Need advice rem 700 VTR

[Craig0ry]

I've had my VTR in .308 for 4 or 5 years now, and its always shot great for me, On the average day I usually touch 3 at 100, Lately my friends and I have been getting into some longer range stuff at 1000yrds, So I put a 20moa rail on it and threw a new trigger in and re zeroed it, All is good.... The barrel has always touched at the end of the stock on the 2 corners of the triangle barrel. So a few days ago I decided to dremel the end of the stock to free float the barrel. Took it out tonight and my groups were about 4-5" at 100yrds. confused by this I had my buddy shoot it too, same thing happens. After checking everything to make sure nothing was loose on the rifle it checked out good, So I decided to fold a small piece of paper up a few times and stuff it between the barrel and end of the stock, My groups shrunk a bit but I still could not shoot a consistent group. they all looked similar to this on 3 different targets not necessarily in the same shooting order. So Iam confused, was free floating the barrel a mistake? or is something else amiss here.



Also I've been using the same load for the last 2 years.
And tonight was dead calm out.

 

[Shabazz]

By free floating the barrel you changed the harmonics of the rifle. It's possible that your rifle no longer likes the ammo that was shooting well previously because of this. I wouldn't say it was a mistake to free float the barrel but you may have to work up a different load.

 

[Craig0ry]

By free floating the barrel you changed the harmonics of the rifle. It's possible that your rifle no longer likes the ammo that was shooting well previously because of this. I wouldn't say it was a mistake to free float the barrel but you may have to work up a different load.

Do you think adding material back to the end of the stock would work? I should have just left it alone after the trigger and the rail.
After I had a little foot surgery May and was confined to the house I built 500 rounds for it, And that's a lot of bullet pulling if I have to change my load :S

Hows the saying go? "Dont fix it if it aint broke" I guess I should have listened to that.

 

[Shabazz]

Honestly, trying to recreate those points of contact sounds like a nightmare project to me. The way I see it the barrel is now free floated and that's an improvement. What I would do first is pull the action from the stock again and make sure that it's reinstalled correctly (everything is clean and free of debris, action is properly seated in the stock). If that doesn't work then another easy thing to try is different action screw torque values. That will again change the harmonics of the rifle and may result in tighter groups.

 

[R1200GS]

You may need to bed the action then float the barrel. The learning opertunities are considerable in 1000 yard shooting. I guess that's why it can be so addictive.

 

[DMS1]

I did the same thing years ago, if you want to prove it was the pressure points, you can add layers of electrical tape to the stock so that you get a similar "preload" as you tighten up the action screws.

My groups tightened up a bit. A buddy had another VTR, I always though he had his scope out of level, he gave it to me to see about his pressure points, I found out the stock was twisted more that 1" along the butt stock. One of the pressure points hit 1/4" before the other and tightening the action screws took some of the twist out of the stock

 

[Craig0ry]

Ran into another issue, tried torquing the action screws to 50" lbs going back and forth between the 2 in 1/2" lb increments and the forward action screw actually protrudes into the action by a thread or so stopping the bolt from closing, I think I'll shorten it up 1-2 threads and try it again to see if it helps.