A friend recently inherited the above rifle and we have been trying to make it shoot decent groups without much luck. We checked the scope mounts changed the scope to a known good one from another rifle. Tried different factory ammo of different bullet weights no better results. Cleaned the barrel with wipeout and shooting from a lead sled and get no better than 4inch groups. My first question is should the barrel be full floating or is it supposed to touch do not know much about this maker. Hope someone out there has some experience with this brand of rifle thanks in advance
BSA 7MM Rem mag
- Thread starter rboule
- Start date
I've owned a few BSA's over the years and they were all pretty accurate. All of mine did have a pressure point at the fore-end tip. I did glass bed and free float one in 270 and it did shoot better, but more importantly it shot a lot more consistently. I would take the barreled action out of the stock and check the area behind the recoil lug to see if it's cracked at this point. While you have it apart, take a look at the barrel channel and see if it's rubbing on one side or applying uneven pressure anywhere along the channel. Is it stringing its shots or are the groups just large and random ?
Take a close look at the muzzle and see if it's damaged at all. Lastly, check the bore with a good bore light and look for any signs of throat erosion. The 7mm Rem Mag can be a little hard on barrels and as it's an older rifle who knows how many rounds have been put through it. Pretty generic information I know, but I hope I've been of some help.
Good luck, A2
Take a close look at the muzzle and see if it's damaged at all. Lastly, check the bore with a good bore light and look for any signs of throat erosion. The 7mm Rem Mag can be a little hard on barrels and as it's an older rifle who knows how many rounds have been put through it. Pretty generic information I know, but I hope I've been of some help.
Good luck, A2
gunrunner100
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- NW Ontario
Try some different ammo/grain bullets as well.
It may shoot better with heavier round nose bullets.
It may shoot better with heavier round nose bullets.
Before you try anything else pry the forend down just a touch and slip about 1/16" thick by about 1/2" square piece of cardboard under the forend tip and go back to the range. It will shoot quite a bit higher but might just tighten them groups right up. This has worked for me literally a hundred times over the years, sporting weight rifle barrels tend to like forend pressure. Probably 80% of all my sporter bolt guns have a forend pressure pad, and this is the way they shoot the best. I have a 264 WM that won't keep 3" at 100 mtrs until it gets about 10 lbs of forend pressure and then it shoots 1/2 - 3/4" groups with both 120s and 140s
Well Doug, they may listen to you about this. I have written like this on various threads on here numerous times, and doubt if I have convinced a single shooter to try it!
On more than one occasion I have pasted out of famous bench rest and long range shooter Warren Page's famous book, "The accurate Rifle," where he explains the pressure point under the front of the barrel, what it does and why it works.
I have also stated on here several times how, during the great age of so many shooting competitions, how many dedicated shooters carried a spring scale in their shooting kit so they could measure how much pressure it took to raise the barrel from the stock. If they had trouble during a shoot, the first thing they did was to test the barrel pressure with their scale.
I once wanted to get a rifle for a grandson. At a Kamloops gun show I found a real good looking 30-06 BSA for a very reasonable price and bought it.
It grouped very poorly. Took the stock off to find it had an elaborate bedding job, but the barrel just sort of wandered down the channel. Sanded the channel so it didn't hit here and there. Still made poor groups. At the range I lifted the barrel, put in some folded light card board and the next group was MOA!
At home I put in a more permanent pressure point and the grandson is very happy with the rifle, after several years of shooting with it.
Bruce
More good advice. I must admit I forgot that , I've done that on a few rifles myself with similar results
Yep Bruce I showed my boy this trick with his pencil barreled 243 mod 7 which he could not get to shoot well didn't matter what he tried. First I let him burn through several hundred dollars in components, so he would realize the value of the advice I was about to give him, then I waited until he actually asked what to do about his inaccurate rifle. I then and only then told him about seating depth, trying 2/10s of a grain increments and forend pressure, his gun only likes one load with his chosen bullet but it puts them into 1/2" pretty consistently now with 46.4 grns of powder, .020" off the lands and about 7 lbs of forend pressure. It's amazing what a little experience can do for an inaccurate rifle.
RememberTheSomme
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Nova Scotia
Definitely start with the pressure point as already mentioned,m it usually fixes light weight sporter tubes. One of the best way's to determine if she wants free float or pressure point, is to clear your barrel all the way around for the free float first. I'd say 3 sheets of paper worth. Do some accuracy testing with good loads and record accuracy with teach. Now fill in under the front of the barrel for about two inches with glass as per normal bedding compound instructions. Now check her out for groups with the same proven loads. If she's better then stick with the forward pressure point, if groups widen, then the bedding comes out with ease! Check the consistentcy of the groups as well, I'd rather have 1.25 trangular clusters than 1MOA 3- shot stinging types windage or elevation wise.
I remember a friend with a BSA CF2 in .300WM 30 years ago. It was mediocre with 180's and keyholing at 100yds with Federal premium 200BTSP's. Reason was, English gun makers tend to twist their barrels on the slow side in some rifles, I believe this rifle had a 1/12" that we checked out, so even at 300WM velocities the big 200s wouldn't rotate fast enough to go to sleep quickly. My P-H 1200 in .308Win was only 1/14" as well okay for up to 165 only! 180s at .308 velocities opened up terribly.
Check out your rifles twist rate, and then we can go from there on go bullet weights. After seeing the CF2 and my 1200, I decided to stick with manufacturers who twisted fast for given N/A calibers because we tend to go to the heavy side with bullets. Not as much worry today however about lighter bullets for big game compared to years ago because bullet technology has really advanced like in monolithic etc.
I remember a friend with a BSA CF2 in .300WM 30 years ago. It was mediocre with 180's and keyholing at 100yds with Federal premium 200BTSP's. Reason was, English gun makers tend to twist their barrels on the slow side in some rifles, I believe this rifle had a 1/12" that we checked out, so even at 300WM velocities the big 200s wouldn't rotate fast enough to go to sleep quickly. My P-H 1200 in .308Win was only 1/14" as well okay for up to 165 only! 180s at .308 velocities opened up terribly.
Check out your rifles twist rate, and then we can go from there on go bullet weights. After seeing the CF2 and my 1200, I decided to stick with manufacturers who twisted fast for given N/A calibers because we tend to go to the heavy side with bullets. Not as much worry today however about lighter bullets for big game compared to years ago because bullet technology has really advanced like in monolithic etc.
