Trouble with rear bag and curved stock

S

Stephen1546

Regular
Rating - 100%
10   0   0
Having a bit of trouble at the range recently. I have a Tikka T3 sporter in .223. As you can see, the rear section of the stock where a sandbag would be placed has a curve to it. As such, it doesn't ride the bag very well, and I get a bunch of vertical stringing. When I shoot with no rear bag (just using my left hand for support) I get essentially zero vertical stringing. I shot a 5 round group with no bag, and all holes were vertically within .25" at 100 yards. With the rear bag, they were over 2 inches. I have tried a hard hold, soft hold, and free recoil. All with similar results.

I'm thinking of adding a horizontal bar to the bottom of the stock to ride the bag, but I'm open to other suggestions.

sporter.jpg
 
New stock, but that would be excessive.

Maybe some kind of bipod/monopod on the rear sling swivel?

Your bar idea might be best.
 
I was going to suggest setting a bar over the gap which would be your best bet. 1 bar with 2 anchors on it could be bedded into that stock quite easily.
 
Before doing any stock surgery try a variety of bags. For example I find rifles with the McM A5 work fine with a big old sandbag but not with the bunny ears and you may simply need a different sized bag to what you are using.
 
I added a aluminum bar between the gap, and leveled it with the action. No modification of any kind needed on the stock. I used only the existing holes and threads. I will post up pics in a few minutes.
 
Not the prettiest, but got the job done. Right now there is a felt/rubber pad under each end to protect the stock. I might swap it out for a rubber grommet to make it look cleaner. It is held in place by a nut and bolt going through the stock to under the check riser. Lucky enough the hole already existed and worked out great.

It's very secure, as the bolt hold the bar under heavy pressure, even with only one attachment point. I was worried the aluminum bar would be able to swivel, but I yanked on it pretty hard, and it didn't budge. I will try it out at the range in a couple days and see how it goes.

I also whipped up a small piece of plywood covered in carpet with adjustable feet to place my MPOD on. The benches at my club are made of 2x4s and are very uneven, and the MPOD doesn't slide well over them.

2pqt5xg.jpg
 
Last edited:
Alpheus said:
New stock, but that would be excessive.

Maybe some kind of bipod/monopod on the rear sling swivel?

Your bar idea might be best.
Click to expand...

A monopod is my backup plan if this doesn't work well. Hopefully it's "problem solved", but we will see.

I was starting to get worried I might have a dud rifle, because I really wasn't getting the group sizes I was expecting. After shooting with just a bipod and no rear bag, and getting sub 1" 5 shot groups with cheep Winchester ammo, I now know it's not the action/barrel that was the problem, it was the stock/bag combo.

I can't wait to see how this turns out.
 
Works like a charm!


Went to the range today, and no more vertical stringing! It rides the bags as well as I could ever hope for, and there is very little friction due to the small surface area in contact with the rear bag. Combined with the MPOD bipod on a carpeted bench, it slides right back like butter.

Due to the 100 and 200 yard ranges being used for police training today, I could only get this thing out to 50 yards. Not much of a test, but better then nothing. My smallest 5 shot group at 50 yards was 0.231" with the average group being 0.369". Will test out my little contraption at 200 yards later in the week.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom