Truing the action, is it worth it?

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fatboyz

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Working on my Remington Sendaro in 7 mm Rem Mag. Have had it bedded and free floated the barrel and tune the trigger. Still not great grouping (1.12" at 100) no matter what I try for loads. I have about 200 rounds through it. The action is a little sloppy, and the bolt is making slightmarking on the rear of the reciever where the rear stock bolt comes throgh. I am thnking of having the action trued and the bolt sleeved, and lugs honed. Is this a worthwhile step in the right direction?
I am capable of 3/4 MOA with my 222 at 100, and have shot 1/2 MOA at 100 with a TRG22 and am figuring I should be able to do that with the Sendaro. I know it will take practice for the longer distances.
Any thoughts? I'm hoping to keep the stock barrel, If absulutely necessary I could have custom Gunworx recut the chamber. I am prepared to spend the $ to have him do the action and bolt, but would have to wait a bit to the barrel if it's required.
 
fatboyz said:
Working on my Remington Sendaro in 7 mm Rem Mag. Have had it bedded and free floated the barrel and tune the trigger. Still not great grouping (1.12" at 100) no matter what I try for loads. I have about 200 rounds through it. The action is a little sloppy, and the bolt is making slightmarking on the rear of the reciever where the rear stock bolt comes throgh. I am thnking of having the action trued and the bolt sleeved, and lugs honed. Is this a worthwhile step in the right direction?
I am capable of 3/4 MOA with my 222 at 100, and have shot 1/2 MOA at 100 with a TRG22 and am figuring I should be able to do that with the Sendaro. I know it will take practice for the longer distances.
Any thoughts? I'm hoping to keep the stock barrel, If absulutely necessary I could have custom Gunworx recut the chamber. I am prepared to spend the $ to have him do the action and bolt, but would have to wait a bit to the barrel if it's required.
Click to expand...

I can tell you from you are wasting you money on trying to true a remington action, the best you can do is to try to lap the locking lug, and take around .002 of the face of the action where recoil lug go, doing any more than that would just wasting time and money,
 
IMHO you would be putting the cart before the horse.

Most of the accuracy is in a match grade barrel.
I sincerely doubt you will gain any measurable accuracy with an action blueprint and a factory barrel.

Lots of guns gain accuracy with a quality chamber redo, but you might as well pay the $300-400.00 extra for a new barrel and have it reamed in stead of a factory fouling POS.

Once complete the gun will be more accurate then you are....Sloppy bolt and all.
 
Most factory rifles are good enough, is the chamber that make a big different, I had two of my rifles rethreaded and rechamber it with a match chamber reamer, and the result are quite good, with accuracy down to 1/4" at 100meter, for example the chamber for the rem700PSS are quite long, at 2.931" OAL, as compared to the SAvage 10, with lead of 2.802" (168grain BTHP) .
I had one of my rem700PSS barrel done by a friend, the other one I did it myself with Pacific tool reamer 308match, and the result are quite good, so don't throw away you factory barrel.
 
Please visit my website and have a read in the rifle tech section.

I have several articles that can help you tune and load for you rifle.

Some factory barrels are just no good but unless you are sure that the set up is correct and you have done all that is necessary to make accurate ammo, there is always room to tweak.

If it is ok to discuss, who did your bedding and other rifle tuning?

Jerry
 
If you are going to do it right and funds allow for it, have a quality barrel put on and the action trued while your at it. Then bed it in your stock. You are wasting your cash to have that chamber cut off and re-done.
Doing it this way eliminates your almost certain #1 hinderance to accuracy.......the factory barrel. You won't have to work up a load and then discover it won't shoot like you want it to, etc. Do it right, do it once (well, until you shoot the new barrel out:))
 
Jerry, the bedding and other work was done at Custom Gunworx.
http://www.customgunworxgunsmithing.com/
He rethreaded and rechambered another 7 mag Sendaro with noticeable improvements. Very much like Gunboy suggested in the above post.
I'll check your site, and try a few more tweaks with the handloads and see how it goes.
Don
 
A factory barrel could quite well benefit from setting back and rechambering. The throat would probably end up being shorter and the chamber better. I don't know if it is a cost wise project though. The money spent on truing is a one time expense.
 
Fatboyz - If you are not sure, have a competent smith look at it first. Then, have a second opinion. Don't spend money unless you know what is wrong. Ask around and find someone who knows what they are doing in your area. With hand loads, you should get under 1moa. If not, there is something wrong.
 
I'm going to rework some loads with some tips from Mystics site (match primers etc) and go from there. I will make sure it's not the reloads and then go from there.
 
The time (and thus, the expense) of truing the action may or may not be of any measurable benefit; especially when combined with the stock barrel.
Generally speaking, a reasonable accurizing job would consist of bedding, re-crowning, and trigger work. I would expect a Sendero 7 Mag, properly set up, to shoot at around the 3/4 minute mark (By the way, to me, this means 3/4 minute for 5 shot groups on a regular basis; not 3/4 minute three shot groups 10% of the time).
A good 'smith should be able to tell you if the factory barrel looks to be worth working with. Try and get an honest assessment and go from there.
35 years ago, it was commonplace to build benchrest rifles on Remington actions with only rudimentary truing (receiver face and lap the lugs) yet many of these rifles shot at or near the 1/4 minute level. I suspect your problem is either barrel or bedding. Regards, Bill.
 
Fatboyz,

Leeper and Guntech are long-time VERY experienced expert gunsmiths/gun-builders. A sendero is no different from an SPS except for the window dressing and claims of better barrels than their other models (they aren't!)

For the cost of setting back a known mediocre-shooter, you should simply re-barrel. There are many options out there. As to the bolt, for the cost of "sleeving" a bolt (a process I personally don't like) you could have it plated which actually builds up the metal, or you could simply get a new match grade bolt from PT&G.

But......Even a shagged-out old Mauser action will generally produce sub-half minute groups using a match barrel. It aint the action, it's the barrel.
 
Some simple tests:

Take the action screws out and try and move the action and the stock. If the bedding is done well, there should be zero movement in the direction of the bore or being able to twist the action. There may be a little tilt, lift the rear of the action/barrel towards the stock, so that the action can be separated from the stock.

Otherwise, when assembled, it should feel like a solid unit. Supporting under the first 1" or so of the barrel doesn't hurt either. If there is wiggle, bedding may be an issue.

Make sure all the scope bases are on tight. The 7RM has a wonderful way to shaking things loose. You will rarely see a loose scope base but it will drive you insane with goofy groups - been there several times. Of course, check that the scope rings are also tight BUT not bending or stressing the scope tube.

Good rests, solid bench, calm days, lots of light. Take your time and don't rush through your shooting. The 7RM will boot and even though it doesn't hurt, your ability to have fine motor control may drop with fatigue. Take a break, let the barrel cool. Shoot less but get better results.

If you are using quality bullets, powders and primers with ammo that has little runout, you will definitely see positive results on your first 'ladder' test. Then work around the accuracy nodes and you will quickly know if the barrel will shoot or not.

Accurate barrels are also consistent barrels. 1/2" on one day is not 1.5" the next. A good barrel will shoot with boring regularity.

If you make a bad shot, call it but don't blame every bad shot as a miss pull. When you shoot a few groups, you will see trends forming and some barrels simply will not drive them all into one hole.

Good luck...

Jerry
 
700 rem

mysticplayer said:
some simple tests:

Take the action screws out and try and move the action and the stock. If the bedding is done well, there should be zero movement in the direction of the bore or being able to twist the action. There may be a little tilt, lift the rear of the action/barrel towards the stock, so that the action can be separated from the stock.

Otherwise, when assembled, it should feel like a solid unit. Supporting under the first 1" or so of the barrel doesn't hurt either. If there is wiggle, bedding may be an issue.

Make sure all the scope bases are on tight. The 7rm has a wonderful way to shaking things loose. You will rarely see a loose scope base but it will drive you insane with goofy groups - been there several times. Of course, check that the scope rings are also tight but not bending or stressing the scope tube.

Good rests, solid bench, calm days, lots of light. Take your time and don't rush through your shooting. The 7rm will boot and even though it doesn't hurt, your ability to have fine motor control may drop with fatigue. Take a break, let the barrel cool. Shoot less but get better results.

If you are using quality bullets, powders and primers with ammo that has little runout, you will definitely see positive results on your first 'ladder' test. Then work around the accuracy nodes and you will quickly know if the barrel will shoot or not.

Accurate barrels are also consistent barrels. 1/2" on one day is not 1.5" the next. A good barrel will shoot with boring regularity.

If you make a bad shot, call it but don't blame every bad shot as a miss pull. When you shoot a few groups, you will see trends forming and some barrels simply will not drive them all into one hole.

Good luck...

Jerry
Click to expand...

xx22
 
looks like I know what I'll be doing over Christmas. I'm still a little unclear on Runout and how to eliminate, or minimize it?
 
I did one for a Good friend of mine, with a winchester mod70 HB in 308, he is very happy with the result, there is nothing wrong with factory barrel, make sure you gunsmith does it with a match reamer 308.
 
My friend and I constantly shoot 1000+ yds with our factory Remington 700 action/barrels (mine is an LTR, his is an SPS-T) with minimal issues. I've been out to the same locations and shooting the same distances with other people on here who have fully custom built rifles (from very respectable companies who we all talk about on here), and the results have been the same for all of us.

Conclusion:
Until I wear my factory 20" barrel out, I won't be replacing it (or truing the action) with the barrel I originally wanted. I am not shooting in comps and I am not trying to shoot .25 MOA @ 300 yds and beyond - if I were, I'd consider a Surgeon action and Krieger (or similar) barrel.

1120 yds to target:
IMG_4769.jpg
 
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