Group Size w/ Front Sight Removed

[gunboat57]

I'm trying to tighten my groups with my J C Higgins 51-L rifle in .243 Win caliber. That's a Husquvarna action with a Hi-Standard barrel and stock, which was sold by Sears. So far I've free-floated the barrel and made the receiver bedding more solid.

This rifle has a large front sight: tall ramp on a band that encircles the muzzle. I don't need the front sight because the rifle is scoped. I'm thinking that if I remove that big chunk of steel from the muzzle it might change the barrel dynamics in a good way. Anyone tried this before?

 

[MtnCreek]

I guess it could change poi, but that's probably not likely. It won't change the bore dia / consistency, rifling or the barrel's reaction to heating up.

What's it shooting like now?

 

[Jackal]

It wont likely affect performance one way or another.

 

[gunboat57]

Right now I'm getting 3 shot groups hovering around 1" at 100 yards. Load is a 60 gr HP bullet.

I read about the BOSS system letting you change the vibration characteristics of the barrel to make tighter groups so I wondered if removing the sight might have some effect.

 

[Outlaw Man]

If it changed POI, it would probably just move that 1" group to another 1" group on a slightly different part of the target. You probably wouldn't even be able to tell.

This is a lot like free floating the barrel to break contact with the stock, except that this contact (and it's only a miniscule force) is consistent, and therefore repeatable.

 

[gamestalker]

Every rifle I've ever bought that originally had a front sight has been removed. No reason, other than I have no purpose in leaving it there, and it will snag up on anything it come in contact with, and honestly, I always thought they look weird on a scoped rig.

I vote for removal.

GS

 

[NORA]

Hey give it a try!!!! Then let us know how it works out.FRJ

 

[gunboat57]

Here's my rifle with the sight in place. That's a pretty heavy sight for such a reedy barrel.



I took both the front and rear sights off and, weather permitting, I'll see how it groups tomorrow. Report will follow.

 

[gunboat57]

OK, I'm back from the range. After removing the front sight, the POI with 60 gr HP bullets went up 6". The POI with 100 gr SP bullets went up about 4". So I adjusted my scope down 24 clicks. But it looks like the group size didn't change for either bullet. My rifle is still about a 1 MOA rifle. I think the biggest contributor to my group size is the trigger pull which is long and a bit gritty. My shots are fairly tight vertically but spread out horizontally. In any case, the rifle is plenty accurate for deer or groundhogs.

 

[George44]

If your light barreled sporting rifle will holds 3 shots into one inch I wouldn't worry too much about the rifle it sounds ok to me.

 

[MtnCreek]

Wow. That's 5 or 6 inches more than I thought it would move it...

After deer season, you could take it to a good smith and have the trigger worked on or replaced, but 1" is very good IMHO.

Are you shooting off bags? Front bag, front and rear bags?

 

[gunboat57]

That was shooting with bags under front and rear. Front bag just forward of the chamber.

I just remembered , I did remove the scope when I worked on the front sight. I loosened where the scope rings attach to the bases thinking that way it would be pretty close to zero when I reattached it. So that could've contributed some to the rise in POI. The windage was still right on.

But I'm thinking that heavy front sight was keeping the muzzle from climbing under recoil. Not much, but some, especially with a thin barrel.

 

[brbdwyr]

Re: your Trigger. Weren't those JC Higgins refitted with a Timney tigger, or is that still the stock two-stage?

Factory ammo or quality reloads? You're waffling between 60g & 100g ammo;find one grain that works for your rifle and stick with it. If you reload, that's an easy and less costly option than buying several boxes of ammo.

But 1moa is nothing to sneeze at. Some guys have to work waaay harder to achieve 1moa.

 

[Picher]

When you do more than one thing on a rifle at a time, there's no way of telling which caused a change in POI or group size. It could have been a little of both, or one could have compensated for the other in some way.

I'd bet that removing the scope may have had a greater effect than the front sight removal.

 

[gunboat57]

Brbdwyr, this rifle has the two stage trigger which could probably be cleaned up a bit with a stone.
I'm only shooting my reloads. I measure out powder using the scale for each round. I'm developing 60 gr loads for varmints and 100 gr loads for deer. I'm using IMR 4895 for the 60 gr and IMR 4350 for the 100 gr and I think I've found the powder weights that are giving me the best groups for both.

Picher, you're right about changing more than one variable. I'm sure messing with the scope shifted POI some, but 6" at 100 yards would mean one of my scope rings moved up or down about .010" just by taking it off and putting it back on. There's no way I can see that it could've shifted vertically that much.