Suggestions...what do I do with my rifle?

A

Ankeny

New member
Several years ago I had a fellow screw a Shilen match grade tube into a short Sako action for me. The rifle is chambered in 250-3000 Ackley Improved and the stock is a "B-flat" piece of wood checkered by Pat Taylor formerly of Kimber.

The best I can get this rifle to shoot is 1.5 inches at 100 yards. I use the darn thing exclusively for fox and coyotes. I really want a sub-minute of angle rifle for predators and this ain't it. I have had the rifle bedded twice, re-crowned twice and the barrel set back and re-chambered. I have experimented with loads extensively and no the accuracy problem isn't me or the optics.

Could the problem be the action? I am open for suggestions. Any idea what caliber I should go with if I get a new barrel? The magazine has been opened for the improved case. Anyone have experience with the 22-250 improved? Help me here will ya?
 
Is it full length bedded or free floated under the barrel?

If it's floated and still shoots poorly you may just have a "bummer". I have no experience with the caliber. If it's not free floated then, by all means, float the rascal.

I have owned several sub 1/2 MOA .243's and know several guys with 22-250's that are excellent. Heck, I get 1 MOA or better out of my AR! All are floated.

Good luck

Mikey
 
I wouldn't say anything bad about a friends barrels but will say this. When you have people work for you can never tell what you are shipping. I would try a Lilja or Schnider barrel and a good quality fiberglass stock. I wouldn't want it if I couldn't make it shoot under ½ MOA
 
The rifle is floated.

Mr. McMillan:

If you want to give it a crack I'll ship it to you and you can screw a new tube onto the action and drop it into one of your glass stocks. What do you say, wanna build me a half minute of angle rifle for the guys at TFL to envy?
 
If you're completely free-floated, you might try a poor-boy trick: Take some paper and make a shim which fits between the barrel and the fore-end tip. Just tight enough that it takes about a five-pound pull to insert the shim. (I use kitchen wax paper since moisture doesn't affect it, and a half-dozen quick shots heat it up enough to stick in place.)

The shim acts like a shock absorber on a car, damping the spring vibrations. In this case, the barrel is the spring. This shim creates a more uniform set of vibrations from shot to shot.

This is one of those "My uncle taught me" deals, from 1950. I've done it on maybe 20 or so different rifles, and it has always worked for me.

No guarantees, but it sure is cheap...

FWIW, Art
 
I would be happy to bore scope it and check out the barrel for you. I am a little hesitant to encourage you to put that chamber in a new rifle since you have had bad luck with it.. I would hate for the tfl members might get the idea that I am lurking around TFL to pick up business but if you would like some serious talk about it email me.
 
Just shot a .246", five-shot group with my out-of-the box Rem. VS. (About a week ago)

NEVER have a problem getting under .5".

With match bullets, eg., Bergers, I can easily do .5" to .75" with my Bush Shorty carbine. (Barrel is free-floated; JP trigger/hammer)

You sure ought to get better than 1/2" out of a custom rifle!!!
 
How about giving it away for Christmas??? I'd be more than willing to drive on up and give it a new home :) :) :) :)
 
Tried the rifle with pressure under the tip, glassed action and free floated, and now it is pillar bedded. I guess what I need to know is how to go about isolating the problem. I don't know if the problem is the action (a Sako L579) or the barrel.
 
You just about never find an action that will give you that kind of results I have only seen one Remington in 50 years that produced a rifle you could not make shoot. I replaced every thing but the action and couldn't make it work and took the barrel off and put it on another gun and it set a world record. The best rule of thumb is the three Bs. Bullets, Bedding and Barrel. I think you are going to face up to the fact that you may have got a barrel that missed going through stress relieving or something. I once had a barrel blank roll off the bench and land on a concrete floor. The rifle I put it on wouldn't work so I took it off and it layed around the shop a while and one day when I was stress relieving some barrels I put it in the furnace and the next time I shot it it was a winner. Don't be afraid to give up on a barrel because replacing it will cost less than the bullets that you waste trying to make it shoot.
 
Sounds like you've done everything reasonable to find the ghost. From here on out, it sounds like it gets expensive...

But you're not alone in being attacked by weirdness. My father built a Springfield sporter not long after WW II. Despite rebedding, rebarrelling and twiddling with the loads, the first shot from a cold barrel is always 2" higher than the next 5, 10 or 20 shots--which make tight groups. Go figure.

Good luck!
 
I had a story like yours several years ago with a Model 70 Super Grade .300 win mag.
To make a long story short, the problem was the bolt face was not squared properly. After this was fixed, groups went from 3 to 4 inch groups at 100yds to 1 to 1.5 inch groups at 100.
 
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