Tighten up the rifle to do away with negative attributes that have an effect on barrel harmonics.
We talk about these all the time
Gas cylinder unitizing (not for Troy, sage or blackfeather chassis equiped rifles). This eliminates gas band shifting under recoil and consistant ferrule lip location. Making the band and cylinder ONE PART instead of two has been shown to positively effect barrel harmonics.
"NM conditioning" barrel's gas cylinder and flash hider splineways. TOP splineway only, peening the edges inwards for tighter parts fitment and this eliminates any rotational play. Again, these simple mods are eliminating any negative effect/vibration under recoil.... Improving harmonics
The oprod guide, same deal, peen the barrel's oprod guide location surface and apply loctite and once put back together, align oprod tube center with gas PISTON center. This step eliminates rotational play of oprod.
Tightening the oprod guide serves several purposes.
- increses oprod tab life as oprod doesn't "rattle" around as much
-causes parts to move together in a consistant path, maintained by the oprod guide. Striking piston same way and place every time.
Once again, the more consistant the path is that the bolt, piston and oprod move together in and out of battery... The more consistant barrel harmonics will be which leads to improved consistancy in accuracy down range. Regardless of barrel length and load. The above applies to the platform in general.
Oprod spring guide, keep spring straight under compression , eliminating side play pressure on the oprod as the spring compresses... A no brainer and cheap upgrade.
Last two things.... Trigger and stock fit.
Address the above and you will see dramatic results in the consistancy of your groups. Once those groups are analyzed... You decide if the barrel is accurate enough as you should be seeing it's accuracy potential when the mods above are done. Reloading, for those that do it, should be done before tearing down and tossing a barrel that isn't grouping as tight as you like
So in short
Address the parts that have an effect on barrel harmonics
Address stock fit
Address trigger
Find the load the barrel likes at the desired range
What you decide for sights , mounts, optics is all secondary to dialing the rifle in.
For irons though, quality rears with springfield armory inc BUSH RIFLE front sight is the best set up.
