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I took my S&W 1500 deer rifle to Allison & Carey in Gresham about 3 years ago. A S&W Model 1500 is identical to a Howa 1500 or a Weatherby Vanguard. They're all made in Howa's factory. I told them I wanted the barrel free floated and the action bedded. A couple weeks later they said it was done. I didn't shoot it much until this year. When I did shoot it a couple times, it seemed pretty erratic after the barrel warmed up, but it was fine for the first couple of shots. I never had time to actually delve into what was going on with it, because I was in the middle of exchanging properties and remodeling.
Last month I took the rifle to the range to do some serious troubleshooting. The rifle shoots well for the first 2 or 3 shots. After that, as the barrel warms up it starts walking higher and to the right. If you wait for the barrel to cool between shots you can shoot a 1" group at 100 yds. After 5 or 6 shots within a couple minutes it will be shooting 6" high and 3" right. So, while still at the range I did the dollar bill test to see if something might be interfering with the barrel as it warms up. Here's what I found.
I could only get one bill between the barrel and the stock, and it hung up solid after about 3 inches.
That seemed odd, since the barrel was suppose to have been free floated. When I pulled the stock off of it here's what I found.
The only wood removed was about 3/4" at the very front of the stock. Looks like they poured some epoxy in around the recoil lug and just let it set up. There's about 3" of barrel resting on the epoxy. There's not much epoxy around the action itself, and none anywhere near the rear mounting screw.
This is not anything like what I expected to be paying for. I'd love to hear some opinions on the quality of this job. I don't think this is what we mean when we say "float the barrel and bed the action".
I'm not interested in pursuing this with Allison & Carey. I've come to the conclusion that I do better work than most gunsmiths I've used. So the question becomes what can I do to improve this situation? My inclination is to remove most of that epoxy except for about 1" forward of the recoil lug, then make sure I've got at least .012" clearance for the barrel everywhere else. I'm thinking about bedding the rest of the action (especially around the rear mounting screw), and maybe using a pillar bedding system.
The problem with the pillar bedding systems I've seen is that they require a 9/16" hole for each pillar. Frankly, I don't see that there's enough meat on this delicate stock to drill the mounting holes out to 9/16". I might be able to make my own pillars out of 3/8" OD stainless steel tubing. If I get some with .049" walls it will have an OD of .375" and a ID .277". That should work with the original .250" mounting screws.
So what are your thoughts? Was this a real float and bed job, or did they just fake it? What should I do to remedy the situation? Thanks in advance.
Last month I took the rifle to the range to do some serious troubleshooting. The rifle shoots well for the first 2 or 3 shots. After that, as the barrel warms up it starts walking higher and to the right. If you wait for the barrel to cool between shots you can shoot a 1" group at 100 yds. After 5 or 6 shots within a couple minutes it will be shooting 6" high and 3" right. So, while still at the range I did the dollar bill test to see if something might be interfering with the barrel as it warms up. Here's what I found.
I could only get one bill between the barrel and the stock, and it hung up solid after about 3 inches.
That seemed odd, since the barrel was suppose to have been free floated. When I pulled the stock off of it here's what I found.
The only wood removed was about 3/4" at the very front of the stock. Looks like they poured some epoxy in around the recoil lug and just let it set up. There's about 3" of barrel resting on the epoxy. There's not much epoxy around the action itself, and none anywhere near the rear mounting screw.
This is not anything like what I expected to be paying for. I'd love to hear some opinions on the quality of this job. I don't think this is what we mean when we say "float the barrel and bed the action".
I'm not interested in pursuing this with Allison & Carey. I've come to the conclusion that I do better work than most gunsmiths I've used. So the question becomes what can I do to improve this situation? My inclination is to remove most of that epoxy except for about 1" forward of the recoil lug, then make sure I've got at least .012" clearance for the barrel everywhere else. I'm thinking about bedding the rest of the action (especially around the rear mounting screw), and maybe using a pillar bedding system.
The problem with the pillar bedding systems I've seen is that they require a 9/16" hole for each pillar. Frankly, I don't see that there's enough meat on this delicate stock to drill the mounting holes out to 9/16". I might be able to make my own pillars out of 3/8" OD stainless steel tubing. If I get some with .049" walls it will have an OD of .375" and a ID .277". That should work with the original .250" mounting screws.
So what are your thoughts? Was this a real float and bed job, or did they just fake it? What should I do to remedy the situation? Thanks in advance.
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