Advice for my rifle

[TucsonFX4]

I’m going through the same issue with a brand new M70 Featherweight in 7mm08. It shoots like crap with everything I’ve tried.
I decided on a minimalist approach by hogging out the factory beading at the front recoil lug and re doing it. Leaving space with 3 layers of 10mil tape on the sides, bottom and front of the recoil lug.
the only contact is the rear of the lug and the flat where the stock screw goes in. Sorry to say I only did this yesterday so I haven’t had a chance to clean it up and shoot it.
I’ll report back with the results.
If no improvement, a pressure point will be next.

My plan is to try a pressure point on the barrel. If that doesn’t help, I’ll call Winchester and see what they say.

 

[Jamie D Van Roekel]

I can definitely appreciate this advice. I will try it next opportunity I get. In my defense, I have a few other rifles that I shoot under one MOA with the same shooting setup (table, sled, etc).

I caught something there. I have a rifle that I had misery with. It didn’t shoot worth a toot. Finally put in the safe for several years. In talking to some folks I thought I would try something. I had always shot out of a sled with it. Tried it without the sled and it shot good but would throw some fliers. I moved the front bag so it wouldn’t touch the sling swivel in recoil and got rid of the rear bag and just had a flat pad under the heal the right height. Now it shouts .5 to 1 inch constantly with several different loads. It was just very sensitive it different in recoil follow through. When shooting in field positions you really don’t have those issues.

I don’t shoot any rifle out of a sled anymore, and pay much more attention to how the rifle lays on the rest.

By the way it was shooting 2-5 inch groups to start with.

 

[deewayne2003]

After checking all the torque specs, check the muzzle and see if the crown has any damage.

A smith can recrown a rifle for as little as $40 and I’ve seen it make a huge difference.

 

[Joker12]

A friend of mine has a Ruger ultra lite with the pencil barrel and while he liked the rifle the best that it would shoot was about 3" groups. I took it apart used .015 shims cut from a business card to put some up pressure just behind the friend tip. It improved immediately and when I added the second shim the little rifle settled into 3/4" groups consistently. That rifle was factory bedded with a pressure point just not enough. Its now several years later and the same paper shims keep it sub moa. A very simple fix that can make big improvements in some rifles.

 

[TucsonFX4]

After checking all the torque specs, check the muzzle and see if the crown has any damage.

A smith can recrown a rifle for as little as $40 and I’ve seen it make a huge difference.

Crown looks as new. Any issues with it would be a manufacturing defect.

 

[TucsonFX4]

I caught something there. I have a rifle that I had misery with. It didn’t shoot worth a toot. Finally put in the safe for several years. In talking to some folks I thought I would try something. I had always shot out of a sled with it. Tried it without the sled and it shot good but would throw some fliers. I moved the front bag so it wouldn’t touch the sling swivel in recoil and got rid of the rear bag and just had a flat pad under the heal the right height. Now it shouts .5 to 1 inch constantly with several different loads. It was just very sensitive it different in recoil follow through. When shooting in field positions you really don’t have those issues.

I don’t shoot any rifle out of a sled anymore, and pay much more attention to how the rifle lays on the rest.

By the way it was shooting 2-5 inch groups to start with.

I will try shooting it with just bags and pay attention to where it is resting. Thanks for the input.

 

[TucsonFX4]

A friend of mine has a Ruger ultra lite with the pencil barrel and while he liked the rifle the best that it would shoot was about 3" groups. I took it apart used .015 shims cut from a business card to put some up pressure just behind the friend tip. It improved immediately and when I added the second shim the little rifle settled into 3/4" groups consistently. That rifle was factory bedded with a pressure point just not enough. It’s now several years later and the same paper shims keep it sub moa. A very simple fix that can make big improvements in some rifles.

This, along with ditching the sled, are all I have left in hopes of finding better accuracy with it.

I think it will be a few weeks before I can get out to shoot again, but I’ll report back once I have. Thanks all!