Bedding Xbolt

[Musicianized]

My barrel chamber is sitting on this front spot of bedding on this gun which is stopping me from sliding paper all the way to the recoil lug.

Is this affecting accuracy? Im obviously having some accuracy issues and wondering if this could be the culprit?

 

[BBBBill]

Doubtful. I usually bed the first couple inches of the barrel along with action.

 

[troy fairweather]

I like having the chamber area supported with bedding, Browning knows how to do there bedding, tho it maybe just spot bedded I've can say I've never seen an a-bolt or x-bolt not shoot good.

 

[Musicianized]

Maybe its my loads it dont like

 

[LoonWulf]

Thats very common for brownings, and most other factory bedded rifles. There are some things to check if your seeing truly poor accuracy (for an xbolt id call 1.5" + poor). If you havent shot factory ammo id start there, if you HAVE and it shoots ok id look at the reloads.

If its shooting less that 1.5 then id simply work on tuning, and see if you cant improve it.

 

[troy fairweather]

I can't remember if you said but what is your setup, like scope, how are you shooting the gun from the bench. Loonwulf is right factory ammo will give you a good base line, don't clean the barrel much you can go sometimes hundreds of rounds before it needs cleaning, just us a oiled patch after a range trip.

If possible have someone else shoot a few groups to.

 

[Musicianized]

I've shot factory, Rem Corelokts, Hornady 140 Match, Hornady Precision hunter 143 eld.

I've hand loaded Nosler 129 accubonds and Hornady 130gr Match.

This is the best group I got and it was awesome but I think it was a fluke. Clean barrel during break in.

 

[Musicianized]

This is 140 match

 

[Musicianized]

Then we adjusted the trigger down and my groups went to crap. He farmer torqued the action bolts. Maybe thats the while problem but this is the best groups Im getting after that with any load I try.

Shooting of bags and bipod.

 

[BBBBill]

He farmer torqued the action bolts.

Say it ain't so! Torqueing the screws correctly is an important part of accuracy. Of course there's also the possibility that the scope has gone wonky.

 

[Musicianized]

The scope is a Bushnell Elite LRTS. I havent heard any reports of them going wonky, its possible of course.

 

[LoonWulf]

probably better check those action screws lol, it's surprisingly easy to bend a steel action with over torqued screws.

If that shows promise, I'd suggest going ahead and bedding the whole action in. That should help with the possibility of the action screws messing with your groups, or more importantly, poi.

 

[Musicianized]

I bought a Fat wrench, the screws were way over torqued. I backed them off and torqued to 35inch lbs.

Haven't had a chance to test it yet though.

 

[LoonWulf]

I bought a Fat wrench, the screws were way over torqued. I backed them off and torqued to 35inch lbs.

Haven't had a chance to test it yet though.

That might be all it takes.

 

[Musicianized]

Well.. something changed. I'm getting really irritated lol.

We got a new neck sizing die. These were loaded with the bushing sized .001 maybe that's a little loose but would it cause this vertical stringing?

The factory loads group was the first firings after retorquing and cleaning. But the rest of the reloads group, every first shot from a cold barrel was damn near a bullseye and then they walked up.

 

[Blue68f100]

Did you allow the barrel to cool between shots? Pencil barrels have a tendency to scatter when they heat up. Vertical stringing is a indication that the harmonics and load not agree with each other. Velocity is not constant, do you have crony data. I would suspect large SD's. I've had primers do that to me in the past. Try your best loads with different primers. It's the last step I do when I fine tune a load. Federal GM Match primers have given me the best results. For a hunting rife the 1st shot is the most important from a cold barrel. I don't neck size anything. I've always got better consistency FL sizing. Beside you will eventually have to FL size any way to keep the bolt from binding. I only move/bump the shoulder back 0.001", very minimal. I'm using a Redding S Bushing die, w/o expander.

Does your XBolt have the tuner on it? If so make sure it set correctly for the weight of bullet your shooting.

Do you know your velocity? A node on my and most 6.5CM is 2700-2725 fps. If I get out of that window the group starts to open up.

 

[Musicianized]

No I didnt know a chrono was so important until today we have one. I'll start using it.

 

[Musicianized]

I kind of figured I could get 5 slow shots off before I needed to let it cool. I guess I can also let it cool between every shot. But whats the sense in a free floating barrel if you can only shoot it once lol.

I bought the wrong gun.

 

[Musicianized]

There's no tuner on the gun that Im aware of.

 

[LoonWulf]

I'd be interested to see what the Chrono says. I'd also continue up the charge weight ladder a bit to see if it evens out....this is assuming your still running the 130s?

I only ran 123s and 140+ thru mine, and found that accuracy was generally better at near max, at least with the powders I was using.