gethuntin

I have a 700 Mt rifle LSS in 30-06 and groups arent the best maybe 1.5 or 2, but i havent had time to test out different loads.Right now there reloads with 150 grain hornady SST's. But it gets warm very quick and seems to shoot higher. I was reading on different sights some guys either bed it or free float , ar try some type of fore end pressure on the barrel, to get them to keep better groups with a cold barrel and as it gets warmer.Has anyone tried any of these or what may be some other options. i,ve owned the rifle 3 years now and decided to try to get it closer to an inch groups, or at least not throw bullets as much when it the barrel gets hot because of barrel and stock swelling(inconsitencies).

bigger is better

Have you tried glass bedding your action and free floating your barrel??? I did on my 700 BDL and it shoot sub MOA at 200 yards with reload 165 billistic tip bullets. I don't know if this helps you any but it sure worked on my gun... Ohya I forgot to tell you either adjust your trigger down or get a gunsmith to and that will also help consideribly.. You have a good gun to start with but don't expect it to shoot benchrest groups out of an easy carry hunting rifle... One more piece of advise that you can take or disregard. Is to space your shots out and to always shoot with a cool barrel because it will give you your best accurise espcially in a pencil shaped mountain rifle barrel...

stalkingbear

The reason the barrel is "walking" is because of stress. The only way to stop it from walking as it heats up is to send it to be cyrogenically stress relieved. If I may say however,on a big game rifle,all shots should be from cold barrel as when you shoot at game,it'kll be 1st shot from a cold barrel. What you need to do is let the barrel cool at least 5 minutes between shots to keep barrel cool and get realistic group from a cold barrel. It goes without saying that I automatically glass/pillar bed all mypersonal rifles. As to free floating vs forend pressure,you will have to experiment to see which your individual barrel prefers.

ShatoDavis

What you need to do is bed and free float that rifle.

Its a relatively simple procedure if you are even a little bit handy.

You will need to remove the barreled action from the stock. Then you will need to remove wood from the barrel chanel until you can slide a dollar bill between the barrel and the stock all the way to the action. You can do that with a dremmel tool and sand paper easy enough.

Now this will most likely eliminate your issues. I would also pillar bed the action. Since your rifle is a LSS The laminated stock doesn't necessarily have to be bedded But I would do it anyway.

You should see significant improvements from the free floating. Of course there are many more things that you can do, but I think that free floating should bring your groups close to the magical MOA threshold.

gethuntin

Why doent the LSS model need to be bedded. And how much would it cost from a gun smith typically. Or is there a do it yourself kit.

As for free floating i read that light skinny barrels dont work the best because of there lack of rigidness they get a inconsistent whip. Maybe why they are sent from factory with fore end pressure.Ithink this may be what stalking bear was saying about strees testing the barrel.Thanks for the suggestions, these are just a few more concerns in trying to figure out what will work the best for this rifle.

nchawkeye

That Mountain Rifle has a smaller diameter barrel than the regular Remington barrels, that's why it weighs less....Free floating a thin barrel like that is really taking a chance, it might be worse, those thinner barrels usually need a pressure point to shoot well....

It sounds like you haven't spent a lot of time with load development, I'd work on that before I start free floating....

That barrel is going to get warm quick, it's just the nature of the beast, I'd shoot twice and let it cool...Actually 1 1/2 inch groups from a rifle like that is acceptable....If you continue shooting once the barrel gets hot you will open up the groups, it's not the rifle's fault at that point...

I'd just check all the mounting screws to the barrel and scope, give the barrel a good cleaning and start your load development.

Wayspr

Before I made any changes to the rifle, I would try various loads. 1.5-2" from that thin barrel is not horrible. Try different loads and I'll bet your rifle finds one it likes and those groups shrink down to the 1" range.

ShatoDavis

Well LSS stands for Laminated Stainless Steel. As such the stock is laminated instead of walnut. It is claimed that the laminate is a lot less subject to shrinking and swelling due to weather. As such the stock wouldn't necessarily require bedding. That being said I would bed the action irregardless. On my own rifles I pillar bed then I glass bed as well regardless of what my stock is made out of.

I've yet to see a rifle that free floating had an adverse effect. As a matter of fact the lighter barrels benefit the most from it as the are much more heat sensitive.

As far as pressure points go, I've seen rifles that a certain point of pressure can have beneficial effects. The only way you can be certain is to have a moveable pressure point such as a small piece of paper. Move it up and down the barrel, after its free floated. Shoot groups with the pressure in different points and see if it is helpfull. Once you find the "sweet spot" you can replace the paper with a bit of Glass bedding compound to form a permanent point of contact. Though I've had much better results with totally free floated barrels, there are the occassional barrels that it works on.

You can get all the materials you need from Brownell's or midway. You can buy videos that instruct you how to do it. Heck, you can even find step by step instructions on the internet.

A gunsmith would probably free float your barrel and install a set of Pillars for around $100 I would think. though you can do it all yourself for about half that.

Heres a link to a really good article on bedding:
http://www.rifleshootermag.com/gunsmithing/bedding_0304/