gamestalker
member
I was just sitting here thinking about a Rem. 700 chambered in 7mm RM that I've had for a few months, my Son actually owns it, but he dropped it off to me back at the beginning of summer to see if I could get it to shoot. He bought it used about a year ago and hasn't been able to get it to shoot worth a darn.
So I inspected the glass (Leupold 3x9) and mounting system, bedded it, free floated the barrel, lapped the lugs, but despite all my efforts it just wouldn't shoot better than 3" at 100 yds., and often times groups were even worse. The extractor rivet, which I assume had been replaced by the previous owner, was partially mashed down onto the bolt face, thus the case head wasn't laying flush against the bolt face. And there was also a spot where the rivet head wasn't completely ground back away from the bolt face, so it was causing the rim to bind against it. I can only assume he was using a make shift anvil, which is fine if done correctly. I noticed it when I was trimming some brass and was having problems with each piece of brass sliding easily into the Lee shell holder, and also wobbled when rotating in the drill. I also found that all the brass had the same obvious defect on the rim, most all pieces of brass exhibited a slight warp where the defect was, and I felt more than normal resistance when closing the bolt on the brass, felt like something was binding when closing the bolt.
So hoping this may be the culprit, or at least causing some of the problem, I cleaned up the bolt face intrusion, and ground it back so it wouldn't bind against the edge of the rim also. I then grabbed a box of 130 gr. Speer Hot Cores off my component shelf, resized some once fired brass that hadn't been fired from this chamber, loaded them up, and off to the range I go. The first 5 round group was just under an inch, and every group following that produced a nice ragged hole at 100 yds.. I was so ecstatic that I ran though a good 40 rounds.
Apparently, the rivet was keeping the case head from seating square against the bolt face, and also causing the entire cartridge to get pushed hard to one side of the chamber.
I just thought this may offer some insight for those who have a rifle that has given them fits in trying to get it to shoot decent groups. Sometimes it's a simple little inconspicuous defect that can make all the difference, sometimes not. But the moral to the story here is, don't over look the little things. In this case, if I hadn't been a reloader, I very likely never would have noticed the problem.
GS
So I inspected the glass (Leupold 3x9) and mounting system, bedded it, free floated the barrel, lapped the lugs, but despite all my efforts it just wouldn't shoot better than 3" at 100 yds., and often times groups were even worse. The extractor rivet, which I assume had been replaced by the previous owner, was partially mashed down onto the bolt face, thus the case head wasn't laying flush against the bolt face. And there was also a spot where the rivet head wasn't completely ground back away from the bolt face, so it was causing the rim to bind against it. I can only assume he was using a make shift anvil, which is fine if done correctly. I noticed it when I was trimming some brass and was having problems with each piece of brass sliding easily into the Lee shell holder, and also wobbled when rotating in the drill. I also found that all the brass had the same obvious defect on the rim, most all pieces of brass exhibited a slight warp where the defect was, and I felt more than normal resistance when closing the bolt on the brass, felt like something was binding when closing the bolt.
So hoping this may be the culprit, or at least causing some of the problem, I cleaned up the bolt face intrusion, and ground it back so it wouldn't bind against the edge of the rim also. I then grabbed a box of 130 gr. Speer Hot Cores off my component shelf, resized some once fired brass that hadn't been fired from this chamber, loaded them up, and off to the range I go. The first 5 round group was just under an inch, and every group following that produced a nice ragged hole at 100 yds.. I was so ecstatic that I ran though a good 40 rounds.
Apparently, the rivet was keeping the case head from seating square against the bolt face, and also causing the entire cartridge to get pushed hard to one side of the chamber.
I just thought this may offer some insight for those who have a rifle that has given them fits in trying to get it to shoot decent groups. Sometimes it's a simple little inconspicuous defect that can make all the difference, sometimes not. But the moral to the story here is, don't over look the little things. In this case, if I hadn't been a reloader, I very likely never would have noticed the problem.
GS
Everything we do as reloaders is basically to keep run out to a minimum, good catch!
