Hoping you or others could help.

Shooting my pre64 M70 .264 Win Mag and trying to find a good hunting load for it. I've been working with the 140 gr. Nosler Partition primarily, but based on your comments in the other thread on the 264 vs. 7mm RM, I purchased some of the 129 gr. Nosler Accubond Long range bullets.

Went to the range yesterday with 4 rounds each loaded with two different charges of two different powders (total of 16 rounds) with the Partition. Because I was out of time on the loading bench, as sort of an afterthought, I also loaded 4 rounds of the 129gr ABLR with a single powder charge. I shot all rounds loaded and for the most part, I was pretty happy with the results.

However, here is my question. In all instances, I would fire the four rounds of each loading one right after the other for grouping and then I would let the barrel cool for maybe 20 minutes before I would fire the next four. I usually only fire three rounds, preferring not to let the barrel heat up too much, but in this case I amended my usual routine to fire all four. In the majority of these 4 round strings, it seems like the first round would hit maybe 1-2 inches above the other three rounds. The other three rounds would usually group around 1 in., but the first shot, of course, would enlarge the group considerably. This happened almost religiously in each string so I'm wondering what might be causing this?

My thought is that once the barrel heats up after the first shot that it tightens in the stock and thus everything stays the same after that. Do you agree? I have tightened down the fore-end screw to a known torque level already prior to shooting. Maybe I should try torquing it down some more?

By the way, other than the 1st shot flyer, the single load with the ABLR bullets went into a 3/8" group, which was mighty impressive. I usually can't shoot that good. The flyers are disconcerting, though.

Have had various results from the forend screw in pre-'64 Model 70's over the years. Sometimes the rifles shoot very well with the forend screw tight--had a ,30-06 made in the 1950s that would bughole even some cheap factory ammo with the screw tight.

On the other hand, have had some pre-64's that shot far better with the screw removed entirely. In fact, back when I was restocking rifles in wood, I restocked a pre-'64 .270 belonging to a friend with a fancy piece of American walnut. I asked him whether he wanted to keep the forend-screw system, and he said he didn't care, whatever worked best. I decided to full-length epoxy-bed the barrel and see how it worked, since I could always install the screw afterward. It shot well with some of his handloads, but he also reported to me later that he played with other handloads which shot even better. It had never been inaccurate, but was far more accurate full-length bedded without the tension of the screw.

Have also free-floated pre-'64 barrels, often temporarily to see how they'd do. This was done by inserting cardboard or plastic shims behind the recoil lug, which "lifts" the barrel out of the forend channel. Some shot very well that way, so the free-floating was made permanent (thouggh you can also just leaves the shims in, especially plastic shims).

The forend screw would be my first suspect for your rifle's results. Pre-'64 barrels were cut-rifled and usually very stable.

Thanks, JB. I recorded what torque level I used for the fore end screw, so I'll check that to see if it moved, first. If that checks out I'll see if I can torque it down a bit more and see how that affects things. I purposely didn't torque it as much as I could and tried to set it sort of halfway between no tension and full tension just to see what it would do.