Aftermarket Stock Woes

Well I guess it's more of a problem with me more than my stock. I have a Stevens in 223 that I felt could be greatly improved with an aftermarket stock. I bought a Choate Ultimate Varmint because I liked the idea of the aluminum block, price, and seemed to have good reviews other than people thinking it's ugly. I loaded up some loads last weekend and hit the range for the first time with this stock. The stock feels really good and solid. I'm brand new to reloading and I left the range disappointed thinking I need to give up reloading since I couldn't get Hornady 68gr match with RL15 to group better than about 1.5" and I've somehow been able to shoot sub moa with PMC Bronze. Since my trip was with some of my first ever loads and a new stock so I had a lot going on in my mind. After thinking about it this week I started remembering I was having a hard time holding steady using a front bag like normal. I didn't shoot any today since it was cold, but I spent a lot of time simply aiming at targets and found that I was again very shaky. I switched back to my tupperware stock and it felt great. Am I going crazy or do you think that me shooting standard style stocks for past 20 years of my life I'm just used to them compared to vertical pistol grip? Do you think I'll get used to the vertical grip or should I cut my losses, sell it, and buy another aftermarket stock? I guess another question is do you think this is honestly my problem or am I going nuts? Sorry if I rambled to much but I figured I might as well give you my whole story.

First things first, what's your typical shooting setup? You mention a bag, but is it a front or rear bag? Is it on a rest or just a loose bag? Picture so we know what you're working with?

Second, if the above is a front bag, is the rear of the stock resting on the bench or is there a bag under it or are you supporting it off the bench and against your shoulder?

Regarding your reloads, that's just something you're going to have to experiment with and figure out what your gun likes. There's far too many variables involved for anyone to say it's one thing or another that's causing your problem. Could be seating depth/jump to lands, could be your powder choice, could be a case neck/bullet runout issue, etc. My advice would be to go back to a known good factory load that your rifle shot good to work on your form and get used to the new stock, then once you're comfortable you can revisit reloading and focus on working up a load since you'll know what the gun and you are capable of.

Soft or firm bag? using the rear adj screw? Go back and try the proven ammo as your base line. Change one thing at a time!

MrFurious, thanks for moving my post. My shooting setup is a soft homemade front bag with the back of the rifle on the table not using the adjustment screw. I'll just have to play with it some more this weekend. I'll get out Saturday and shoot some factory loads with each stock. I'm sure I have horrible form, so I'll look up some things to work on. You are right, being 20 degrees outside I am reading to much on the internet and want it to all fall together when I get a nice weekend to shoot. I need to remember no coffee on the way to the range too!

Even the best aftermarket stocks sometimes benefit from glass bedding. Also, I would recommend lapping your barrel. Check all the screws, for scope bases (those should be Lock-Tited) and scope rings, making sure that the scope ring halves are not compressing against each other. Check action screws. Increase and decrease the powder charge without changing anything else, then see where you stand. If you are not perfectly confident about your shooting, let someone else shoot it for group size. Remember to keep your eye "in the scope" until well after the recoil.

Not sure if your tables are wood or concrete, but the first thing I would do is get a bag or doubled over piece of carpet to put under the butt-stock. Remove the adjustment screw completely, it just worsens the wobble problem as it limits your contact area. For the bag, a small lead shot bag filled with tumbling media works well in cases like this - or something as simple as a piece of 1/2 to 1" thick foam or doubling up a remnant of old carpet.

Basically what you're doing is eliminating the shock energy from the recoil from reaching the table's surface. Concrete and wood aren't going to absorb that energy and as a result it gets reflected back up through the gun. The bag/foam/carpet serves as a buffer pad and will absorb that energy so it doesn't get transmitted back up through the gun. I know it sounds hokey but try it - I can almost guarantee you'll see a difference in group size. You should also always put the same under the feet of your tripod when shooting off a solid wood or concrete bench for the same reason.

Jim
If you do/have used a lead-sled have you used the carpet idea under its' legs? I can see it might make the whole setup more "slippery" under recoil but would make the effect longer time-wise.

You shouldn't need to as every picture I've seen of a Lead Sled shows they have rubber feet on the legs which will serve as the shock absorber for the recoil energy. Putting a carpet or foam mat under it surely won't hurt anything.

And since I know SOMEONE will ask....

No, you don't need to put anything under your benchrest style adjustable front rest with metal feet because the bag attached to it serves to absorb that recoil energy.

Well, I made some very good progress today. I can't believe I never thought of it before but most of my problems with the stock was the cheek piece. I removed that and just hovered my head and things just clicked. I think I was just putting to much pressure on the stock and was fighting myself. I feel pretty stupid that this was part of my problem but hey I got something figured out. I shot a couple groups around 1" with cheap factory rounds but didn't try real hard since the wind was blowing 30mph. I would imagine my 5lb trigger isn't helping anything either, so I'm going to look into my options there. I really like the idea of bedding the action. I've been reading and watching stuff online about it and want to try it eventually. I'm going to try to find someone around here that has bedded some rifles before and can show my the ropes so I don't mess anything up. No big hurry though, I live in Indiana and probably won't have decent shooting weather again for a couple months.