So... over the years I've used, removed, installed, replaced a fair few 'pre-fit' barrels - almost all Savage barrel nut style, though. Along the way, via the school of hard knocks, I found out about the joys of barrels... not always pointing where you want them to - as in having to use up most of your windage or elevation (or both) to get the gun zeroed. *Especially* with factory nuts and lugs. Switching to quality aftermarket lugs - surface ground flat and parallel - and aftermarket barrel nuts, with the mating surface machined perpendicular to the axis of the threads, made a *huge* difference. Basically eliminated it, in my experience.
Fast forward to more recently... I've got a couple barrel-nut pre-fits - one a Proof CF, and the other a Shilen, both with aftermarket nuts - and an Origin action. And they both 'point' about 5-6 mils off to the left
I didn't really notice it at first, because the first scope (Bushnell XRSii 4.5-30x) I had on that gun with the first barrel (Proof CF 6.5CM) had a wider range of adjustment, so I never really bumped into the edge of the range of travel. The second barrel (NSS/Shilen 223 Rem) actually points a little less off to the side, so I didn't notice that one either, even when I changed the scope out for a Burris XTRiii 5.5-30x. But when I swapped back to the Proof barrel, I got it zeroed... but started having all kinds of problems with the scope not following the adjustments, or randomly changing POI.
After taking everything apart - barrel off, rail off, scopes out of the rings, etc. - and not finding anything loose, I put it back together with the Burris scope and Proof barrel. Since it'd been completely disassembled, I figured I'd stick the bore sighter on it, and holy $hit
I was about 3 clicks off the far left side of the windage travel. Swapped out the Burris for the Bushnell, and while it wasn't up against the edge of it's range, it was definitely way, way further over than I would like. Pulled the Proof barrel and put the Shilen back on. As mentioned earlier, it didn't point *quite* as far over, enough so that the Burris would actually work with it. Barely.
FWIW, both barrels have the nuts (red) loctite'd on, after setting the headspace with the appropriate gauges.
Unfortunately, I don't have a *shouldered* barrel handy for this action to test this out further. Might be able to borrow one from someone local.
I'm *pretty* sure the face of the receiver, the face of the nut(s), and both sides of the lug were as clean as I could get them. Not sure what else might be the culprit as far as pushing both barrels over that far. Or more specifically... I can think of a few things, but I'm really not liking the direction those thoughts are headed.
Curious what else folks here think might be the cause - or the solution.
Fast forward to more recently... I've got a couple barrel-nut pre-fits - one a Proof CF, and the other a Shilen, both with aftermarket nuts - and an Origin action. And they both 'point' about 5-6 mils off to the left
I didn't really notice it at first, because the first scope (Bushnell XRSii 4.5-30x) I had on that gun with the first barrel (Proof CF 6.5CM) had a wider range of adjustment, so I never really bumped into the edge of the range of travel. The second barrel (NSS/Shilen 223 Rem) actually points a little less off to the side, so I didn't notice that one either, even when I changed the scope out for a Burris XTRiii 5.5-30x. But when I swapped back to the Proof barrel, I got it zeroed... but started having all kinds of problems with the scope not following the adjustments, or randomly changing POI.
After taking everything apart - barrel off, rail off, scopes out of the rings, etc. - and not finding anything loose, I put it back together with the Burris scope and Proof barrel. Since it'd been completely disassembled, I figured I'd stick the bore sighter on it, and holy $hit
I was about 3 clicks off the far left side of the windage travel. Swapped out the Burris for the Bushnell, and while it wasn't up against the edge of it's range, it was definitely way, way further over than I would like. Pulled the Proof barrel and put the Shilen back on. As mentioned earlier, it didn't point *quite* as far over, enough so that the Burris would actually work with it. Barely.FWIW, both barrels have the nuts (red) loctite'd on, after setting the headspace with the appropriate gauges.
Unfortunately, I don't have a *shouldered* barrel handy for this action to test this out further. Might be able to borrow one from someone local.
I'm *pretty* sure the face of the receiver, the face of the nut(s), and both sides of the lug were as clean as I could get them. Not sure what else might be the culprit as far as pushing both barrels over that far. Or more specifically... I can think of a few things, but I'm really not liking the direction those thoughts are headed.
Curious what else folks here think might be the cause - or the solution.
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