Remington pressure points

[303carbine]

I recently picked up a Remington 700 Mountain rifle that had been bedded and the barrel free floated by a previous owner. The job was done properly and the rifle's accuracy was good as is. I contacted Remington and the tech there said the Mountain rifle had a pressure point near the end of the wood near the muzzle end. So I take an old shotgun shell and cut a piece of plastic hull off about a half inch long and a half inch long and try it down the barrel channel till it fitted snugly. Then I put masking tape on it to keep it together and also to keep it from sliding around in the barrel channel.A spot of clear nail polish held it in place while I reassembled the action back into the stock. The groups tightened up by about half an inch and the heavier bullets started shooting better with the pressure point.The Remington tech said the pressure point was to take the "whip" out of the light barrel and to settle it down for the next shot. So before you remove the pressure point on your Remington , shoot it first before bedding or other drastic actions.

 

[martinbns]

I've had two Mountain rifles and both had the pressure point. Contrary to popular belief it IS POSSIBLE to have an accurate rifle without free floating the barrel.

 

[gth]

Being the light contour barrel that does not surprise me, infact I'm surprised someone would have floated it to begin with.

 

[303carbine]

The sporting contour barrels and the fluted style are free floated because they are more rigid and benefit from free floating. Its the slim contour of the Mountain Rifle barrel that needs the "settling" effect of pressure point bedding.

 

[BEARMAN]

A while ago I had a site that sold " THE BUG HOLE TUNER" an inexpensive devise that was installed in the stock and was tuned with an allen wrench until your group was a tight as you could get. It worked on the same principal , tuning the harmonics of the barrel. Does anyone know of that site or if this part is still available? I did do a search but it is only mentioned on some sites but I couldn't find a source. I did another search with a space removed and found it. It is called "THE BUGHOLE TUNER" OR "BUGHOLE HARMONIC RIFLE TUNER" at www.webspawner.com/users/bugholetuners/index.html

 

[tiriaq]

The manufacturers set up their rifles so that on average, day in, day out, the rifles will give good out of the box accuracy. This has little to do with what any individual rifle may do if it is tuned or tweaked a bit. No maker is going to ship rifles set up in a manner that is going to degrade accuracy across the board.

 

[sunray]

"...shoot it first..." There's an echo in here. No matter what rifle, free floating may or may not improve accuracy and the only way to tell is to try it.
Take out the bit of plastic though. Replace it with a spot of bedding compound of the same size and in the same place. Masking tape will lose its adhesive when it gets wet. Don't forget the release agent.

 

[Leeper]

It is common for rifles to group better with a pressure point near the forend tip. In fact, in some cases this is the easiest way to get the rifle to shoot good groups. I have seen even heavy barreled rifles which did their best with a contact point. One effect of the contact bed is that the rifle may be less sensitive to velocity variations so less vertical dispersion.
On the other hand, I would rather hunt with a free floated barrel which produced 1 1/4 inch groups than a contact bedded one which shot one inch. This simply because the floated barrel is usually more consistent. It is less influenced by holding or by the density of a rest than is a contact bedded barrel. A hunting rifle which shoots 1/2 inch groups but which shoots to a different point of impact from day to day is of little value.
There are certainly some cases where I am an advocate of a pressure point though. I have always found Ruger no.1's to shoot better with a pressure point. The same with no.1 Lee Enfields. If a stock forend is to fitted close for appearance, then I'll usually use a pressure point since some contact will be unavoidable so it might as well be definite.
Regarding the Bughole Tuner. This was real cutting edge technology 50+ years ago. Probably works every bit as well now as it did then. Regards, Bill.