I took the BF rifle out last week at 200 and the results were very disappointing! I had a very bad case of vertical stringing! Rather than post it and let speculation run rampant, I decided to solve the problem first, then post it. Here's what I was seeing last week...



This led me to investigate possible issues. I looked over the stock with a very critical eye. I found that the heel was floating over the stock by about 0.012"! GI3 I  checked the fit of the receiver  and the legs as well as the front of the receiver was in full contact. No amount of hammering the receiver with a mallet was going to fix this...





I also noticed that my scope had "skid marks" from where the scope had walked back about 2mm over the last few months of firing. I reseated the scope and hit the range again to see if the scope or the floating heel was the culprit. The vertical stringing was still there. I ended up shimming the heel with muffler heat barrier tape and trimming them to fit. Each layer was 0.003" thick so I laid four layers down.









That 5 minutes of shimming tightened the groups right up and I ended up shooting 7 consecutive 5-shot groups at 200 yards with a low of 1.290" and a high of 2.700" with an average group size of 1.988" at 200 which would be a 100yd average of 0.994".









Life is good! And I get a Leupold scope later this week.

To M14.CA's credit, it is nearly impossible to design a stock that will fit all commercial receivers. I don't know if the issue is my receiver or the stock. If there's a gap, I have a fix and it's cheap and quick.

Tony.

Nice shooting and problem solving! I'm sure you'll make H2O Man proud.

Makes me want to get out and shoot mine at some distance

I wish I even had some distance to shoot on

If you look closely, you'll see his trigger shoe. It is very comfortable!

Tony.

GREAT POST.  And very inventive of you.  I don't think I would've figured it out.  That was impressive.

Tony, who makes the receiver on your test mule rifle?

It's a 1994 era M1A standard with no NM mods. H&R barrel made in 1962. GC is shimmed.

Tony.

Nice report ,

Some have asked for weights of this rifle. Without the scope and Bassett, my SAI standard 22" with GI H&R barrel and no mods what so ever, mounted in a Blackfeather chassis system with scout hand guard (SHG) and alloy tube stock came in at 9.5lbs. Wikipedia lists a standard M1A, empty and with no magazine at 9.3lbs.

 

It was about 11.2lbs with the Bassett and the Zeiss with Burris Zee rings.

Tony.

sweet looking rifle.  wtf is that wall lookin thing?  

http://s1205.photobucket.com/user/tonyben3/media/IMG_1162_zps018e77a4.jpg.html

Bullet barrier, attempts to keep bullets on the range.



Nice little accuracy fix on your rifle OP.



 

FYI-

The tape I used was "Reflectix" brand reflective insulation tape. Not sure if it's the same as muffler tape.

Tony.

Nice!