Rem 700 accuracy issues

[Matt Travis]

I have a Remington 700 LSS in a 338 RUM with a 5-20 leupold VX-3. When I first got the gun set up and shot a box of factory fed ammo with 210 Nosler partitions I was super impressed with the accuracy of the gun. I was getting a nice tight clover leaf at 100 yards. I bought some 225 gr Nosler AccuBonds and worked up a load with reloaded 22 that was very impressive. The gun became my go too moose/bear gun. It shot so good I could pop the head off a bowling pin at 500 yards consistently. Then one rainy moose hunt I noticed the laminated stock warped and effected accuracy. Two weeks later after it dried, I took it back out to the range and it shot the tight little 3/8 in four shot groups so I decided to glass bed the stock and free float the barrel to eliminate the moisture warpage issue. I took my time and made sure everything was prepped and good to go glass bedded the action then I removed the pressure point in the barrel channel and resealed the wood. So now that everything fits tight and is completely free floated I go out to the range and my groups are the size of a stupid softball and all I can think of is my dad saying "If the damn thing ain't broke don't fix it!" So I did more reading and found ONE article out of dozens of others that recommend freefloating. In this article recommends that barrels with a #1&2 contour shouldn't be freefloated. ***!!! Could this be why my gun won't group now? Or do I need to rework up to a load that works better since the harmonics would have changed after I freefloated the barrel?Or could it be a torque issue with the action screws? I have always heard the first thing you should do was glass bed and freefloat but after the fact I read this about barrel contour now I feel like I just ruined my gun. Any advice? The pic I have attached is how it used to shoot. I didn't take pics of the softball sized group because I wasn't impressed.

 

[Klint Beastwood]

Rework the load data. Check the action screws. Use blue threadtite. I do 45 inlbs. Thinner barrels will have more whip, then heavier barrels when free floated, whip is fine as long as it does it the same way everytime. If you have a heavier barrel then its the same thing to a lesser degree.

 

[stringnut]

As Klint said check the action screws. Try putting a shim under the barrel an inch or so back from the front of the forearm. Try a few different thicknesses. Make sure you didn't introduce stress on the action by not getting the bedding quite right. It even be that the stock is contacting the magazine box and tweaking things. You didn't ruin your rifle. You may ruin your mental health before you figure out what went wrong!

 

[jmr40]

Order a McMillan standard fill fiberglass stock for it and burn the wood stock in your fireplace. That is what I did in 1983 and I haven't hunted with a wood stocked bolt rifle in over 30 years. I've seen similar issues too many times.

Free floating a standard contour barrel never hurts accuracy, it often doesn't help, but I've never seen it hurt either. With some very thin mountain rifle type barrels occasionally accuracy is better with some pressure on the barrel. But even those shoot more consistently free floated. In other words they may shoot 1" groups MOST of the time, but will often throw flyers and give 3" groups at odd times. After floating them groups may open up to 1.5". But the unexplained flyers go away and you get consistent 1.5" groups.

 

[WelshShooter]

When you glass bed the rifle don't forget to glass bed the channel in the fore-end of the stock. Even though you free floated the barrel, what happens when you load it on a bipod or sandbag? Glass bedding the fore-end will keep it rigid and remove any potential flexing onto the barrel. Larry Potterfield talks about this in the Midway tutorial for glass bedding a rifle (I believe it was a Remington 700).

 

[Scott30]

As Klint said check the action screws. Try putting a shim under the barrel an inch or so back from the front of the forearm. Try a few different thicknesses. Make sure you didn't introduce stress on the action by not getting the bedding quite right. It even be that the stock is contacting the magazine box and tweaking things. You didn't ruin your rifle. You may ruin your mental health before you figure out what went wrong!

Try the shims first. Place them at the place in the stock barrel channel where you removed the old pressure point. 1/2"x1/2" pieces of bicycle inner tube should work fine. Use a torque wrench to make sure you have consistent pressure on the action screws.

 

[JTHunter]

Good grief! In reading this, I have to count my blessings with my 700 in .243.
I have owned this second-hand rifle for 30 years and it is still in its original walnut stock. When I was first testing it out with Remington, Federal, and Winchester ammo (about 1988), it was all over the paper at 200 yards. Now, I was shooting off of sandbags rather than a more stable rest but these results were still disheartening.
I talked to several friends and co-workers, one of whom turned out to be a benchrest shooter. We went over several details of the gun and looked at reloading info. So I started reading up on that and gathering info from manufacturers.. A letter I got from the then president of Accurate Powders helped the most as I was looking to load bullets ranging from 60 gr. HPs to 100 gr. spitzer boattails (all Sierra). There was one powder that could be used for both bullet weights and that was the Accurate 2230, a flattened, semi-sperical ball powder. It flows beautifully through my press, making it easy to adjust weights.
Once I finished working up my loads, I was able to put a 7-shot string in a 1.5" x 2.5" arc at 200 yds., with a 3-9x scope (at 9x) off of sandbags, and using mixed fired brass (Rem-Peters, Fed., Win., Savage-Stevens).
Matt, the idea Scott had about the shims is a good one because, if they don't work, it is easy to remove them. If they DO work, it will give you a lead on what your next move should be.
Good luck!

 

[Matt Travis]

So about 10 years ago I had a ruger m77 stainless with laminate stock that would only get about 3 inch group at 100. My dad told me shim the barrel. The only thing I was able to put in the channel was a single slice of electrical tape. Went out and shot it again and BLAM!!!!! That did the trick now I have never taken the stock off the rifle since and the little 223 has sent hundreds of four legged creatures off to meet Jesus. I decided to give it a try with the 338 and now it's better but now I'm stringing shots but left to right it seems ok. So maybe I have too much of a shim? Any ideas? Here is a pic of the group today with factory ammo. I need to load a few of my accubond pet loads to see how she does with them. But does anyone have any tips to glass bed a pressurepoint back in the stock? Or do rock it with the shims if it shoots the way I want it?

 

[Klint Beastwood]

its probably the harmonics from that whip man. maybe try new load data and try a latter see if that clears anything up. That or add another shim closer to the muzzle and see if you can find the sweet spot. Personally, and this is just me, as i have no love for wood stocks, would look into maybe a bell and carlson...m40 or gold medalist. Start over on the process so to speak.
Curious though, did you do any changes to where the recoil lug sits in that stock?

 

[Matt Travis]

No all I did was cleared out wood in the action in front of the lug under the barrel a bout 1/2 inch forward of the lug, around the mag well and left about 1/4 in of original wood around where the action screws went in so it seated the action back into the original spot when I tightend the screws down. I used modeling clay to keep it out of areas it wasn't supposed to go removed the trigger assembly. I bedded about 1/2 inch in front of the barrel lug under the barrel around the recoil lug down the sides of the action inlet and around the rear action screws then after a bit of negotiation two days later I got it apart removed the clay and cleaned up the glass bedding, removed the pressure point and reassembled the thing. It looked good when I was done. Was the first time using Miles Gilbert with micro balloons but it seemed like it worked. I have watched the video Larry Potterfield does with the glass bedding the channel but I decided to follow the instructions Miles Gilbert sent with the kit and didn't get too messy with it.

 

[Matt Travis]

I will work up another load of Rel22 and Nosler accubonds and see if it has a new sweet spot now that the original pressure point is gone and with a shim in a different area.