I have been on the hunt for more accuracy from my rifle. It is a Ruger M77 tang safety varmint in 308. So far I have floated the barrel, polished the sear and hammer, and had the action and barrel cryoed. I have been suspicious of the crown of the muzzle though. It is recessed, but has no bevel or crown at all. If I were to get a smith to put a crown on this rifle, what should I go with? 11*? Also, what would it cost? (round-about answers accepted) Thanks all
info on muzzle crown
- Thread starter juk
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rcmodel
Member in memoriam
No bevel or whatever is necessary as long as the face of the muzzle is perfectly square with the bore and has no burs left on it.
I would suspect the Ruger crown is square with the bore, as it was cut on a lathe.
You can check for burs with a Q-Tip.
Run it around the muzzle and see if any cotton fibers get stuck to a bur.
If it is smooth, I doubt re-crowning it would accomplish much.
Ruger barrels are only so good, and there isn't anything you can do about it, short of putting a better barrel on it.
You might want to try a good copper solvent and see what comes out blue!
rc
I would suspect the Ruger crown is square with the bore, as it was cut on a lathe.
You can check for burs with a Q-Tip.
Run it around the muzzle and see if any cotton fibers get stuck to a bur.
If it is smooth, I doubt re-crowning it would accomplish much.
Ruger barrels are only so good, and there isn't anything you can do about it, short of putting a better barrel on it.
You might want to try a good copper solvent and see what comes out blue!
rc
krs
Member
An angle isn't going to help - save your money. Check the muzzle for damage as rc advises - with the q-tip test. Sometimes it helps to see any little bit of caught cotton if you use a magnifier to look for it. ANY tiny burr can effect your accuracy.
Juk, rcmodel has given you the key to the biggest and most common destroyer of rifle accuracy.
Shooting jacketed bullets, HP or FMJ, or any other point will leave a nearly invisible coating through a rifle bore, usually concentrated toward the muzzle.
You can't normally see it by shining a light through a bore but if you haven't developed a method of cleaning that goes after copper with a vengeance I think it's safe to say that your bore is heavily contaminated with copper.
Ever been to a benchrest match? If you can find one go there just to watch the competitors clean their rifles. They'll be using bronze brushes, as many as fifty strokes after 25 shots, or each ten shots, or each five shots according to the individual beliefs of each shooter. However many strokes each shooter uses you'll think that they're nuts for as much as they clean their bores.
They do it because they've learned that COPPER DESTROYS their chances of firing winning groups.
Get yourself a good copper solvent bore cleaner. I've liked Butch's Bore Shine and Hoppe's Benchrest but any good one will work. Put some on a patch and get your bore wet with it. Bronze brush the bore several strokes then walk away leaving the bore wet.
A while later go back and run a clean dry patch through. It WILL come out blue (some call it green but it looks blue to me). Put some more patches through. Each one will come back with blue, usually less of it with each patch. Don't think you're done.
Many times with a bore that's nearly clean of copper a soaking and then dry patch will look like it came out clean. Watch while that patch turns blue right before your eyes, or go grab a cup or something and when you come back your clean patch will be blue.
That blue patch means that you aren't finished getting your bore clean.
If you want the best accuracy a barrel can give you you can't have ANY copper in the bore.
(Some barrels just don't shoot. Some barrels shoot hunting accurate and good enough for lots of folks. If you're trying to make your Ruger shoot 1/4 MOA it won't happen no matter what you do).
The old standby Hoppe's No. 9 is a powder cleaner and doesn't help with copper.
nuff?
Juk, rcmodel has given you the key to the biggest and most common destroyer of rifle accuracy.
Shooting jacketed bullets, HP or FMJ, or any other point will leave a nearly invisible coating through a rifle bore, usually concentrated toward the muzzle.
You can't normally see it by shining a light through a bore but if you haven't developed a method of cleaning that goes after copper with a vengeance I think it's safe to say that your bore is heavily contaminated with copper.
Ever been to a benchrest match? If you can find one go there just to watch the competitors clean their rifles. They'll be using bronze brushes, as many as fifty strokes after 25 shots, or each ten shots, or each five shots according to the individual beliefs of each shooter. However many strokes each shooter uses you'll think that they're nuts for as much as they clean their bores.
They do it because they've learned that COPPER DESTROYS their chances of firing winning groups.
Get yourself a good copper solvent bore cleaner. I've liked Butch's Bore Shine and Hoppe's Benchrest but any good one will work. Put some on a patch and get your bore wet with it. Bronze brush the bore several strokes then walk away leaving the bore wet.
A while later go back and run a clean dry patch through. It WILL come out blue (some call it green but it looks blue to me). Put some more patches through. Each one will come back with blue, usually less of it with each patch. Don't think you're done.
Many times with a bore that's nearly clean of copper a soaking and then dry patch will look like it came out clean. Watch while that patch turns blue right before your eyes, or go grab a cup or something and when you come back your clean patch will be blue.
That blue patch means that you aren't finished getting your bore clean.
If you want the best accuracy a barrel can give you you can't have ANY copper in the bore.
(Some barrels just don't shoot. Some barrels shoot hunting accurate and good enough for lots of folks. If you're trying to make your Ruger shoot 1/4 MOA it won't happen no matter what you do).
The old standby Hoppe's No. 9 is a powder cleaner and doesn't help with copper.
nuff?
krs
Member
Juk, make sure your action screws are tight, tight, tight. Using a torque wrench is not unheard of before now.
Glass bedding can really help a lot. Bedded action mounted tight, floated barrel - no contact even when it gets hot. Get The COPPER out!!
Glass bedding can really help a lot. Bedded action mounted tight, floated barrel - no contact even when it gets hot. Get The COPPER out!!
krs
Member
I LOVE accurate rifles!!
(8" x 11" card with home printed aiming points; 100 yards; 10mph cross gusts up and down range that day)
(8" x 11" card with home printed aiming points; 100 yards; 10mph cross gusts up and down range that day)
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I will try the q-tip method and get started on cleaning the bore again. I use Hoppe's Elite. One of these days I will get a torque driver and be able to consistently torque the action down. Bedding the action is a no-go. I'm not trying to build a bench gun, but am trying to get accuracy out of it within reason. I am planning on either building a gun or buying a much better suited rifle for long-range and bench work. This Ruger is more than adequate for my hunting needs. It has punched 1/4 MOA groups and 4 MOA groups depending on load. As of now, I have it right at MOA for 5 shots using my handloads. Thanks for the help guys.
I break the corner on crowns when a rifle could shoot better. Its so quick and easy to do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OorpZlG28fI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OorpZlG28fI
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