This thread takes me back...
Way back in the mid '70's I learned that "to tighten Tanger 77's groups " mantra our public range RO recited/chanted all day every day for every new 77 tanger that the owner whined about...and figured how to offer a $5 Service Fee in the parking lot to "tune that new rifle mo bettah or your $5's back". I even had to get a buddy to weld me up handle on a tire tool and grind me a correctly fitted flat edge screwdriver to break free more than a few of the really bad waaay over tightened 45* front screw out of the NIB factory setting... and sometimes getting a loud "crack" when the screw finally broke free. IMO the factory was assembling the rifles with stock's that were not completely cured , then stacked in a warehouse and left to dry tighten.
As I recall....If your 45* angle front screw is toooo tight you will never get the barrel to seat correctly & you can "tune" your groups with the amount of tension to change your lack of accuracy by putting only just enough tension on the front & middle actions screws, But if your middle screw is too tight you will either or both bow the receiver or bind the magazine box yadda yadda. Since I was repping spt goods for a major Dallas distributor in those days and sold couple 5-6+ hundred 77's a season in the 1st couple years just in the DFW 6 county market, I made sure my dealers checked those 3 screws when they delivered those rifles. ...and for some reason my dealers sold lots more 77's than our reps did in other markets around the state.
FWIW I'd bought my 1st 77 tanger one Christmas at home in Dallas for my own Present to myself of the several dozen 77's I eventually owned since '73, when I was living in Jax Florida and had a range buddy who was on the FHP shooting team go over my rifle and find these kind of issues with my NIB 25-06's over tightened front screw when it would not shoot anywhere close to his custom 25-06 built on a JC Higgins Model 50.. he tuned my trigger too. Couple years later after I moved home from playing a Corporate Gypsy and gone to work at the Dallas based Spt Goods distributor in '77 ...and after I had soaked the DFW & surrounding NTex Counties market with 77's for a couple years and wore off the NEW of the rifle, I got onto S&W 1500's - aka Howa 1500's- as the best new thing since sliced bread , when the factory guys promised us lot's bigger allocations of pistols ...just the usual back door games in allocations of hard to get merchandise...that game never changes either...
Ron
