Will taking action and barrel out of stock affect point of impact?

MD

MD

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After a day out in the rain and or snow I like to remove the barreled action out of my wood stocked rifles and dry and oil the metal and make sure the wood is dry too before reassembling.

Will this affect the point of impact, changing it from when I sighted in at the range?
 
It can, depending upon torque. I prefer to dry mine well beside the fire and oil them well with g96..... Never had and real rust issues, although all my hunting guns have the odd mark as I actually use them. They are not safe queens.
 
There is no hard and fast rule but it is quite likely there may be some change in POI, unless you have a torque driver and have pre torqued your screws and can then reassemble with the same exact torque. It is a small investment if you find you feel the need to disassemble your rifle during a hunt. I personally would never do this during a hunt, a good cleaning and rust preventaive coating prior to the hunt and then again after if necessary, but never during. One of the reasons I like stainless/synthetic for my working rifles. My 375 H&H is stainless but in wood and mounts are blued, Even after 16 days in the Congo with rain every day and 100% humidity and 30 deg weather, I had some light rust on the mounts but certainly nothing that didn't come off with a toothbrush and some WD 40. I did remove my bolt during the hunt and wipe it down and oil it a bit as 700 bolts are not stainless and are prone to rust if not taken care of.
 
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I used to have a Remington 40X target rifle in a McMillan prone stock that would sweat like a bastard. If a drop of moisture got between the action and bedding the rifle would hose the target. Once I pulled it apart and dried everything off, it would shoot very well, no change of POI. My Remington 700 BDL in a wood stock not bedded has been out of the stock quite a few time to be dried/cleaned etc. Put it back together and hunt the next day with it. I have not had to touch the scope knobs in 15 years, same POI day after day, year after year.
 
Every time I have removed a centrefire barrelled action from a wooden stock I have had to rezero it. They are off by and inch or two. Could be just me.
 
MiG25 said:
I would give the butt a smack on a carpeted floor before tightening the screws.
Click to expand...

I'm all for "butt smacking" and "screwing!"

OP unless you have your gun well bedded and use a torque driver and have tested the gun at the range in a "before and after" scenario, I would recommend that you NOT dismantle your gun after sighting in for a hunt. I have tested dozens of rifles in before and after mounting, with bolt actions and single shots... Some return perfectly to zero (mostly those I have bedded and predetermined torque)... MOST have some POI shift, a few have had "significant" POI shift (as in miss your buck at 200 yards shifting)... There are steps you can take to ensure "minimal" shifting... If you just gotta take your gun apart during a hunt, I would recommend that you at least bed the action and either float the barrel or bed the barrel... Note; if you are using a wood stock, floating the barrel can be relative to the humidity... A barrel floated in dry conditions may not be floated in wet conditions and this WILL definitely affect POI... You may also want to pillar bed the action screws... And after all of this, get to the range and test your gun by zeroing, then dismantling and cleaning as you would on your hunt and then reassembling and rechecking zero... Even after all of this work, I tend to resist messing with a zeroed gun...

P.S - for all you wood stock shooters... There is one little tip, easy to do, that can help retain zero in wet conditions. Most manufacturers do not seal the barrel channel as they do the exterior surfaces... Due to the contour in the channel there is often a lot of exposed end grain, in some cases this exposed grain has little to no waterproofing sealant... A good practice for ALL wood stocks is to buy a small bottle of Tru-Oil and treat the barrel channel with four or five coats, sanding between coats with 000 or 0000 steel wool... This will protect the stock from absorbing water (where water tends to sit between the barrel and stock)... And thus help prevent warping and expanding, which can introduce abnormal stresses to the barrel during the shot. This whole process takes only minutes, it is wipe on and can be done by anyone, no woodworking experience required, and costs under $10.
 
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Actually Hoyt I do one better and seal the barrel channel with 3 coats of thinned varathane, unlike oils it cannot be flushed out with brake clean and/or WD 40 which I use to clean guns often. Varathane is impervious to all this stuff and seals totally and forever.
 
"Like to know what type of rifle the OP is talking about. "

1953 Husqvarna High Power and 1955 Husqvarna 4100 Lightweight.

Steel and walnut rifles.
 
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