Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Factors in accuracy...

I had an interesting conversation with a guy today. He asked me what I considered the most important factors in accuracy of a rifle. Forget the scope, mounts, ammo....just the most important baselines for developing a truly accurate rifle.

He gave my five choices:

Quality of Barrel
Good Trigger
Perfect Crown
Stress Free Bedding
Trued Action

He wanted me to list them 1. through 5. He and I debated for a while and I enjoyed the talk. We both had valid points for our choices.

In order of most important to least important, mine were;
1. Stress Free Bedding
2. Good Trigger
3. Perfect Crown
4. Trued Action
5. Quality of Barrel

How would you rate them 1 - 5?

1. Stress Free Bedding
2. Good Trigger
3. Perfect Crown
4. Trued Action
5. Quality of Barrel


I know whose answers to copy!

I've had several rifles walk a target unless the barrel was floated so mine get floated before they go to the range for load development.

Bedding? It can help, but only one of my rifles is bedded. I haven't found it necessary with my Rugers, although I think the angled front screw locks the action in place much as bedding would if it it properly tightened.

Good trigger can make a big difference.

Trued action? Again, only one of mine are trued, the same one that is bedded, my 6.5-06AI.

A perfect crown undoubtedly helps but I think a good barrel is generally more critical than a perfect crown.

A good scope with high also helps. I find I shoot much better with a 14x than I do a 9x of similar quality, better with a 9x than a 7x, better with a 7x than a 4x, and so on. A 20x improves things even more as far as achieving a consistent aimpoint that is as small as possible.

OK, I can count and that's 7 items, not than 5. In terms of importance, the order in which they go depends on the rifle.

1. Stress Free Bedding
2. Perfect crown
3. Quality of barrel
4. Good trigger
5. Trued action

To me 1 is a given because you can screw up a great shooter if it's in a bind. Same with 2.

Barrel has to be quality but it could be a good quality factory barrel. Don't mean to imply it must be a top shelf custom barrel. Could argue between 3 and 4. I went this order because I feel a trigger helps us to shoot more accurately but doesn't make the rifel more accurate.

I put action last because of some of the factOry guns that shot so well and know the actions hadn't been trued.

Bedding, barrel, trigger, crown, trueing...

They all go hand-and-hand. Any of the five (or 7!) can make or break a rifle.

It was just a good conversation that peaked my interest.

S
A
K
O

Like asking which was first. The chicken or the egg... Just sayin..

With hunting rifles,I've seen a good bedding/float job turn a lemon factory sporter into a good shooter quite a few times. Or at least show a distinct improvement.

Of course this couldn't happen if the barrel were not at least decent in the first place.

Getting bullets started straight down the bore is probably as important as anything else on the list.

A properly cut chamber is a big factor in accuracy. He didn't give me that choice, but it was discussed during the conversation.

The nut behind the trigger matters too.

Some days, all my rifles seem to have a nut behind the trigger that needs adjusting.

Barrel, trigger, crown, action, bedding.

Bedding, crown, barrel, trigger, truing.

Frankly, I think "barrel" should encompass the crown and chamber, but I wasn't involved in the initial conversation.



Travis

All of the above can go out the window without good ammo.

I'd agree with this.

One note, have had one "bad" crown that cause 2-3" horizontal flyers so that has definitely influenced my ranking of crown.

And I've shot some old Savages with 7lb gritty triggers with plenty of creep/overtravel and still shot MOA level groups, so that leads me to putting trigger lower on the list. But I still much prefer a good trigger!

I agree it's not much of a quality barrel if the crown and chamber are screwed up.....

What the absolute number one priority should be, is the gunsmith.

Here at 'Flave Precision we maintain quality craftsmanship as our third highest priority.



Travis

But was the question about barrels themselves and not the gunsmithing?

That is, a properly installed Bartlein (or whatever) vs. a properly installed factory barrel.