Ruger American in Boyd's Stock with AR Magazine

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_Robert

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I have been enjoying my Ruger American Predator 223 with AR Magazine since early this fall. It's a nice shooter.

Recently I purchased a Boyd's Thumbhole Stock and have been working on bedding the steel V-Blocks into the lumber.

Boyd's included a glass filled polymer AR Magazine well and ProBed2000 carbon fiber filled epoxy bedding compound. This material is more viscous than JB Weld.

The action is in the stock with uncured epoxy; I'll break it open in 24 hours. 20191209_125502.jpg 20191209_125356.jpg 20191209_125824.jpg 20191214_134127.jpg 20191214_130904.jpg 20191214_145257.jpg 20191214_145244.jpg 20191214_145237.jpg 20191214_145909.jpg 20191214_150537.jpg
 
The following morning, some bedding made its way into the pillar holes but I had put release wax on the screws so they came out fine. I'll need to go back to the drill press to chase out the pillars after I let this cure another day or two. The 2 steel V-Blocks appear to be firmly imbedded in the bedding epoxy. 20191215_083406.jpg 20191215_083414.jpg
 
I'll attach a couple pics and also a range report.

I loaded 75 Nosler 52gr Match with H335 then shot 15 groups of 5; MOA was 0.8 to 1.5. I had hoped for better. This bullet is better suited to an AR than my 1:8 barrel because previously, gun shot sub MOA constantly using Hornady 62gr BTHP

After coming home, I noticed that I had torqued the stock with the barrel channel a bit non-concentric to the barrel and although the rifle passes the dollar bill test, there is very little barrel clearances. The barrel and barrel nut are free floated.

I do appreciate the look and feel of this stock but we are still getting aquatinted.

I'm going to get sand paper & dowel rod then provided more clearance.

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Could it be that the rear of the action is not parallel to your stock which is causing your barrel to veer off to one side. My Ruger GSR was like that, removed some material on the one side of the receiver so I could get it straight. Just another option, I could be wrong but you could be treating a symptom (sanding the barrel channel) as opposed to fixing the "problem" a receiver that is not centered/parallel to the stock. Either way you will fix the issue, just was bringing this up in case you wanted to look at it further.

Bedding looks good though, I'm sure you will find a load that you will be happy with.
 
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I'll take another look at the action & barrel. During bedding I used an equal amount of tape shims on both sides to try to maintain alignment so I'm fairly close.

I am going to sand this morning, verify alignment then shoot mid-day

Today: 25 SMK 69 & H335, 25 Hornady 68 & H335 and 25 Hornady 68 & W748 all loaded in 0.3 grain ladder groups of 5.

I'm having fun practicing and fiddling with load development which is important!
 
Update & Range Report

I used lipstick on the action tang to identify any unwanted contact areas; didn't find any but it sure does look purdy.

Some beading was scraped from the rear steel bedding lug area to eliminate potential interference

Loaded a Ladder test matrix of 4 different H335 charge weights (22.4, 22.7, 23.0 & 23.3) at 3 different COAL (2.260, 2.270 & 2.280) & all crimped with Lee Factory Crimp die.

I measured the distance to lands about 2.270-2.275.

Bullets are Hornady 68gr #22785 with CCI 400 primers

Cases are Federal "FC 17 223"

An old early gen magpul magazine was sacrificed to permit feeding.

Results: 2.270 COAL with 23.0-23.3 charge yielded good groups, 0.91 and 0.74 MOA respectively. I'll load more around this area.

20191223_173340.jpg G1.jpg G2.jpg G3.jpg . The best I can
 
100 Yard Range action with a little ladder test; varied H335: 22.5, 22.7, 22.9, 23.1 and 23.3 grains. COAL was 2.270 using Hornady 68 grain BTHP and velocity ranged from 2752 (22.5) to 2802 (23.3)

G1.jpg
 
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