About 30 years ago I had a Remington 700BDL "Varmint" in .243 Win. caliber. The gun shot very well (<1" moa). Then, one day I read an article in one of the gun magazines suggesting shooters bed about 1.5" of the barrel starting about 1.5" from the end of the forearm. The purpose of this short bedding is to eliminate or dampen barrel harmonics for better accuracy and more consistet Point Of Impact. I did this short bedding "improvement" and my 100 yd., 5 shot groups became one ragged hole shooting 42.5 grs. IMR4350 with CCI400 primers and the Hornady 87 gr. SP bullet.
My current Savage Model 10 in .223 Rem. is also a shooter and I have almost, but not yet achieved the desired 100 yd., 5 shot group into one ragged hole. The rifle has H-S Precision stock with the barrel having lots of free-float between it and the stock.
My question is this: Do any reputable gunsmiths or manufacturers, today, do this short barrel bedding procedure for better accuracy? I conducted searches at various shooting sites and could find no info.
I would like some opinions from others who might have tried some procedure like this.
Best wishes and good luck.
Remington and Winchester used to have a raised "pressure point" on the forearm tip of their wooden stock rifles. Don't know if they still do that or not. I had a 303 Enfield and a 1903A3 that shot much better with about 10-15 lbs of upward pressure applied at the forearm tip. Free floated barrels are what most if not all manufacturers advertise in their rifles. Best way to find out if it helps your rifle is to try it. You can take a temporary shim and try it out.
I agree, try it with something temporary first. Ruger uses a pressure point on their light weight barrels, can't say for sure on their heavy barrels. Another option would be one of the rubber dampening rings that slide over the barrel, some people claim they work.
The biggest thing with pressure points is that it doesnt help every rifle. Over the years most have found that more barrels respond better to being floated then bedded. So using something temporary like foam tape will tell you if its going to help or not.
I don't know how you could possibly "eliminate" or "dampen" barrel harmonics. Maybe it's me, but I think those are a poor choice of words. From everything that I've read, plus my personal experience with bedding and floating forends, I would say it's bedding a stock and floating a forend in order to obtain "consistent repeatable" harmonics from a barrel. Then you can develop your reload to find out which one (or ones) work the best with that barrel harmonic.
MHO
Dave
easier then cutting 1/2" off to re-tune a barrel. Just some time and it can be undone.
.223 Rem AI, .22-250 AI, .220 Swift AI .243 Win AI, .6mm Rem AI, .257 Rob AI, .25-06 AI, 6.5x300wsm .30-06 AI, .270 STW, 7mm STW, 28 nosler, .416 Taylor
Thank you all for the helpful responses.
I might try various thicknesses of foam tape in different locations along the forearm to determine the effect on accuracy. It will be an enjoyable experiment.
Good luck and best wishes to all.
+1 Great post Dave!Originally Posted by davemuzz
Precision Shooting magazine had a research article a few years ago on barrel vibrations and harmonics. Research guy "wired" the barrels and hooked them up to a scope....then he "tuned" them. The increase in accuracy was amazing.
http://www.rifle-accuracy.com/harmonics.htm
Thanks WMB.....you know....even blind squirrels find an acorn... :) But, you are right about the 1-9 twist shooting the lighter bullets. I have a boat-load of the 40gr. Noslers left over after selling my Contender, and I've loaded these and shot 'em out of my Savage. They are not the one-hole at 100 yards the Savage is with the 68gr., but they are certainly accurate enough for close range crows, or any other "under" 100 yard critter you want to explode.
Dave
isnt the point of the BOSS system to tune harmonics?
Yup. That's what the claim is. I can't vouch for it as I don't own a Browning with the boss. But, it makes sense. It's just a "big 'ol screw that torques against the barrel to change the harmonics until your bullet likes it. It's shooting factory.....and getting your harmonics to like it. Like "reloading in reverse" without the reloading part. :)
Thats how I understand it. And thats the same thought I had too about the reloading in reverse.. its a great idea though if you dont reload. There is a guy that was using a sleeved barrel that basically did the exact same thing.
you can also try the limbsaver deresonator slips over the end of the barrel about $10.00-$15.00, it helps with my browning 300wsm
Putting a couple of bissiness cards under the barrel helped the groups on the 7 mag when I tryed it BUT the point of impact changed depending on if I used the bipod,sling or rest. Have tryed it on a few rifles with the same results.
Sometimes I'll bed the tip of a prairie dog gun where it only gets shot in warm temperatures off the bench and bipods but the hunting rifles do better with freefloated barrels.
BOSS isn't an adjustable pressure point against the barrel, it's a weight at the muzzle that allows you to screw it in and out to adjust the harmonics. But yeah, for people like me who don't reload it's a way to adjust groups while sticking with a factory load.
KeS
OMG!!! These doughnuts are the butt ugliest chunks of rubber I've ever seen. I'd rather weld chunks of metal on my barrel than use one of these.
all i know which might be very little is it works very well on a browning a-bolt 3oowsm and a cz 550 american 308. those ugly little chunks of rubber are ugly, however they performed on 2 of my rifles, shrunk the groups by half
I totaly agree but where exactly to weld the chunk of steel is what keeps me from doing just that!!
I got a kick out of my hunting buddies this year. They all shoot 7mags with the same load and all three doughnuts are in the same place on the barrel. Its alright though, it didnt hurt thier ability to miss
I almost hate to say this.....but.....sell those non-Savages rifles and replace 'em with.....well, you know.....an accurate rifle.
Davemuzz, Correct answer,,, You win two tickets to the next Steelers home game and a six pack of "ahrn city".
Because the BOSS system allows you to shoot sub moa with just about any factory load? I understand this is a savage forum and all, but Savage doesn't have the corner on accurate rifles. I'd love to be able to go out and buy a couple of boxes of ammo, and by the end of the two boxes have it shooting sub-moa instead of taking my time and doing a ladder test a couple times (my savage is a 30-06, first ladder is 10 rounds each, 1gr incriments.. 43, 44, 45, 46,47... find the best couple, second ladder test is between the two best shooting groups, .2 gr incriments, then the last between the best two groups, thats NOT a small amout of time invested).I almost hate to say this.....but.....sell those non-Savages rifles and replace 'em with.....well, you know.....an accurate rifle.
I know!! And therein lies the problem. They keep building them and I keep buying them and putting them in the gun case in the corner. Who knows perhaps someday my grandchildren will have the corner on accurate rifles.Savage doesn't have the corner on accurate rifles.
Well, in all fairness that's what the Boss system is suppose to do. Now, again....I don't own a Browning. So, I don't own the Boss system. I've never seen one actually being worked with, nor do I even know anyone who has actually shot one and "worked with" the boss system. So, I can't really tell you how well or how "not well" they either do or don't do. In other words, I have no opinion on 'em.
But, I do know that if I had a Browning, I would still reload for it. At the price of factory....I'm reloading. And, I buy rifles and handguns to shoot year round. Not just once a month to hunt with. Some guys do...and that's just fine as that's all the time they have. But for me...it's my hobby...my past time.
Your right. I have a Marlin and a few Winchesters that are incredibly accurate. The ladder testing is something that I do when working up a load to see where the sweet spots are. Again, I'd probably do it with a Browning as well. But again, this is my hobby...so time isn't an overriding factor.
FWIW
Dave
Dont get me wrong, I'd reload for it too.. I'm a cheap summgun.. which is why I own a savage.
You have to do the same thing with the BOSS, you're just turning the weight to different positions instead of loading different rounds. It's not like you can just dial it to the magic number, you have to sort of plot the accuracy variances for a given round and then record which one works best.
It does work well, and it's great for us factory ammo users, but it's just a tool, not a solution. It requires application.
KeS
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