 
Amphibious said:
I would work on his shooting first.

follow up shots are never as accurate as a well placed first shot. so I would be suprised if freefloating was thae cause of your problem.
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First shot hit him in the shoulder, he went down and looked to be dead.......but then proceeded to get back up and tumbled around. It was on the run when my brother took a couple follow-up shots that were most-likely misses on his part......BUT this rifle has always had a problem grouping well, I want to remedy this, I'll work on my brother later :)
 
pilot24 said:
Yes it coul be the problem. You can releive this part with Sandpaper. Also a proper bedding of the action would help, it helped cut the groups down more than half on mine!
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Thanks! Figured this would be the solution but wanted to make sure.....Could I have issues if I took too much wood down? or will this rifle group better if I sand it down so there is absolutely no barrel contact from the action forward? How tight should the two screws that hold the action to the stock be?
 
I free floated my barrel while I bedded the action by wrapping about 6 layers of painter's tape around the barrel at the point which is came in contact with the forend of the stock. It worked like a charm! No need for sanding.
 
pilot24 said:
Yes it coul be the problem. You can releive this part with Sandpaper. Also a proper bedding of the action would help, it helped cut the groups down more than half on mine!
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Agree. If the action isn't sitting consistently in the stock, when you fire the rifle it will move around and come to rest in a different position, applying varying pressure to where its contacting the barrel. So as said, there could be two related issues. When you bed it, you centre the barrel in the stock's barrel channel where it should remain.
 
Gatehouse said:
Remingtons often have a factory installed pressure point, right where you indicated.
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I can see that the fore-stock has a barrel channel of some sort and I have read that Remington stocks have intentional pressure-points to stabilize the barrel as it heats.......would I be committing an unforgivable sin if I sanded this barrel channel away at the point of contact until the barrel was touching nothing but air? Do you think this might help? I have a feeling there is something wrong with the placement of this "pressure-point" and the stock itself......sanding it down and free-floating the barrel makes sense to me, but could others please confirm this before I do any work to it....
 
This looks like a Mountain Rifle to me, and those light barrels can be quite touchy as to contact with the stock. I would relieve it and bed the action first, and if that didn't do the trick, I would add a center front pad to put a small amount of "Up" pressure on that barrel. Regards, Eagleye.
 
Stress on the barrel can do weird things. I just finished working over a Marlin 336. The magazine tube was putting such inconsistent pressure on the barrel that groups were non-existent. I bent the magazine tube slightly so that it essentially free floated from the barrel, filed out some wood from the forearm and then put a few dabs of RTV to hold everything in place. Took it out to the range and now it's a very good and consistent shooter, hot or cold.

IMO anything touching the barrel is a bad thing. Having said that, Brno's have that weird screw in the fore end and they get along superbly.
 
he's still out in the woods looking for it as we speak
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So you are on the internet complaining about the accuracy of the rifle while your brother is out looking for a wounded bear?

Was this problem evident when you sighted in at the range? IE. the second shot was way off the first?
 
Ohno said:
So you are on the internet complaining about the accuracy of the rifle while your brother is out looking for a wounded bear?

Was this problem evident when you sighted in at the range? IE. the second shot was way off the first?
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It's dead, there's no doubt about that, but we have to find it.....this thread isn't about hunting it's about fixing my little accuracy problem, I would like to remedy it ASAP because it's our only decent rifle at the moment and I'm looking to get a bear myself (and a couple follow-up shots may be required).....Like I said, the first shot is always on and the second, third, forth become erratic......I'll relieve the site where it's touching the stock and see where that takes me, if that doesn't do the trick then I'll give some of your other ideas a go.....Thanks for the great info guys!
 
My rifle had 2 pressure point along the length of the barrel before bedding it and I was still able to shoot quite accurately with it, as could all of the others trying it. A barrel pressure point might infringe upon accuracy to the point of pushing a normally sub MOA rifle into the 1+ MOA category, but I'd be confident shooting at a bear within 200 meters with my Lee Enfield which boasts 3 MOA at best haha. Perhaps this is an optics/rings/bases problem? Unless your brother was just suffering form the huge amount of adrenalin that comes with shooting at a bear :D
 
SeamusMac said:
My rifle had 2 pressure point along the length of the barrel before bedding it and I was still able to shoot quite accurately with it, as could all of the others trying it. A barrel pressure point might infringe upon accuracy to the point of pushing a normally sub MOA rifle into the 1+ MOA category, but I'd be confident shooting at a bear within 200 meters with my Lee Enfield which boasts 3 MOA at best haha. Perhaps this is an optics/rings/bases problem? Unless your brother was just suffering form the huge amount of adrenalin that comes with shooting at a bear :D
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True enough.......I'll be at the range tomorrow with it......going to change out the rings and scope with my new Warne rings and Nikon Scope so I can at least count something out.....I'll get her shooting groups eventually!
 
From those pictures something is not right about the action in the stock. Supposed to have a pressure point or not, that pressure point may well be applying pressure sideways on the barrel. That can't be right. Good thing you have time to eliminate the scope and rings with your testing.
 
Well - Looking at the pics, the barrel is bearing heavily on the left side of the barrel channel - they arent supposed to be like that. Question begs, is the forestock warped, or is the action not seated in the stock properly (perhaps loose)
Have you had the action out of the stock, checked the action screws, bedding, etc. I'd look at that before doing any stock mods - looks like you'd have to remove a fair amount of material if you end up going that route.
 
That stock shouldn't look like that, obviously. I had a Win 70 Featherweight that touched one side of the stock, not as bad as yours. The first two shots would usually touch. The third would wander off to the left a couple of inches. Free floating fixed it.
 
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