Hi everyone. I have a stupid question, first I'll give you a bit of background info. I recently bought my first rifle- A remington 700 sps tactical in .223. When I first started shooting it, I found the accuracy to be quite poor. It seemed to be all over the place, regardless of the ammo that I used (I still haven't shot any high end ammo out of the gun). I could pull off the occasional sub MOA group, but most were 1.5-2 MOA. This has gone on for several shooting excursions. So last week I removed the action from the stock, as I was getting HARD contact between the fore end and the barrel. I ground out the spot that was contacting and reinstalled the action. I took it shooting yesterday for the first time with the barrel free floated and WOW! What a difference. I shot 5- 3 round groups, all under 1 MOA, shooting Federal American Eagle 62gr FMJ. Needless to say I was very pleased. Today I went out shooting again. Same ammo, and shot all over the place. Some groups were 3 MOA. I'm confident it wasn't me, I felt I executed the fundamentals of marksmanship not perfectly, but quite well. Frustrated, I returned home, and while drying off and oiling my rifle I heard a weird clunking noise. I quickly discovered that my bipod had come loose- very loose, and was almost falling off of the stud. Could this be what caused my issues today? Any thoughts?
Accuracy Issues... Loose bipod?
- Thread starter 223submoa
- Start date
It could be a number of things and a loose bipod certainly is a possibility. What I recommend is this:
Buy a box of Federal Gold Medal Match ammo
Remove bipod
Shoot from the bench off a stable front rest
Use a comfortable, quality rear bag
See what your group look like now - that will be a good indication of the rifle's inherent accuracy.
Now you can consider bedding to tighten up the groups and any other mods you like.
Buy a box of Federal Gold Medal Match ammo
Remove bipod
Shoot from the bench off a stable front rest
Use a comfortable, quality rear bag
See what your group look like now - that will be a good indication of the rifle's inherent accuracy.
Now you can consider bedding to tighten up the groups and any other mods you like.
porterhouse
Regular
- Location
- Lower Mainland
Those Hogue stocks tend to flex when using the bi-pod causing the stock to touch the barrel... bedding the action and stiffening up the forend will do wonders for your group size.... Also, as Tomochan said, get some quality match ammo for it or start reloading with quality components. Garbage in, garbage out so to speak.
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Yep, the loose bipod can cause some grief.
When shooting with a bipod, I normally try putting consistant forward pressure to aid my groups.
If you can, get the action glass bedded into the stock (not permanently of course). This will add even more rigidity/and consistantcy to your rifle platform.
I recently glass bedded a Remington 700 SPS, SSDM in 30-06. The stock was so ridiculously flexible before glass
Bedding that it was retetarded! With the smallest amount of torque applied to the pistol grip of the stock, I was able to change the amount of gap between the stock and the free floated barrel! I had the biggest problem of double grouping with this rifle before glass bedding.
I completely filled in all the empty forend space in the barrel channel in three glass pourings. Then free floated the barrel from the end of the chamber swell to the end of the stock. It added about a full pound to my rifle, but it dramatically improved the stocks rigidity! This rifle has very little problem in keeping most loads inside 1.25" now. Some loads shoot nicely rounded clusters at about .75-.90". I am very happy with that from a generic hunting rifle!
Hope this information helps.
When shooting with a bipod, I normally try putting consistant forward pressure to aid my groups.
If you can, get the action glass bedded into the stock (not permanently of course). This will add even more rigidity/and consistantcy to your rifle platform.
I recently glass bedded a Remington 700 SPS, SSDM in 30-06. The stock was so ridiculously flexible before glass
Bedding that it was retetarded! With the smallest amount of torque applied to the pistol grip of the stock, I was able to change the amount of gap between the stock and the free floated barrel! I had the biggest problem of double grouping with this rifle before glass bedding.
I completely filled in all the empty forend space in the barrel channel in three glass pourings. Then free floated the barrel from the end of the chamber swell to the end of the stock. It added about a full pound to my rifle, but it dramatically improved the stocks rigidity! This rifle has very little problem in keeping most loads inside 1.25" now. Some loads shoot nicely rounded clusters at about .75-.90". I am very happy with that from a generic hunting rifle!
Hope this information helps.
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Thank you everyone for the replies. I don't think I'm going to bother bedding the Hogue stock, as my plans for this rifle include swapping out the stock to a bell and carlson or HS precision at some point. I don't want to force that upgrade by buggering up my hogue stock trying to bed it. I plan to start reloading soon, but need to build my "fun money" reserves back up after the purchase of the rifle, scope, etc. I went out shooting again this afternoon for just a few minutes to test something. I fired one group from the bipod, and two from my front and rear shooting bags. Here are the results: (Disregard holes circled with sharpie, I reused this target)
First group from bipod: (This group is substantially better than what it was shooting earlier when the BP was loose, but still not great.)
Second Group shot from front and rear bags: (Probably the best group that I've shot to date)
Third Group: (also from bags- The point of impact of my rifle seems to shift down a bit when the barrel is hot.)
And some gun ####, because... well gun #### is awesome!:
The results of this excursion increase my suspicions that the issues are coming from the flexibility of the Hogue fore end. The next time I shoot I'm going to shoot 5 groups from the BP, and 5 from the bags, with cool down time in between each group, then average each method's groups to see which is more accurate and by how much. On an unrelated note- Does anyone know why I can't post pictures? Is it because I'm a new member?
First group from bipod: (This group is substantially better than what it was shooting earlier when the BP was loose, but still not great.)
Second Group shot from front and rear bags: (Probably the best group that I've shot to date)
Third Group: (also from bags- The point of impact of my rifle seems to shift down a bit when the barrel is hot.)
And some gun ####, because... well gun #### is awesome!:
The results of this excursion increase my suspicions that the issues are coming from the flexibility of the Hogue fore end. The next time I shoot I'm going to shoot 5 groups from the BP, and 5 from the bags, with cool down time in between each group, then average each method's groups to see which is more accurate and by how much. On an unrelated note- Does anyone know why I can't post pictures? Is it because I'm a new member?
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Here’s a good trick…
Stab a tent peg into the ground under your bipod and run a 1 inch nylon web from the tent peg to the sling swivel on a Harris bipod. When you shoot, just pull back on the rifle until there is tension on the nylon strap, then take aim and shoot. This tension creates down force to help prevent the rifle from jumping, plus the recoil is transferred to the ground – not your shoulder. If the strap is long it will have more stretch and less down force. If the strap is short it will pull down more firmly and quickly arrest recoil. Just tune the length to your preference.
This is especially nice if you shoot a light weight large caliber rifle.
Not legal for F-class though.
Stab a tent peg into the ground under your bipod and run a 1 inch nylon web from the tent peg to the sling swivel on a Harris bipod. When you shoot, just pull back on the rifle until there is tension on the nylon strap, then take aim and shoot. This tension creates down force to help prevent the rifle from jumping, plus the recoil is transferred to the ground – not your shoulder. If the strap is long it will have more stretch and less down force. If the strap is short it will pull down more firmly and quickly arrest recoil. Just tune the length to your preference.
This is especially nice if you shoot a light weight large caliber rifle.
Not legal for F-class though.
I'm in central PEI. F/TR is a type of f-class shooting where you can use either 223 or 308 only. Check this page out for more info if you're interested http://dcra.ca/fclass.php
Also http://peipra.ca/PEIPRA/Home.html for PEI specific stuff.
Also http://peipra.ca/PEIPRA/Home.html for PEI specific stuff.
