rimfire chamber question?

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philipbrousseau

Member
I have remington 541thb that i had the barrell threaded onto the receiver. i notice that when a cartridge is chambered
the bullet is engraved by the rifling about .050. the rifle has shot poorly since i had it worked on and i wondered if the bullet being into the lands is the proper way to chamber a .22 rimfire rifle. thanks in advance for any information on this.
 
I'm not a rimfire expert but .050 engraving sounds excessive to me. I have a few questions and maybe some of the more well versed guys will chime in.
Is the barrel a custom or a set back factory? Were the threads cut square in the action and was the face of the action trued? Is the barrel touching the stock anywhere along its length?
 
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the barrel is factory and set back. it use to shoot extreme well at times which is the reason i kept the original barrel. it was supposed to have been trued, a second bolt put in the receiver and pillar glass bedded and the barrel is floated from the glass bedding foreward.
 
philipbrousseau said:
I have remington 541thb that i had the barrell threaded onto the receiver. i notice that when a cartridge is chambered
the bullet is engraved by the rifling about .050. the rifle has shot poorly since i had it worked on and i wondered if the bullet being into the lands is the proper way to chamber a .22 rimfire rifle. thanks in advance for any information on this.
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Benchrest rimfires often are chambered with even more than .05 engraving. There are exceptions, but nearly all rimfire guns for benchrest are chambered with some amount of engraving. There could be a lot of other reasons for your rifle to shoot poorly. The best rimfire smiths usually spend time testing and tweaking the rifles they build because there are so many minor things that can affect accuracy. Have you talked to your smith about it?
 
Scott, thankyou for the reply. I had sent this rifle to a smith that works on 541s and when it came back the chamber was really short, to chamber a cartridge i had to hold it by the grip with my left hand and put my thumb on the rear of the bolt and the heel of my right hand on the bolt handle and push as hard as i could. well it shot poorley. i sent it to Clarence Hammonds and he cut the chamber as it is now which is correct but accuracy is still miserable. until yesterday i had just planned to trash it. do you think a rimfire benchrest smith would check this rifle out, i know they are busy, and if so could you recomend anyone within a couple hundred miles of Augusta georgia. thanks.
 
philipbrousseau said:
Scott, thankyou for the reply. I had sent this rifle to a smith that works on 541s and when it came back the chamber was really short, to chamber a cartridge i had to hold it by the grip with my left hand and put my thumb on the rear of the bolt and the heel of my right hand on the bolt handle and push as hard as i could. well it shot poorley. i sent it to Clarence Hammonds and he cut the chamber as it is now which is correct but accuracy is still miserable. until yesterday i had just planned to trash it. do you think a rimfire benchrest smith would check this rifle out, i know they are busy, and if so could you recomend anyone within a couple hundred miles of Augusta georgia. thanks.
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I don't know of one right in your area although that doesn't mean much. You might have good luck getting a recommendation from the rimfire forum or http://www.rimfireaccuracy.com I know there is some rimfire activity in the Jacksonville area.

If your barrel was bedded with up pressure and now it is free floated, it may be out of tune. New rimfire chambers often shoot better after several bricks of ammo. Other changes, such as trigger or anything that affects ignition can cause problems.
 
Scott, that looks like a good web site. i've not shot several bricks through it. i dont think i could stand to shoot a rifle that will miss golf balls for me at 50 yds that many times. i appreciate all of the replies from you and everyone. i will experiment with some more, and will probably try to find some one that can give me a good evaluation of the gun. thanks to everyone.
 
Ammo Used

Philip,

What ammo are you using in the Remington?

Tony
 
tbacala, i have tried quite a few. wolf match extra, rws sub sonic plus other rws im out of now & cant remember exactely what they were. eley hi-vel solid&hp, eley sub sonic&match extra.lapua speed ace,& hi vel hp. eley sport, alot of the federal premiums, fed gold metal, winchester t-22. about all cci types and all the regular types we used to be able to pick up off the shelf at various places. i am about to step out back right now and try this thing for the last time.
 
A common problem with rimfire inaccuracy is improper headspace. Too little headspace and the bolt will not lose. Too much headspace and you get erratic ignition. Is your rifle a 541S or 541T?



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Philip,

It sounds like you've tried enough of a variety of ammo to eliminate that as a problem. I agree with Jerry that headspace could cause erratic ignition, especially with a tight chamber. Two other areas I'd look at are the crown and your scope. It is possible that your gunsmith put a lathe center in the crown during barrel threading which could definitely cause damage and accuracy problems. As to the scope, I once had a rifle that suddenly started shooting poorly. I worked on the crown, the bedding, and every other aspect before realizing that the ring that retained the objective lens had loosened. I tightened the retaining ring and all was well again...the scope was eventually replaced.

Tony
 
In My opinion

The conditions of the barrel are more important than the chamber, within reason. Case in point: My chambers are the usual tight 2* lead chambers or at least that what the reamer says. They all will shoot certain lots of Eley that engrave some. They also shoot certain lots of Lapua well that do not engrave when chambered. Some of the best chambers that were ever put into rifles are a lot longer than what is currently used and with very small lead angles and obviously do not engrave anything.

Pete
 
Jerry its a 541 thb, the heavy barreled model they made on the second run of the 541 rifles and the head space seems pretty tight and i can feel the difference in rim thickneses when chambering. answering your question Tony, Clarence Hammond recrowned it when he rechambered the gun mounts&rings are good. scope is 6.5x20 leupold that is one of my regular tuning scopes and i believe it is o k. there was some epoxy left at the rear of the receiver. i took stock off& removed it and took the rear receiver bolt out that smith installed[not Clarence H.] and shot it yesterday. it showed great improvement compared to what it had been doing. start with the bad, federal gold metal match 50 yds. 2 inches, eley hi velocity h p 5\8 in. eley sub sonic 5\8. rem club extra 1\2, wolf match extra 3\4 inch s&k hi velocity h.p. 5\8 inch. cci standard velocity 1\2 inch and federal 38 gr. hp game-shok that my cooper 57m shoots gave 2 inches. no where near a bench gun but ok for squirrels and plinking where as before it was worthless.Jerry, Tony and Pete thanks for the input. and thankyou to everyone else for their thoughts on this.
 
to a great extent

philipbrousseau said:
Jerry its a 541 thb, the heavy barreled model they made on the second run of the 541 rifles and the head space seems pretty tight and i can feel the difference in rim thickneses when chambering. answering your question Tony, Clarence Hammond recrowned it when he rechambered the gun mounts&rings are good. scope is 6.5x20 leupold that is one of my regular tuning scopes and i believe it is o k. there was some epoxy left at the rear of the receiver. i took stock off& removed it and took the rear receiver bolt out that smith installed[not Clarence H.] and shot it yesterday. it showed great improvement compared to what it had been doing. start with the bad, federal gold metal match 50 yds. 2 inches, eley hi velocity h p 5\8 in. eley sub sonic 5\8. rem club extra 1\2, wolf match extra 3\4 inch s&k hi velocity h.p. 5\8 inch. cci standard velocity 1\2 inch and federal 38 gr. hp game-shok that my cooper 57m shoots gave 2 inches. no where near a bench gun but ok for squirrels and plinking where as before it was worthless.Jerry, Tony and Pete thanks for the input. and thankyou to everyone else for their thoughts on this.
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real Rimfire accuracy depends on a barrel that is very clean. Try really cleaning the barrel. Don't be afraid to use some steel wool wrapped around a worn out brush, you won't hurt anything. If you get gray patches, you have lead deposits some place in the barrel, a real accuracy killer. Black is carbon, gray, lead. Lead can and often does form anywhere in the barrel but most often just ahead of the lead of the chamber and near the muzzle if there is a choke taper there. I recently found a consumer cleaner called Krud kutter that seems to do a super job at lifting carbon, wax and perhaps lead but more than likely you will need to mechanically remove that crud. Without a bore scope, it is perhaps not possible to see deposits in barrels. They can look shiny but still give you black and gray patches.

Pete
 
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Guys, I don't want to be a spoilsport here but this is the second time I have seen it posted to use steel wool wrapped around a brush, It will certainly get the lead out....but before you do that, take a piece of that steel wool and rub it briskly on the outside of that barrel. If it doesn't mar the finish I'd be surprised.


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JerrySharrett said:
Guys, I don't want to be a spoilsport here but this is the second time I have seen it posted to use steel wool wrapped around a brush, It will certainly get the lead out....but before you do that, take a piece of that steel wool and rub it briskly on the outside of that barrel. If it doesn't mar the finish I'd be surprised.


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I think Pete likes nice rounded lands. Some of this stuff is downright scary.
 
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