The - Eeif le I Magazin€

Ju I y-Au gust , -9 Number 4

US. & Canada, 75 Cents

Foreign, One Dollar

Daisy V/L

Three Articles O n Rifle Tunini

The T

Eeif le ‘Only Accurate Rifles Are Interesting’ - Col. Townsend Whelen

Volume 1, Number 4 July-August 1969

In This Issue Daisy’s V/L .22 . . . . . . . . . . Maj. George Nonte 14

Tuning .. Bolt Actions . . . . . . . . . . . Bob Hagel 18 Departments

Tuning .. The Levers . . . . . . . . . . John Wootters 22 Editorial . . . . . . . 6

Tuning-- Ruger’sSingle Shot . . . . . . Robert Reagan 26

SPIW: Developer Details History . . . . . . Irwin R. Barr 30

SPIW: Future Program . . . . . . . Edward C. Ezell, Ph.D. 31

Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Roy Dunlap 34

Watts’ Wind Machine . . . . . . . . . . . Jim Gilmore 36

Shooting Sheridan’s ‘Streak . . . . . . . . Capt. B. Frits 40

Double Trouble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AI Miller 42

Rifles For Police? . . . . . . . . . Maj. George Non te 46

T h e R I F L E M a g a z i n e i s publ ished bi-monthly b y Dave Wolfe Publishing Co., Rt. 4, Box 3482 (1406 Hendryx Place), Peoria, I l l inois 61614. Telephone (309) 691-2169. Second class postage paid a t Peoria, I l l inois and addit ional mail ing offices. Single copy price of current issue _- 7 5 cents. Subscript ion price: six issues $4.00; 12 issues $7.00; 18 issues $9.50 (Outside U.S. possessions and C a n a d a - - $5.00, $9.00 and $12.50). Recommended foreign single copy price $1 .OO. Advertising rates furnished on request. A l l rights reserved.

Publisher of The R I F L E is not responsible for mishaps of any nature which might occur f r o m use o f pub l i shed data, or f r o m recommendations b y any member of The Staff. No par t of t h i s publ icat ion may be reproduced w i thou t wr i t ten permission from t h e e d i t o r . Manuscripts from free-lance writers must be accompanied b y stamped self-addressed envelope and the publisher c a n n o t accept responsibility for lost o r muti lated manuscripts.

Change of address: Please give one month’s notice. Send both old and new address, Plus mail ing label if possible, t o Circulat ion Dept., The R I F L E Magazine, Rt. 4--BOX 3482 (1406 Hendryx Place), Peoria, I l l inois 61614.

4

The Staff Dave Wolfe, Publisher --

Jim Carmichel, Associate Editor

John Wootters, Associate Editor

R. T. Wolfe, Ph.D., Associate Editor

Parker 0. AcWey, Wildcats

John Buhmiller, African Rifles

Harvey Donaldson, Historical

Roy Dunlap, Gunsmithing

Edward C. Ezell, Ph.D., Technology

Jim Gilmore, Bench Shooting

Bob Hagel, Hunting

Loading For Bear . . . 8

DearEditor . . . . . 10

MuzzleFlashes . . . 12

AimingForAnswers . 62

ProductProofing . . 64

JustJim . . . . . . 66 .

Cover T h e T h e o d o r e R b o s e v e l t C o m m e m o r a t i v e r i f l e f rom W i n c h e s t e r h o n o r s the nation‘s ”Outdoorsman President,” an ardent believer in t h e proper use of guns, an a r d e n t h u n t e r a n d a n a r d e n t conservationist. In these troubled

.times, we could use men of his Conviction, courage and out look.

Neal Knox, Editor

Norm Lammers, Tech. Adviser

Maj. George C. Nonte, Military

Ken Waters, General Assignment

Edward M. Yard, Ballistics

Don Zutz, General Assignment

Rod Guthrie, Staff Artist

John T. Amber, Ed. Consultant

Judith MacDonald, Ed. Assistant

Barbara Killough, Ad. Director

June Skillestad, Circulation Manager

The RIFLE Magazine

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The RIFLE Magazine Box 3482

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H E S I N G L E MOST V A L U A B L E ballistic instrument available to the

h u n t i n g h a n d l o a d e r is no t a chronograph, not a computer, not a slide rule, and not a calculator. It is a simple plastic 12-inch ruler which may be purchased in any drug store for a dime.

Let's assume you plan a Montana pronghorn hunt, and you wish to develop a load for your pet ,270 which wi l l do in a trophy buck at any range at which you're willing to shoot. You select a bullet construction type which is k n o w n to provide adequate expansion. You know, of course, that you'll want all the velocity possible, to flatten trajectory and diminish wind drift at long ranges. So far, so good. A load meeting these requirements can be

lifted out of any good loading manual in a matter of minutes.

But wait a minute. Didn't you read somewhere that a .30-06, such as the one in your rack, will give more velocity and a shorter time-of-flight (with equal bullet weights) than the .270? Granted, the .270 bullet has a better ballistic coefficient, but does this advantage really become significant inside 300 yards, which you have wisely decided will be your practical limit?

If you work at it, deciding which rifle to use can become as complicated as an income tax form. You dig out an article giving ballistics equations and formulae, and sheets showing sectional densities and form factors of various

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bullets. With a handful of sharp pencils, a few sheets of graph paper, and a ream of scratch pads, you can make an accurate comparison of the trajectories of, say, the .270 130-grain bullet and the .30 caliber 125-grain spitzer at top velocities. . -

The process can be shortened considerably by using such slide rule calculators as the Speer Ballistics Calculator and the Powley Computer f o r 'Handloaders . Even quicker comparisons can be made via reference to the ballistics tables in the back of the Hornady loading handbook, at least between Hornady bullets.

But there is a much better way. You simply work up the top loads with the bullets of choice in both rifles, hie yourself to the range, and shoot both loads at 100, 200, and 300 yards, holding dead center on the bdseye at al l ranges. Then you amble up to the targets, whip out your trusty ten-cent ruler, and measure the distance from center of bull to center of impact for each group. You find, at 300 yards, that the .270 slugs are striking a little more than seven inches low with the zero set at 200 yards, while the .30 caliber bullets, with the same zero, are dropping in about 6% inches below center. Voik! You have performed a

8 The RIFLE Magazine

ballistic calculation about which nothing is theoretical. The re’sults take into consideration your actual muzzle velocities in both rifles, your guns, your eyes, your hold. What your plastic ruler has given you is ballistic Truth.

But there’s more. You fired both loads on the same day, under identical light conditions and in the same crosswind. The holes in the target reveal that bullets from both rifles drifted appreciably in that wind. The ruler will quickly show you that the .30-06 had the advantage again.

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7

And it’s nickels to knotholes that one or the other of the two rifles will reveal a distinct advantage, at 300 yards, in accuracy. The ruler might say, for example, that the .270 load delivers five shots into five inches, whereas the old ‘ought-six opens up to almost eight inches at this range.

Now you have solid information on which to base your decision. Relative drop, wind-drift, and group sizes at all practical ranges, to be weighed against your personal preferences between the two rifles, their “canyability,” recoil effects, and all the other factors which contribute so importantly to your sense of confidence. And you haven’t slid a slide rule, graphed a graph, or equated an equation.

If, by chance, you are a one-rifle man, and that rifle is the .30-06 sporter, you may use the versatile ruler to make similar determinations about the best bullet t o . use for t he upcoming pronghorn hunt. Which is flatter, most accurate, and least wind-sensitive to 300 yards-- the 110-grain spitzer, the 125 or 130-grain bullet , t he all-around 150-grain spire point, or that sexy 168-grain boattail? Again, load ‘em up and shoot ‘em; the 12-inch ruler will answer all the questions, once and for all. You could calculate the trajectories, but (without a chronograph) you’d be speculating about muzzle velocity of each load in your particular gun, which is t h e starting point for all such computations.

I recently put up some loads for a Ruger Number One single-shot rifle in .30-06 caliber for a West Texas antelope hunt, and 1 followed my own advice. I developed loads which produced fine accuracy o u t t o 300 yards, and finalized--or thought I had--the ammunition and zero of the rifle, from a benchrest. Then, for practice, I slipped July-August 1969

into a tight sling and fired 20 rounds from the sitting position at 300 yards. This Ruger has the short, sporter stock and the front sling-swivel is mounted on a barrel band a few inches in front of the forearm tip. Imagine my surprise when my faithful plastic ruler informed me that the tight sling tension had lowered the point-of-impact at this range exactly 13% inches! You may also imagine, correctly, that I was lugging a different rifle when the shot came at my pronghorn buck.

My drug-store ruler has, in a manner of speaking, slain a truckload of game and varmints, simply by providing me with the straight dope on trajectories of dozens of loads. A sitting jackrabbit at 300 yards is in deadly danger if I can bring to bear a certain super-accurate 6mm sporter of mine with a big scope, because I have a vivid mental picture of the precise drop of the 80-grain bullet at all feasible ranges, provided by application of the ruler to actual targets.

And this is the final, and perhaps even the most important, value of using a ruler as described herein. When you calculate, on paper, a set of trajectories, you come away with a theoretical concept of holdover and wind effect. When you fire the loads in question over the ranges in question, through the rifles in question, you actually see where the bullets go, You then have, imprinted on your mind’s eye , a clear, visual relationship which is automatically cranked into your calculations made while shooting. You’re not trying to recall numbers on a page, or to translate them into minute-of-jackrabbit; you have seen what the bullet does-or does not do-at various ranges. Holdover and windage allowances come almost ins t inc t ive ly . Especially in the excitement of shooting at a big-game animal, this is an advantage too great to assess.

The calculators and computers and tables are most useful, and I do not mean t o scorn them. But, for a revelation of ultimate, absolute, ballistic truth, try the ordinary plastic ruler. L,

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9

TUNING-

O S T RIFLES BUILT TODAY, particularly bolt action rifles,

shoot quite well just as they come from the packing box. In fact, most of them s h o o t b e t t e r t han t h e average once-a-year hunter can hold; but this does not mean that all rifles will give the accuracy the barrel is capable of producing. Of course, if the rifle does happen to have a sour barrel, there isn't much that can be done about it except

By BOB HAGEL

to have it replaced; but before this is done there are a few things that should be tried to make sure that the barrel is really bad.

Most hunters are not aware of problems that can often lead them to believe a barrel is bad when, actually, it may be very accurate under certain conditions. This is especially true when t h e s h o o t e r uses only factory

ammunition, and especially so if he uses only one make and one bullet weight and style.

Many rifles will not shoot one bullet weight worth a damn, yet will cut clover leaves with another weight of the same make. This is also often the case with two bullets of the same weight by the same maker, but of different designs; and it may be caused by the loading technique rather than by the bullet itself. Some factory loads are extremely accurate, some are not, and these can be in tSe same caliber and with the same weight bullets. Many times handloadhg 6

the same bullet that is sour in the '

factory load will give fine accuracy.

When I tested the last of the pre-1964 Model 70 Winchesters for the then-new .300 Winchester Magnum cartridge, and the first of the 1964 rifles for t h e same cartridge, I found neither I rifle shot well with the 18O-psain Power

Y

Receiver inierriny snouiu ue cnecnuu m ue sure war me yuem .n;rews, megerrne m x , r r i m r and safety, and even the bolt hendk, do not make contact with the wood. Any of these "minor" items can cause accuracy problems

point &&b, but both of those rifles averaged 1% MOA (minute of angle) with Power Point 150-grain ammo.

With rifles that have three guad screws, like this Winchester Model 70, be sun? them is firm contact between the bottom of the receiver end the wood et the center screw position. Otherwise, there is a chance of springing the action. Actions with only two guerd scmws should not contact wood at this point

18

They both also gave groups hovering around the MOA mark with nearly any of the handloaders' bullets like Speer, Noder or Hornady, and in nearly any weight including the 200 grain.

Then there was the Model 600 Remington 6.5 Magnum that shot wild with anything except the 120-grain Speer. This bullet, backed with anything from 52 to 55 grains of 4350 shot into an average of 1?4-inch on the 100-yard target. I also remember a pair of rifles chambered for the .22-250 cartridge, one a Winchester M-70, the other a Remington M-700. Neither of these rifles would shoot either Remington or Winchester factory ammo with anything like varmint-class accuracy. Yet the Model 70 averaged near 1 MOA with

The RIFLE Magazine

several of the Speer and Hornady bullets in various weights. The Remington, however, refused to shoot anything we tried except the 50-grain Sierra backed by 36.5 grains of 4320. This load averaged below the 1-inch mark.

All this may be more important t o rifle tuneup than appears at first glance. The reason is that if you have one of these finicky rifles with very definite likes and dislikes, it is often possible to tune it by changing its feed rather than by mechanical means. And this can often be done with factory ammo of a different make or bullet weight or design. For instance, I have seen few r i f l e s chambered fo r t he .222 Remington o r .22-250 that shot R e m i n g t o n f a c t o r y soft-point ammunition well enough to brag about, but I have seen fewer good rifles that did not shoot Remington Power-Lokt fac tory ammo with outstanding accuracy.

Another thing to consider regarding barrels-and this is true tuneup-is that many of them are a little on the rough side. If they do not shoot as well as you think they should when you first try them on paper, this may be the cause. If the groups aren’t too bad, don’t give up until you have fired 50 to 100 rounds through the tube-you may be surprised at how much groups improve.

To hurry the process along by the home-lapping method may give even better results. This doesn’t mean the lapping process as done by barrel makers and gunsmiths. There is a product called J-B Non-Imbedding Cleaning Compound that is easy to use and will polish a rough barrel enough to improve accuracy in many cases.

Before using the compound it is a good plan to give the bore a good workout with a bronze brush and a July-August 1969

good powder solvent like Hoppe’s No. 9, then clean thoroughly with patches. Now give a patch a coat of J-B compound and scrub the bore with it. To do this it works best if you start at t he chamber with short, three to four-inch strokes and, after a few strokes in each place, keep moving toward the muzzle, then work back. This method will keep the patch from jumping the lands so that the polishing action will act evenly on all parts of the bore. After the patch is set to the lands and grooves, you may give it a few full strokes from end to end. Be sure to give the throat plenty of action, as this is often the roughest area. It won’t do any harm to repeat the process after the next firing session.

There is little doubt that poor bedding is the cause of more rifles shooting poorly than any other single reason, providing the barrel and ammunition are both capable of top rate accuracy. Poor stock fit is not always an original source of trouble, but may appear later, causing a very accurate rifle to go sour and give you fits. The reason for this can be a number of things; unstable wood, poor or total lack of inside sealing when the stock was finished, or the setback of the action under the pounding of repeated firing.

First, let’s look at the method of bedding that usually produces the best accuracy. The italics point up the fact that not aIl barrels shoot their best with the same bedding method. A bedding method that may do wonders for the accuracy of one barrel may be poison to another, especially if the barrels differ in weight. There are, however, certain makes and styles of rifles that normally respond to a given bedding treatment.

Take the Winchester Model 70 as an example. The pre-I964 rifles had a

The key to tuning bolt action rifles is the fit of the metal to the wood, and making sure that they don’t fit at the wrong places. This Remington Model 700.22-250 is bedded to closely fit at the receiver ring and about 1 % inches forward, and with a pressure point near the tip of the foreend. This rifle averages onehalf MOA.

screw on the barrel swell to apply tension to the forearm which gave up-pressure to the tip of the fore-end (also bend the barrel down in the center if you gave it too much). Usually the best accuracy came if this screw was backed off so that only moderate pressure was exerted, Many times I found that the best accuracy came when the screw was removed and the stock bedded so there was some up-pressure at I

the tip without the screw.

Then came the 1964 70 with a floating barrel. These rifles had hammer-forged barrels which were, in most cases, extremely accurate. 1 tried carefully shimming several of these rifles so there was up-pressure on the barrel near the fore-end tip to see what effect it had on accuracy, if any. In every case, and with every caliber, accuracy went down the drain. And this applied to the target grade with its heavy barrel as well as the sporter.

In 1968 Winchester again changed the stock on the 70, this time they went back to the pressure on the fore-end with their sporter barrels, but did not resume use of the barrel screw. In testing two rifles in caliber .22-250 and one in .30-06, I found accuracy was much better if the barrel were floated. In fact, group size with both .22-250’s was cut nearly in half after the tube was floated.

When Remington brought out the 721-722 actions the barrels had very heavy up-pressure near the tip of the fore-end. Nearly all these rifles shot very well with this setup, but at times could

19

The face of the recoil abutment must be perfectly square with the recoil lug and bear evenly or accuracy will suffer. This Weatherby stock shows glass reinforcement in the center of the abutment to strengthen it for heavy recoil cartridges. Mostgunsmiths bed the recoil lug directly against glass in the abutment.

be made to shoot better with less pressure, because the pressure was usually so heavy that it caused bullet impact to creep upward as the barrel heated up. This method of bedding was continued when the Model 700 replaced the 721 , 722 and 725, but with somewhat less pressure. I have tried floating several M-700 sporters, but have never found one that shot its best that way. However, the Model 700 Varmint Special with its heavy barrel shoots much better with the barrel bedded tight for the fEst couple of inches, then full-floated from there.

The 1969 Model 700 sporter in 6.5 R e m i n g t o n Magnum has light up-pressure, but just what method of bedding will make it shoot best I do not know, not having had time to check it out. The Model 660 that replaced the 600 shoots very well with the barrel full floated.

Other makes of rifles also have their own styles of bedding, but most of them use some pressure near the fore-end on light barrels. Weatherby uses this method on his very light sporter barrels, and any Weatherby barrel I ever tried floating shot much larger groups than with pressure near the fore-end tip.

Contrary to popular belief, there is little difference in bedding methods when using glass or when bedding in the wood, except that it is a lot easier to do with glass and gives a more perfect fit than anyone can do in wood. Most shooters seem to believe that if they bed a barrel and action in glass, a l l they have to do is remove plenty of wood so the glass will fill in, clamp it in place, let dry, and the rifle will drive tacks. Maybe it will, but chances are it won’t. The points that should make wood to metal contact when bedding in the wood

This stock for a Remington Model 70 heavy barrel varmint special has been bedded in glass around the receiver ring and for the first two inches of the barrel, then full-floated with no pressure on the barrel beyond that point. This method will give outstanding accuracy with nearly any rifle with a heavy barrel.

20

should also be used when bedding in glass, and the places where metal should not touch wood are better left so they do not touch the glass. The remark that i s so often made that a stock is outstanding because of its “perfect wood to metal fit,” is greatly overdone. I t looks good and shows good workmanship, but if carried throughout the inletting, it may make a good rifle shoot about like a shotgun.

I t is a good idea to bed with the top edge of the stock fairly tight to the metal of the receiver, and maybe the first couple of inches of the barrel, but from there on out along the barrel channel, be sure the wood does not touch the barrel except for the small section near the tip where pressure is exerted. This spot of contact will be just back of the fore-end tip, and is about %-inch long. It may be made in two ways: One is to use the V method where a contact point about l/&inch wide by %-inch long is left on both sides of the bottom of the barrel channel with about %-inch between them. This serves as a V-rest for the barrel and must bear evenly on both sides. If one side has more pressure than the other, the rifle may change point of impact as the barrel heats up. The second method is to leave the half-inch section about one fourth the diameter of the barrel with a perfect fit to the bottom of the barrel. This method works very well with glass bedding, but is very hard to Zxecute in the wood.

If glass is used for bedding, relieve it by scraping or sanding from a point about .two inches ahead of the receiver ring fo&ard, except for the pressure spot. If the glass is left in full contact with the barrel, the rifle may or may not shoot well, and even if it does it will shift point of impact every time the stock wood moves from weather and moisture changes.

The amount of up-pressure required to make any individual barrel shoot its best must be determined by trial and error. This can be done by placing cardboard shims of various thicknesses under the barrel, trying a group, then doing the final bedding with wood or glass when the correct pressure is reached.

In bedding the action there should be fm contact from the magazine cut forward to the end of the receiver ring and again at the tang, but the receiver should not touch between these points

The RIFLE Magazine

with actions having only two guard screws. If the action has the th'ird screw like the Remington 700 ADL or the Winchester 70, be sure there is contact of wood and metal at the bottom of the receiver at this point. If there is none and the screw is tightened down the receiver will be sprung and accuracy may suffer.

Perhaps the most common reason for a new rifle not to shoot as well as it should, is that the wood along the barrel channel touches out near the fore-end or right at the very tip. This is usually brought on by the stock warping after being assembled. It may also be that m e t a l and wood make con tac t somewhere else along the barrel, perhaps several places. The common result of this is horizontal stringing of the bullets as the barrel vibrates against the tight spots. The same horizontal stringing may occur if the recoil lug does not bear evenly on the recoil abutment, and is tighter on one side than the other.

If a rifle does not shoot as well as it should, take it down and coat all of the underside of the barrel and action to above the stock inletting with one of the blue or black preparations made for the purpose and sold by makers of semi-inletted stocks or gunsmith supply houses. Put it back in the stock, tighten down guard screws, remove, and check the marks on the wood where metal is bearing. Scrape or sand off the spots, and repeat until no marks appear except where the action and barrel should touch.

If the rifle stiU doesn't respond, try changing the pressure on the fore-end by use of the shim method. If you wish to check it with a floating barrel, put a shim under the receiver ring thick enough to lift the barrel away from the fore-end pressure point. If it works, remove the wood from the pressure point and you're set.

There are other things to check which can raise merry old hell with accuracy, and that are little known to most shooters. Be sure the guard screws d o not touch the wood anywhere around the hole. If they do it will not only cause loss of accuracy, but may split the stock if pressure is on the back side. Check to make sure the bolt handle does not touch the wood, because, believe it or not, this, too, can cause trouble. I t is also a good idea to make sure the magazine does not fit so tightly July-August 1969

The "V" method of bedding a fore end is easiest to do in wood and works very well. I t holds the barrel with even pressure from each side, yet does not change point of impact from minor changes in side pressure due to warping of the wood.

between the receiver and guard that it keeps the screws from clamping them securely to the wood. If this happens accuracy is invariably bad, and action and/or guard are sprung. Grind or f i e down the magazine box until there is visible clearance with screws tight.

All these things, with the exception of the magazine binding, often occur after a rifle has been used for some time, especially on a hunting trip in wet country. If the rifle goes sour on such a trip, either check the bedding or have it done as soon as you get home. If spots of stress are relieved then, it will not h a p p e n aga in under the same conditions.

parallax. All these things should be thoroughly checked before any tuning is attempted.

There is a lot of know-how wrapped up in a good job of rifle tuning, especially if the rifle already shoots well and you are after that last small degree of accuracy. It is a job not everyone is capable of doing, or has the patience to execute properly. In most cases the best idea is to take the rifle to a good stockmaker and have it done. But for .I

the guy who wants to do it himself, we have attempted to give an idea of what to look for when your rifle acts up in a certain way, and how to correct it. It takes time, perseverance, and no small amount of ammunition, but it yields a lot of personal satisfaction. All of this, of course, is assuming

that guard screws are tight, and that scope mount bases and the rings are tight; that the scope is also reliable .

under recoil and does not have excessive .c

Another method of bedding the pressure point near the tip of the fore end is to lay a square of glass which bears uniformly against the barrel. I t is very difficult to do in wood due to the necessity of getting a perfect fit with even pressures on each side.

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