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Accurizing a Precision Rifle on a Budget, by Mike L.
“Only accurate rifles are interesting.” – Col. Townsend Whelen
We all know when we are shooting a super accurate rifle; when everything just “clicks” and the shooter, cartridge, and rifle come together to make great groups. But what are the variables involved in making a rifle accurate? And more importantly, how can we control some of those variables ourselves?
One of the keys to accuracy, perhaps the most important one, is consistency. We know that, as shooters, we need to be very consistent to become good marksmen. We mount the gun the same way every time, control our breathing and even our pulse to release the shot at the same interval within our “wobble area.” We press the trigger the same way, and use the same place on our trigger finger to release it. We adjust the parallax out of our scope and adjust optics for best focus of reticle and target. All these things help make our shots more consistent.
Well, the combination of rifle and the cartridge it fires are very dependent on consistency as well. Let’s consider just a few of the important items.
Stock bedding
If your rifle action moves around in the stock, it will never shoot consistently. Each time you shoot, the rifle will recoil, and potentially land in a different place in the stock. The most accurate rifles typically are glass bedded within a CNC-machined aluminum bedding block, in a synthetic stock. Synthetics are great, because they aren’t affected by temperature or humidity. Classic wood stocks are beautiful, but they can swell or warp. Laminates work well, because they are relatively immune to environmental factors. There are synthetic or laminated stocks now available for nearly any semi-automatic or bolt action rifle suitable for survival situations. Many of these are available in semi-finished form at a very reasonable price; these require mostly work with a few simple hand tools and the application of a durable finish to make an excellent finished product. Instructions and supplies for glass bedding these stocks are available from suppliers like Midway and Brownell’s.
You might have heard of “pillar bedding.” Basically, this involves embedding a couple of aluminum or steel spacers in the stock, through which your action bolts run to bolt the action to the floorplate (aka “bottom metal”). In the olden days, people would cinch down these action bolts tightly enough to start crushing the wood of the stock. Do this long enough and often enough, and the stock starts getting loose on the gun and accuracy suffers. Pillars prevent this crushing. For best accuracy, you can even use a torque wrench to always tighten your action bolts to exactly the same torque (about 65 inch-lbs is often used). Pillar bedding is also a project that is well within the capabilities of a moderately skilled woodworker. You can buy the aluminum pillars pre-made, or if you’re handy with a lathe or drill press, can easily make your own from round aluminum bar stock. Again, instruction is available through gunsmithing suppliers, or you can find detailed instructions by a simple internet search.
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