Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Making a Rifle Shoot a Bullet

The throat on this particular rifle measures .2495 inches, virtually identical to the throat on my MRC (.2500"). Although much maligned here on the 'fire, my MRC is both very reliable and very accurate with just about any bullet weight I've tried, even the 154-gr Interlock. Maybe this other 7x57 is just finicky. I'll figure it out.

Thanks for all the replies. They've been helpful.

It's good to have more accuracy than you need, than to need more accuracy than you have....

DF

Amen to that.

Sometimes rifles can be finicky in many ways.Barrel harmonics can make bullets that will shoot well,shoot really lousy unless you find the right powder.I had been working recently with a couple of Sako A7 rifles that would just not group all that great.One was a 30-06,the other a 308 Win.Both rifles were averaging to be about 1.5-2.0" shooters.Quite frustrating to say the least.I worked with several powders in both rifles and found one load and only one load that shot really well around .5" in the 30-06.The 308 Win would never shoot that great no matter what I tried.Both these rifles had floated barrels.I bedded the lugs and tangs and it really didn't seem to help.One day at the range I was about ready to give up on both these rifle.I tried sliding folded sheets of paper under the barrel to support it,from the recoil lug all the way to the end of the forearm of the stock.I watched my groups shrink with both rifles with several different loads that they would not shoot well before.I contacted warranty on the rifles and they sent me a different stock for the 30-06 that has a full length metal block that supports the action.The problem I figured out on both those rifles was Even though I had bedded the lugs and tangs,the action was flexing behind the recoil lugs when shot.Those stocks are both composite but neither had a full length metal block to support the action and were kinda flimsy in that open part of the stock.They both have detachable magazines.The latch that locks in the magazine is located right behind the recoil lug.The stock is inletted a little wider for the latch making it weaker.Since warranty was sending me a better stock for the 30-06,I JB Welded a piece of hacksaw blade on each side of the stock where it was inletted for the latch and it stiffened the stock quite a bit.I took it to the range and it shot under .5".The 308 Win I ended up full length bedding the barrel channel of the stock.It now shoots every load I've tried very well now,one was .15".That's a huge difference on both rifles.I see this quite often with rifles.Get the bedding right and it makes a really big difference.Get that corrected if it is a problem,then when you work on your load development with powders,seating depths and bullets,your life gets much easier.Another thing I've noticed is,try powders on the fast end,mid point and slow end powders of the load data for that rifle and bullet.Usually you can see a big difference in point of impact of the bullet with the different powder ranges.This is because of how the powders are affecting the barrel harmonics.The different powders may each group the bullets well,but they may be inches apart.Usually I'll select one that shows good potential and play with my load charge and seating depth to see if it improves a bit.Sometimes it's easy to figure out how to get them to shoot,then sometimes you just can't crack the nut.Some bullets are just plain difficult too.Good Luck with the challenge.

7x57’s can sometimes be a tad finicky. So can the Swede.

To me the 7-08 is less cranky, the Creed the least. Have worked with all 4 from time to time.

I’m sure that’s not gonna influence your thinking about your fav round. I like it, too. Those old rounds have a lot of class, no doubt.

DF

What is the make of this particular rifle? If this rifle shoots a 160 gr Partition to your satisfaction then the mechanics of the rifle and scope are OK. You must have missed it in a few threads discussing the 7x57. When all else fails, try member Seafire's load of 40 grs IMR 3031.

Yes, with all of todays information available, it is very easy to pick a powder to get desired velocity, temp resistance, powder measuring, and even decoppering. Whatever your preference.
After doing my homework, I rarely have to try a different powder. Maybe switch primers, and almost always tweak seating depth.

Good stuff. Never too old to learn.

if you said these were RN or Spire Points, I missed it.

I thought Ron said you were on a super secret mission hunting the Taliban in the mountains outside Flagstaff?

I'll throw a couple thoughts in here.

One is DBC. Dynatech Bore Coat can really change the game. I have one rifle that never shot consistently well with anything. It had good days and bad, and it required 5 -8 shots after a good cleaning before it would settle down and actually group. DBC came along and smoothed all that out.

The other idea is that it may or may not have been the DBC. It may have been the down-to-the-metal cleaning that I had to do to prep the rifle for DBC.

I'm now starting my 6th season with that rifle post DBC, and I recently shot my best group ever with it.

Sometimes I think that it would be a lot simpler to just pick up a 7-08 or pull out my old .260 and make life a lot easier.



It's a M70 Featherweight (not the Ingwe Special). I've not tried Seafire's load, but he's mentioned it in several threads over time, so if I can't get the 154s to shoot using 4350 (which I haven't tried yet) I just might. I've been trying to get it to shoot using the Ramshot powders since I have quite a bit of it for use in some Deep Curl loads.




Spire Points.

I'm off to the lease for the weekend. Again, thanks for all the comments as they've been helpful.

finally, you've found your life's purpose.

too bad it's on the internet.......

Too bad one of youse guys with too much money doesn't buy a Juenke Internal Concentricity Comparator and spin some of these bullets. Our method of substituting components when you factor 6 brands of primers, 6 brands of brass, 30 or so powders, ten increments of charge weight...we're looking at almost 11,000 thousand possible combinations. Talk about the lottery odds.

There aren't too many of them floating around.

I had a Juenke machine loaned to me for several years, maybe a decade ago. Experimented with it a LOT--and one of the things I discovered during those years was that while yes, some hunting bullets really sucked, but very few sucked ALL the time. Except for the very bad ones, they could vary from lot to lot, with some batches being far more accurate than others, both on the Juenke and at the range.

Also discovered that some bullet companies were using Juenke machines to develop bullets, and refine their manufacturing processes. Other companies consistently making very accurate bullets often did it without the help of a Juenke machine, by making everything very consistently, and replacing bullet-forming dies far more often than other companies.

The machine I used was owned by one of the magazine publishers I worked for, and after a while they wanted it sent to a bullet company, so I did. Vern offered to sell me one at a discount, as my article on it had stirred up some business for him, but by that time I didn't feel the need, as so many bullet companies were making consistently accurate bullets.

Nothing to do with the OP, but in 1967, I hit Saturn Rifles on Commercial Row in Reno, up for a job, either Juenke himself or maybe a shop foreman told me, "Why would we pay you, when we can get these kids out of gunsmithing colleges to work for free?" So I showed 'em, I went logging. Bet they still regret that. Grin.

Exactly how did the Juenke machine work?

It used ultra-sound to measure the variances in jacket thickness--and hence bullet balance. The bullet was rotated by a small electric motor, and the sensor gave a needle-reading on a gauge, indicating variations in jacket thickness, and hence bullet balance. The readings corresponded very well with target results.

However, it only worked on jacketed bullets, since it couldn't "read" any difference in monolithic bullets, whether lead or copper-based. Thought obviously if concentrically cast or turned they shouldn't have balance problems.