Posted: 9/9/2016 12:40:00 PM EDT
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I just got back from the range helping a friend with a rifle. Rifle is a Trued Remington 700 with a krieger barrel in .260. Not sure if its medium palma contour or Remington Varmint, but supposedly the Magpul Hunter can accept both.Either way, I would expect this rifle to shoot consistently sub-moa if not significantly better. Ammo used today was FGMM and handloads.
My friend complained that on every range trip, it starts out grouping well, but goes downhill rapidly. He thought it was him just getting tired and asked me to shoot it for him to see. Having never used the Magpul Hunter 700 before, I took the time to fingerbang it before shooting. I noticed that it did not take a lot of pressure on the forend to cause contact between the barrel and the stock. We did a "dollar bill" test while it was on the bipod, and it still passed. We alternated shooting the rifle since we had also brought other guns with us. As before, the first few groups of the day were decent. As the day and the barrel got hotter, accuracy starting going to shit, some groups up to 2 MOA. When I squeezed the forend again, I noticed it took hardly any pressure to make contact with the barrel. We put it on the bipod again and this time it did not pass the "dollar bill" test. It was no longer free floating. We pulled the barreled action and threw it into a Mcmillan and accuracy returned. The stock was not particularly stiff to begin with. I had a KRG X-ray (review for that coming up soon) out today and the difference was very significant. However once the barrel heated up, it radiated heat, further reducing the stiffness of the plastic hunter stock. Due to the fact that once heated, it was flexible enough to contact the barrel from bipod support, I do not see it as a suitable precision rifle stock. I know lots of people use these and like these, but this was my experience with the stock today. I can't imagine we are the first with this issue though. |