Torque
Hi all, I'm new here but saw this thread and thought I'd share my experience -- and I know the new guys never get any love, so take this FWIW
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My annie 2013 was in the metal position stock and strung vertically -- and I had eliminated all the usual suspects, but didn't have a torque wrench for the action screws that went over 36 in-lbs. I wanted to make sure it would shoot before putting more money into the build. So after getting the Weaver 36x in a set of lapped rings on an M-Werks base I turned to the action screws. I sprung for the Gehman torque wrench for the action screws since my little one was not enough. I grabbed an ammo my rifle seemed to like during the first shoot, RWS R-50, and headed to the range. I started at 5NM and worked my way through 9NM in whole increments. My rifle showed a distinct preference for 7 and 8NM, generating ragged-hole 1/4" groups with no stringing. Tighter or looser and I got stringing. So I repeated in .5NM increments from 6.5 to 8.5 and 7 seems to be the sweetspot. This made a HUGE difference for me. Did some more ammo testing and ended up with most 5-shot groups under .3" at 50 yards. Even the cheap stuff shot under .5 aside from the occasional flyer. I had three groups with match ammo that went low to mid .1's, just one tiny oval hole. Before that, best I could manage was about one .2 group out of 10 and most closer to .4" with good match ammo...
Other mods to the gun were firing pin shape a-la Calfee - I was nervous, but figured a new pin wasn't that expensive so WTF? It definitely helped make the groups more consistent and my firing pin dimple now looks like his. Other item was mounting the barrel per Calfee. I used a .043 headspace gauge, rosin on the tenon, and 28 in-lbs of torque on the three barrel clamp screws, and just enough pressure on the extractor alignment center set screw to keep the barrel lined up. Both of these helped measurably, and together with teh action torque is showing great promise.
EDIT: One other point on this particular rifle you might want to check if you have the same metal position stock. The little screws that hold the laminated wood side panels on were too long on mine, and the last screws alongside the action actually protruded enough to touch the sides of the action, which can't be good, so I ground a few threads off the ends of those.
Now I've confirmed it can shoot, so far, so good. Oh, I'm a leftie, so the factory BR stock won't work for me and why I've been testing with the position stock. So just yesterday sent the barreled action off to Kelbly's for a custom bench stock. After he's finished with mine, he should have a pattern, so a simple order for any of you who may want one for your square action annies. I will report back with the stock mod results. I'm noodling over which barrel to buy if the new stock doesn't allow me repeatable groups in the .1's -- I'll settle for high .1's
-- with the factory barrel...
