Accurizing Hunting Rifle

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bisonhd

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I've got a perfectly adequate Remington 700 BDL DM in 300 Whtby. It shoots 3 round cold barrel groups of 1.5" @ 100 yards with pretty much everything.

I've tried several different bullets from barnes, hornady, nosler and even sierra match. Three different types of brass; Weatherby, Hornady(frontier) and Remington. Multiple powders including RL22, H4831, 4350.

Did the primer pockets, flash holes and neck sized, but still groups are rarely better (or worse) than 1.5".

Good enough! Probably but I want better. My other factor remington's, including an identical model in 260 will shoot groups half that. What's my next step? I suspect the cheap plastic stock may be the culpret.
 
How old is the rifle and was it in that caliber originally?

The older rifles that were chambered for the Weatherby calibers apparently had rather long throats which made it easy for the bullet to jump reducing initial pressures when the trigger was pulled and the pressures would gradually increase as the bullet finally made contact with the rifling, but this made hard for the rifle to acquire any great accuracy.
Newer versions of Weatherby calibers have shorter throats and greatly improved accuracy. I am not exactly sure of the time line when Weatherby decided to change this (I'm guessing around 10 years ago).
Now the above information is what I heard from a local gunsmith, when I asked him why have I heard that Weatherby's can't hit the side a suburban at 700 yards, I can understand this principal, it makes sense to me in this manner, however this could be something that your dealing with in your rifle and it might not be, but it should be considered depending on the age of the rifle.
I understand that to correct the longer throat the barrel will need to be shortened a bit at the chamber end and re-chambered using a newer Reamer (with shorter throat).
If I was you, I would try bedding the rifle first, and some other loads before doing any work to the barrel, or just take it in to a gunsmith and have him/her examine the throat and decide what do from there.
I hope that this isn't the problem for you, but thought I'd just make a brief mention of it to you since you were wondering about accuracy, could be a factor to look at.

Good luck.
 
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Thanks for your reply B.Ruddick.

The rifle is about a 10yr old factory rem. 300 Wtby with a 24" barrel. I still get published velocities but not sure what setting back, shortening the barrel may do. Probably got 100-150 rds through it.

This rifle does appear to have a "long throat". Seating bullets to touch the rifling is impossible, especially if I want the rounds to fit in the magazine. Perhaps I should try a few (slighty reduced loads) with the bullet seated nearer the lands, not practical for hunting but may prove or disqualify this theory.
 
I sent a remington 700 vssf in 22-250 off to Corlane sporting goods for accurizing.For $140,they trued the action,lapped the lugs, and recrowned the barrel.The results were a reduction in group size from 1" to 5/8".The 700 vssf comes with the bedding block and a free floated barrel,so the bedding was left as is.
 
Doubt it's flinch. For load development I bench and sandbag to eliminate the human factor as much as possible. I'm alternating between a few different rifles while they cool, including another 300 mag. None of the other groups are over 1 moa.
 
If you are serious about keeping that rifle, I'd sent it to the gunsmith, get him to glass bed it, adjust the trigger, check the locking lugs and re-crown.





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Try a different scope to determine if the accuracy limitation is the scope you are using. Torque the action bolts to 50 inch/pounds, and the scope mounts to 40 in/pounds. If you have large tactical style rings they can be torqued to 60 in/lbs. Check the scope ring screws to ensure they are tight. Adjust all creep and over-travel out of the trigger. Free float the barrel - it won't do any harm even if it doesn't help. As suggested, get the action properly bedded. Recrown if required.

If you are shooting consistent 1.5" groups at 100, I doubt if flinching is your problem. If possible check you accuracy at longer ranges.

Make up a few rounds of match ammo to determine the base line accuracy of your outfit. The Sierra manual suggests a .300 Weatherby accuracy load of 76.6 grs of N-165 behind a 200 gr MK. How this would be more accurate than 76.5 grs I don't know, but that is their suggested load. It doesn't matter if the load can be tweaked to be more accurate, you just need a repeatable base line to measure your other loads against, and to measure any change each time you tweak your rifle. Having said that, doing your best to achieve minimal tolerances in your handloads is important.

Keep a log of your any adjustment you make to the rifle, of your loads and any respective change that performance or accuracy. Be sure to log the weather and light conditions on each day of shooting.
 
Float the barrel, bed the action and load 85 grs 7828 behind the 180 Hornady. If it dosen't shoot its a tire iron.Then switch to hunting bullets. The Hornady's a bomb at that speed.
 
I doubt it is the scope, but by all means check with another. I see boomer says to torque your action bolts to a specific amount, I have had good luck tightening the forward screw very tight( not so tight as to wreck anything) and just snugging up the rear screw so the screw won't be lost. I would suspect that bedding is probably going to be the best bang for your buck. The amount of freebore may be a big issue as well, but I don't have alot of experience there.

Good luck, Homesteader
 
I pushed a bullet up into the chamber and gently held it against the lands, then with a long dowel down the bore I was able to determine a maximum cartridge length (to the rifling) of 2.98, by subtracting that from the distance to the bolt face.

So, I will load 5 rds @ 2.94 OAL, 5 @ 2.790 and 5 @ 2.64 which is the maximum length to fit in the magazine. All will be with 74.0 RL22 which is 4.0 grains below my previously loaded load. Federal match primers, Whtby neck sized brass, primer pockets and flash holes reemed. I will shoot shortest to longest, watching for pressure.

I'll take some factory ammo too just for a base line.

If there's no difference in groups I'll try shimming the action to float the barrel.
 
I would try IMR 7828, RL 25, VVH560 or H1000 and use loads 1 or 2 grains less than max. I also shoot a 300 WBY and my best loads were with 7828, 180gr Accubonds or Partitions and loads near max.

BTW the FIRST thing you need to do is freefloat your barrel, my brother had the same problem in his Weatherby so we took the Dremmel to the stock and the groups went down by 1/2.

Ivo
 
Sounds like you already have the bullet seating length down pat. Obvioiusly you can only go as long as the mag will allow. Same with mine, bullet to lands say different length than what my mag allows. Perhaps the next step could be to try a roller crimp. I tried that on my reloads. Brought the groups tighter, not match tight, but tighter. Also you could maybe try hanging your rifle muzzle down and fill the barrel with nitro solvent over night and get some copper that may be lingering in the barrel.
 
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