Can someone explain the accuracy factor please.

[tim3]

Ive been shooting 40 years now, its not new to me however reloading & actually thinking about whats really going on in a rifle is very new to me.

Ive trawled the net & often end up over my head or maybe reading complete rubbish so i thought i would ask here. What is it that makes a custom rifle shoot better ?

Why would you guys know a Sako is possibly more accurate rifle than a Stevens perhaps. Silly but maybe i need to ask, has the Stevens a more economical barrel manufacturing process & steel because the round (as far i as i know) does not care how smooth the bolt fits. Thats probably incorrect but thats really my question. How does whats behind the chamber relate to the round's accuracy.

I understand engines quite ok re tolerances / balancing etc and can understand the difference a cheap factory seconds projectile has over a quality produced one but what i dont get is the tolerances with the bolt & chamber. I mean once that quality projectile is in place on the lands or just off etc...what difference does the rest of the bits behind matter ? I read little about barrel quality & manufacture which i would have expected really would make a huge difference.

Anyway, open to advice. Im just getting ready to buy a new rifle (looking at a sako 85, ive never owned a brand new rifle) and am interested to know more before i buy.

edit : i understand that im asking about the quality behind sako v stevens (neither custom) however im also interested why a custom rifle would extend quality out past the sako. What gives that expensive hand made bench rifle the edge over a decent shelf bought rifle ?


Tim

 

[Charles E]

This may be a useful analogy for you. It was for me, but what makes the light come on for one person doesn't always work for another.

Back in the days when breechloaders were just coming along, the common opinion was they would never be as accurate as a muzzle loader using a false muzzle and a paper-patched bullet. And that was generally true, right up to the point where we wanted the extra performance of jacketed bullets.

So think that through: a bullet, not (or minimally) deformed, perfectly centered in the bore.

Now think of all the complications and compromises involved to achieve that with a breechloader. Then throw in the economic considerations & compromises of manufacturing.

The goal for accuracy in building a rifle is something very simple. Getting there is not.

There is probably another, less obvious reason that customs are better -- people willing to pay for them and wait for them are usually more interested in accuracy. They will take the time to find and develop the loads that work best with the individual components of the rifle.

 

[jackie schmidt]

The heart of any accuracy potential in a Rifle is the barrel. You can take an out of the box Remington 700, screw on a custom tube, and if it is chambered in any caliber that has a inherant accuracy potential, (we will say 308 Win just for the sake of arguement), and you will have a Rifle that will in all likelyhood have 1/2 minute of angle potential.

Of course, that is predicated on the rest of the Rifle being machanically sound and fuctionally correct.

All other aspects of "accurizing" are performed with one goal in mind, to help the barrel live up to it's potential..........jackie

 

[Boyd Allen]

There are a whole list of ways that a custom benchrest rifle is different from a factory rifle. The chamber dimensions, and the care with which it is cut. The fact that custom rifles have higher quailty barrels than any factory rifle that I am aware of. The amount of bedding area designed into the action. Trigger weight is also a factor in accuracy. Many actions come up short in terns of aftermarket trigger availability. Squareness, concentricity, and clearances of and in the action. Stock design, and the materials from which it is made. And then there is the seriousness with which a shooter approaches the problem of extracting the most accuracy that a particular rifle will produce, the I want to shoot like a benchrest shooter, but I don't want to be bothered with that, that, and that factor. (very common)

As examples, a friend who does his own work has a rifle that is based on a Remington action that had a Hart barrel and was well bedded into a suitable stock. The chamber was suitable, and all the work carefully done, but the bolt to action fit was looser than it should have been. I showed him some information on sleeving the bolt (fixing the clearance) and after he did that, the rifle became much more dependably accurate. Another rifle, with similar components, gave him fits, until the receiver threads were single pointed so that they were square. I could go on.

I believe that the relevant questions, when considering the purchase of a new rifle are what it will be used for, what the accuracy goal is, and of course what the budget is. Custom benchrest rifles do have one rather grievous fault. They will make you loose interest in all of your less accurate rifles. Generally, if someone that I know is interested in such a rifle, I will let him shoot mine for a group. If he is really interested in the technical aspects, I will have him load his own ammunition for that, since I have all of the equipment to do so at the range, and am doing so for myself. Often, shooters are of the opinion that to shoot better they need to become more skilful, to try harder. On an easy wind day, after they have shot my rifle, I point out that the difference between how they just shot (usually in the mid 2s), and how they had been shooting was the equipment, not the shooter. A few weeks back, a fellow came over to where I was shooting and told me about the 6PPC that he had had built after he had shot mine, and retrieved the target that he had shot, that I had measured, dated and signed for him, form his shooting kit. He was all smiles. I imagine his factory rifles will now last forever, since they will probably be seeing much less use.

On the other hand, when I did not know much of anything about rifles and accuracy, I had a lot of fun loading for a 788 Remington, with a Lee loader, and shooting off of what ever was handy. We go through stages. I had fun at all of them, and hopefully I have more to go, since there is such a long list of shooters who are more accomplished than I am. Have fun with your new rifle, whatever it is.

 

[tim3]

Interesting and thorough replies, thank you. After i posted my questions i remembered something funny that happened to me years ago. I went to an old cantankerous mercedes mech to ask about a cheap old merc i was buying, he wore no shoes or shirt & only had about 3 teeth left & worked in his tiny dirt floor garage. You needed to book 6 months in advance to get him to service your car, doctors/lawyers all lined up. I asked him about the car & he bluntly yelled ‘ buy anything of that 10 year era except the 230’s" I asked why & what was wrong with them & he popped his head up from a car & yelled ‘ you want me to teach you in 10 mins what its taken me 40 years to learn !” He made a good point & i always mindful of that.

Thank you again for your input to my questions, its helped me.