Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing "O"- rings for accuracy

I can't remember who first posted about placing an O-ring around the barrels of Stutzen (Mannicher) stocked rifles for improved and more consistent accuracy. I used it on a Ruber M77 RSI with good results. Since then I have used it on my M70 Classic FW I placed in a Winlite stock, a Ruger M77 tanger 308, and now my Ruger Hawkeye stainless ultra light 7mm-08. The Ruger UL was so/so for accuracy. The 120gr load shot better before I added the O-ring but never as good as the 139gr load does. The 139gr ammo is Hornady American Whitetail. I have a good supply pf 139gr bullets to load.

120gr @ 100


139gr @ 100

Curious as to where you placed the O-ring. Did you locate the spot by dangling the barreled action and tapping it up and down with a small hammer to find the "dead spot" and place the O-ring there? (That's how I locate the spot at which to clamp the barrel sled on a couple .32-40 High Wall bench guns.)

With the M70 and Ruger tanger I placed the O-ring about an inch and a half back from the end of the fore end. The only place to put an O-ring on the Ruger UL synthetic stock was right at the front end of the fore end.

I bought some rubber grommets to try the same thing.

Bed properly and save components chasing temporary "fixes."

There are times when bedding isn't the cure all.
Not all of us want a threaded barrel.
Sometimes cheap, simple, and effective has its own beauty.
Kinda like a greased ace of spades under the barrel at the forearm tip, or floating an action with greased playing cards and a hole punch around the action screws.
I have done both, after reading Carmichael's books, and both worked.
The rubber barrel tuner is just a newer take on the idea of a common man fix.

Playing cards went out when bread bag clips became popular to diagnose a problem then became a permanent fixture

Isn't that a bit contradictory? Wouldn't your "greased playing cards" in effect be curing/improving your bedding issues? [Bedding: the nesting of the metal components into the stock for a precise fit, be it through perfect inletting or after the fact with space filling compounds (also used to correct ill-advised, imperfect, or otherwise compromised fit of metal to its support structure after the fact).

In what context are you referring to "threaded barrels" here?

Be careful with your "common man" fixes. All too often such things are the mark of "Bubba". Would it not be a good protocol to experiment with such things in seeking a fix, then making permanent hidden alterations that achieve the same effect? Ie: after determining that said O-ring effected an improvement of sorts, then creating a hidden pad of something permanently fused to the stock channel at that point that achieves the same effect. Bubba often has great ideas but rarely does he see them through to completion.

Philosophically/aesthetically I would rather have a stock that is absolutely, precisely, patiently and carefully inletted for its metalwork than one haphazardly inletted and then made up for with epoxy compounds. The same effect is created, but who's capable of such work, and more importantly who's willing to pay for such work? Not many guys like that around anymore. Not many guys left of the caliber of Tom Shelhamer, Alvin Linden, Bob Owen, John Dubiel, and Seymour Griffin, to name a few old time greats.

Duplicators and cnc killed that market.

If the O-ring works, I can't see a problem. If it doesn't, no worries and is easily removed. My latest test is with a Ruger Hawkeye synthetic stock. Not a whole lot one can do with them.
Dave, aka "Bubba".

I know a guy that's had good luck bedding forend with silicone. I think casting silicone works the best. Regular RTV won't typically dry

Does he work for Browning assembling A-Borts?

One major problem with temporary fixes is the probability they will shift or get moved, requiring more components to verify... proper bedding is too easy to do...

They could not have done it without epoxy.

Agree completely.

The inletting on a well done epoxy bedding job is far from haphazardly done. Believe me, inletting makes a difference.

Good shootin' -Al

Al, would you please elaborate on this? I've probably been leaving some ''goodness'' on the table!

Thanks

Pretty easy to shim forend tip with match cover or what ever if it shoots well tape it in place then bed to same thickness.

Hi Pat. Basically, I want the inletting to allow for a consistent, adequate thickness of compound.....you don't want thick and thin spots. This insures consistent stability of the bedding and gives a lot more longevity.

This one just got done...the pic is right after the barrelled action was removed and prior to final clean up, chamfering and edge rounding. On this one, the inletting was lowered so there would be a consistent .125 of bedding thickness. That includes over the top of the pillars.

There's a lot of mistakes commonly made in bedding. Inadequate compound thickness isn't the biggest no-no. But it's in the Top 5.

Good shootin' -Al

I've used neoprene, not rubber, O-rings placed around the barrel behind the muzzle of rifles with Mannlicher-style full-length stocks to cushion the contact between the barrel and stock or barrel and end-cap. I don't see how bedding the action will eliminate the barrel flex/whip that allows the barrel to randomly touch the end of the stock or end-cap. While it might not be the "school solution", it has worked many time over on Interarms, Remington, Ruger, and Winchester centerfire rifles with Mannlicher-style stock. Sometimes I have had to move the O-ring back and forth over the last 1" of the barrel to find the sweet spot, or use a second O-ring spaced behind the front O-ring, but I was always able to tighten up the groups. I believe that the constant pressure of the soft neoprene O-ring between the barrel and stock cushions the barrel flex/whip and that results in tighter groups.

I have full-length bedded a couple of rifles with Mannlicher-style full-length stocks, but neither of them made better groups than those using the neoprene O-rings. I haven't noticed any degradation of accuracy over an extended period of time, since 1985, due to the neoprene O-rings becoming brittle or misshapened.

As someone noted previously, if for some reason it doesn't work for you, your input costs are less than $1 for the O-ring and less than 1 hour of your time.

HERE HERE!

260Remguy, I did the Ruger MKII RSI 243 I got from you and it worked. My Ruger MKII boat paddle stock and Hawkeye ultra-light synthetic stocks didn't work. The MKII shoots OK and I just tried to see if it would help. The Hawkeye ultra-light 7-08 is a picky gal. After trying different loads, I have settled on 140gr Nosler BTs.