2"-2.75" groups from my model 7---Ideas?

G

Ginner

Guest
Anybody out there fix a crappy shooting J-bolt model 7 LS?
It is not something painfully obvious as this rifle was shot on a solid rest, slow fire, professionally glass bedded, barrel floated from 1 inch past the tang, 2 1/2# trigger with a nice break, scope mounts are tight, shot 5 different premium factory loads, no nicks on the crown, both lugs have even contact, fired cases showing nothing unusual, brand new Nikon 4.5-14x and it was purchased new in the fall of '07. This rifle has fired a total of 50 rounds exactly.
My next plan is handloads with a wide array of bullet weights 110-168. If that doesn't work, I will get a casting done on the chamber.
My buddy also has a new model 7 BDL shooting just as bad. Both are 7mm-08 and yes we both can squeeze a trigger since we each have had one hole Remingtons for the last 30 years.
I bought this rifle sight unseen knowing full well how it shot but could not pass it up for the money. If it never shoots any better that's fine as it's a 200yd carry gun for whitetails. I was just hoping with your collective wisdom and experience I would find a common problem that I may have overlooked.
 
Those 7s are hard to group with the light barrel shorty.

As far as replacing the J-Lock, its not too hard. Just a new complete firing pin set-up that costs about $40.

Handloading and different ammo usually help.

I have a .308 Win Ruger 77 MK II 22" light sporter that used to shoot about 2" with factory ammo of nearly any type. I started loading Hornady SSTs, Accubonds, Partions, and a few others and it started shooting .5 moa consistently.
 
Try a pressure point

I would take some business cards and slide one/two whatever it takes to put pressure on the barrel just past the forend. Most light barreled model sevens shoot better with some pressure up front. Cheap and easy thing to try.

Mike.
 
Ditto on the forearm pressure. My brother has a Model with the 18 1/2" barrel that would not shoot for beans. The action was pillar bedded and the trigger adjusted to a crisp 32 ounces. No difference. The rifle would not shoot until I inserted some business cards between the barrel and stock near the end of the forearm.
 
Since what you have is a light barreled sporter, you might try: a) resting the forearm on a slightly softer bag, while holding on to the forearm with your hand just to the rear of the rest, and/ or b) grasping the forearm with your hand and then resting the back of your hand on the rest instead of allowing the forearm to contact the rest.
In my humble experience, just allowing a light rifle to "lay" on the rest can lead to some unpredictable vibrations, rifle rotating when fired, etc. and I've often seen groups tighten using one of the above technques with light rifles. I know this ain't "bench rest," but then these ain't "bench guns...."
 
What did this rifle shoot like before the barrel was floated? My experience with light weight soda straw barrels is they don't like to be floated.

My model 7 in a 20" 7-08 normally shoots around 1 1/4'' 3 shot groups at 100 with a 3x9 scope with loads it likes. Not great but not real bad either.
 
Thanks for the tips so far; keep 'em comin'.
Will try the business card deal. Have tried those bag techniques with no appreciable change no matter, light grip, tight grip or free recoil. Got this rifle from my boss and he never shot it before it was bedded and floated. The factory loads were Rem corelokt, Fed fusion, Fed accubond, and Fed partition.
Weather has been wind & rain so no testing but good loading, cleaning weather.:)
Anyone have a model 7 7mm-08 that shoots exceptionally well?
 
Is it a synthetic stock?

Nearly every barrel shoots better floated. Its just a matter of having adequate clearance between the stock and barrel as well as a stock stiff enough to to flex and apply different pressure to the barrel from shot to shot.
 
I'm gonna jump on the band wagon. Free floating the barrel ain't the straight road to Jeruselum that some would have you believe. Start out with however many biz cards you need to put a little up pressure on the barrel and try it. Then add another just to see how that does. Another trick is to try the pressure point at a couple different places. 1" back, 2" back, 3" back.
I wouldn't worry about the J lock unless the aesthetics bug you. I've got rifles with and without and can't see that it makes any difference.
 
Thanks, the j-lock thing was buggin' me! Have read these rifles are not stellar with j-locks but why has been a bit fuzzy. I think it's because Rem has been draggin' it's feet 'till Savage turned up the factory accuracy heat. Think they can finally smell what the Chief is cookin'.
 
Just to cover another base, why not find someone with a borescope and have him check out the neck / throat area? Reason I say this is I recently scoped two new model 738's (??) in 6.5 Mag ( yes, I know it's not the same calber, but...) and discovered that the throat reaming was wildly off center. I mean it looked like half- depth lands on one side extending all the way back to the neck area and correspondingly deep throat cut on the opposite side. I think the factory may be getting more careless (than usual) with their chambering.. I rebarrelled one with a good barrel and it shoots well under .5" for the customer (he says.)
 
OK, just one more thought and then I'll shut up.... You say the rifle was "professionally glass bedded.." Check to see that the magazine box isn't binding up against the receiver when you tighten the guard screws. This is sometimes overlooked, and can really play with accuracy. Ideally, you should be able to open the floorplate and with your fingertips just get the box to move up and down slightly. If it's binding, file off the bottom of the box until you get a slight clearance... This can happen with new factory guns too... this is one reason why Remington uses those little black "bedding washers" sandwiched underneath the trigger guard...
 
I wish my NIB 700 LVSF shot that well. It was shipped to C. Spencer last week with a new Lilja. Should return a better shooter.
 
Ginner said:
Anybody out there fix a crappy shooting J-bolt model 7 LS?
It is not something painfully obvious as this rifle was shot on a solid rest, slow fire, professionally glass bedded, barrel floated from 1 inch past the tang, 2 1/2# trigger with a nice break, scope mounts are tight, shot 5 different premium factory loads, no nicks on the crown, both lugs have even contact, fired cases showing nothing unusual, brand new Nikon 4.5-14x and it was purchased new in the fall of '07. This rifle has fired a total of 50 rounds exactly.
My next plan is handloads with a wide array of bullet weights 110-168. If that doesn't work, I will get a casting done on the chamber.
My buddy also has a new model 7 BDL shooting just as bad. Both are 7mm-08 and yes we both can squeeze a trigger since we each have had one hole Remingtons for the last 30 years.
I bought this rifle sight unseen knowing full well how it shot but could not pass it up for the money. If it never shoots any better that's fine as it's a 200yd carry gun for whitetails. I was just hoping with your collective wisdom and experience I would find a common problem that I may have overlooked.
Click to expand...

I would get some handloads in it before I tried any modifications to the rifle.

Try 140 gr sierra gamekings 41 gr Varget powder. This is a load I shoot in a 700 classic grade 7mm-08.

if these do not shoot, you will most likely need a new barrel, since you'll have tried all other options.
 
Wow! Sorry to hear about inaccurate Sevens. I have had such good luck it has become a favorite of mine and my lucky number to boot. I have several and they all perform well and some exceed performance expected in heavy barreled guns. I have a 7/08 that will put three in a half inch or less with about any 140gr bullet, a .223 that is a half incher that bounces around behind the seat of my truck, a .350Rem Mag that goes about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 depending on bullet weight and me wrestling it down, a .308 that that shoots three as good as varmint shoots five and I have an action being sent off to make a caliber not offered anymore...If I were to guess I would guess a bedding issue but 7 is my lucky number.
 
What shape are the groups? If they're stringing, it might be a bedding issue. If they're round but big, it may be a powder/bullet issue. When you get to reloading, IMO the 7-08 was made to shoot a 140-150 bullet. Altho there are folks that do good work with the 130's and since moving to Wild and Wonderful, I've kilt a couple of deer using the 154gr Horn RN bullet from a 7-08. Another "bad" thing about the 7-08 is, while I prefer H4895, any number of powders seem to work well.
 
Since you have shot a number of loads and the best that it can do is 2-2.75, I don't believe that you will get it to around 1 inch just by load development. I believe that you have hardware issues. The obvious question is "what are they". A friend of mine who is a custom rifle builder says that the two biggest things that you can do to a factory rifle to enhance accuracy is pillar bed it and crown it. You don't have to have a nick in the crown to have a problem. He said that he has never seen a factory crown that was not off center to some degree. I realize that you can dump a ton of money in this gun trying different things, but a new crown is about $50. Something to consider.......

My normal routine when buying a factory rifle is try a few loads first just to see what it will do. If it doesn't do well, I then pillar bed it and crown it. I will then try several loads with different bullet weights and several different powders of different burning speeds. If I can't get it "within tuning range" of where I want it to be, I either get rid of it or put a new barrel on it. For some reason it seems that a rifle will prefer a particular speed of powder. Don't know why, just my experience.

When you get to the load development stage, make sure you try 140gr. Ballistic Tips and 140gr. Sierra Pro-Hunters, along with Varget and RL-15 powder. Some rifles won't shoot a Ballistic Tip. If it doesn't, it will tend to shoot the Pro-Hunters (not necessarily the Gamekings) pretty well.......another one of those "I don't know why, but it works" things.
 
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Off center reamers

I have two Remington XR100 in .223 that were reamed off center and Remington will not stand behind them.
 
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