260 shoots now! Thanks for the help!

[Iamero]

Hey guys, I had a weatherby vanguard that I bought and it had a Brux 1:9 on there that I couldn't get to shoot the heavy bullets so I sent it off to Josh at PVA and he put a 1:8 Rock Creek on there. He even custom contoured it to my last one in an attenpt to make it fit the stock channel and he did a good job. It's very slightly off in one small spot where it rubs the bedding funny but that's it.

I've tried OCW with 140 SMKs and 142 SMKs and they shot like garbage. I have some scenars and 140 ELD but is there any reason why I couldn't get either of those two bullets to shoot? The best result from OCW was maybe 1" but most were 1.5".

Would that slight mistouch in the bedding do that?

 

[FCS]

Powder, primer, brass, OAL and amount of jump? Need more info to offer up suggestions.

 

[mercracing]

Have you tried shooting any Prime or factory Hornady ammo? Just as a base line. Everything torqued good? I would think if it wasn't bedded perfect it could throw the shots.

 

[Gohring65]

Fix the bedding.
Did the old barrel shoot appropriate length bullets good? Or did it not shoot anything good?

 

[roggom]

Im with Merc, shoot some prime or FGMM and see how it fairs.

 

[MtnCreek]

I agree with checking bedding. Also may want to re-torque action screws. Were you shooting with a bipod and factory plastic stock? If so, try shooting off bags.

 

[Iamero]

Hey guys, loaded it to .010 off the lands and did OCW and also .005" jam. I looked up loads in the depot, got the most common low lid and started OCW with that. Using FGMM Primers and H4350 in lapua one fired brass.

Im going to fix the bedding and get some prime or hornady ammo to shoot and I'll report back what happened.

Tried some 139 scenar loads from my other gun and they were 1.5".

The old barrel never shot extremely well. It would shoot sub MOA with the lighter bullets but not by much.

Butch Hungisto was the one who did the original action and barrel work but Josh at PVA said that when he looked at it when he had it apart that it was well done enough that it wasn't worth him doing anything to it.

I was shooting off a cheaper caldwell bipod and rear bag. The stock is a manners T2.

 

[padom]

My custom Stiller/Bartlein 260rem hated the 140/142smks but shot lights out 41.8g H4350 and 139 Scenars .02" off the lands. Also shot lights out with the 140 ELD-M and 42.5g H4350. Until you do complete load workup I wouldnt go crazy here. Find your OCW with the 139 Scenars then do a seating depth test. They are some of the most forgiving bullets out there and if the groups dont shrink after the seating depth test then I would look at other things.

Also get rid of the bipod and at least get a Harris.

 

[Fursniper]

PVA as I understand it has a pretty good reputation but in my opinion trying to profile a barrel to fit some old bedding is completely idiotic, unnecessary and totally ass backwards. Assuming the stock (which you didnt mention what it was) is capable of holding the new profile, a competent smith can mil out the old bedding in a stock in a matter of minutes and rebed, a very easy process. Your problem may or may not be related to the bedding but if I had a gunsmith take that course of action on a gun of mine it would be the last one he ever worked on from me. I've personally watched my smith rebarrel for me several times after me picking a new barrel with a different profile and the longest part of the process was simply waiting overnight for the new bedding to set up. Crazy stuff...

I think Padom is giving you good advice ie, the scenars, a very easy bullet to get to shoot well. Unfortunately, a new barrel can give one fits in trying to find a bullet it wants to digest well, let alone then all the fine tuning it sometimes takes to get it to perform at it maximum capability. It's a painful fact that some barrels just don't "like" certain projectiles.

Since you're dealing with the old bedding job, make sure your recoil lug isn't bottoming out on the old bedding, a comman problem with the process it appears your smith used. Check the torque on the action screws, check for shiny spots on the old bedding where the barreled action may be rubbing. You didn't mention how many rounds were down the new tube either, it's possible your barrel hasn't "settled in" yet as well. More info on your part would be helpful as far as people here offering assistance.....

 

[PDXGS]

Agreed on the bedding comments above.
Also, consider a .02"jump as mentioned too.
Wolf primers
Lapua brass
H4350

 

[Brux]

Does PVA stand behind there work?
If so I would contact them and send the rifle back to them.

 

[GhengisAhn175]

bohem

 

[bohem]

Hey guys, I had a weatherby vanguard that I bought and it had a Brux 1:9 on there that I couldn't get to shoot the heavy bullets so I sent it off to Josh at PVA and he put a 1:8 Rock Creek on there. He even custom contoured it to my last one in an attenpt to make it fit the bedding and he did a good job. It's very slightly off in one small spot but that's it.

I've tried OCW with 140 SMKs and 142 SMKs and they shot like garbage. I have some scenars and 140 ELD but is there any reason why I couldn't get either of those two bullets to shoot? The best result from OCW was maybe 1" but most were 1.5".

Would that slight mistouch in the bedding do that?

There are some things that might be in play here, first and foremost, get that bedding fixed. Rubbing like that is a recipe for problems.
The reamer used in that barrel should shoot the 139's and 140 ELDm's without any trouble. I have 2 of those reamers in the same spec, one is the "work" reamer and the other is the backup that's freshly back from sharpening. When the "work" reamer needs to be sharp'd then they swap. This way I'm not down on a common caliber.

Other things to look for in the stock:
Bolt handle is totally clear, not rubbing.
Trigger isn't rubbing down in the trigger well or on the bottom metal
Bottom metal isn't pinched against the action or rubbing on the bolt



Brux - We are more than happy to support customers in need like this. This is the first I'm hearing about the issue. I will handle it with Iamero to get his rifle working.

PVA as I understand it has a pretty good reputation but in my opinion trying to profile a barrel to fit some old bedding is completely idiotic, unnecessary and totally ass backwards. Assuming the stock (which you didnt mention what it was) is capable of holding the new profile, a competent smith can mil out the old bedding in a stock in a matter of minutes and rebed, a very easy process. Your problem may or may not be related to the bedding but if I had a gunsmith take that course of action on a gun of mine it would be the last one he ever worked on from me. I've personally watched my smith rebarrel for me several times after me picking a new barrel with a different profile and the longest part of the process was simply waiting overnight for the new bedding to set up. Crazy stuff...

I think Padom is giving you good advice ie, the scenars, a very easy bullet to get to shoot well. Unfortunately, a new barrel can give one fits in trying to find a bullet it wants to digest well, let alone then all the fine tuning it sometimes takes to get it to perform at it maximum capability. It's a painful fact that some barrels just don't "like" certain projectiles.

Since you're dealing with the old bedding job, make sure your recoil lug isn't bottoming out on the old bedding, a comman problem with the process it appears your smith used. Check the torque on the action screws, check for shiny spots on the old bedding where the barreled action may be rubbing. You didn't mention how many rounds were down the new tube either, it's possible your barrel hasn't "settled in" yet as well. More info on your part would be helpful as far as people here offering assistance.....

@fursniper
Before you go supposing what was and was not idiotic on my part, you might want to ask if I ever had the stock to begin with or if I did the rebarrel work based on a barreled action with no stock to look at. In that case, it's necessary to match the contour in order to minimize work by the owner who ASKED for that treatment to begin with.

 

[Iamero]

Yea by all means I wasn't intending to bash Josh at all and never blamed him for it not shooting. I never expect a gun to perfectly shoot the first load that goes out of it either. I hadn't brought it to Josh's intention because I meant this more as a 101 in reloading and wondering what to check before I waste time and bullets screwing around.

Josh didn't have my stock but wanted to match my existing contour so he knew it would drop back in my stock without me having to modify it. I misspoke with how I said it about matching the bedding, I meant contour/channel.

Ill open up the bedding and fix that and then try the 139 and 140 ELD and then revisit here with the results. I am very happy with Josh's work and hold nothing against him as I work through getting the right load for this gun.

 

[Fursniper]

Sorry Josh, it was not my intention to offend. The way the op described it, it appeared he sent off the entire rifle (stock & barreled action) for a rebarrel job to PVA. He did not clarify that he had specified that only the old barreled action was sent and that he had asked for the new barrel to be profiled to match to the old barrel. My comments were based on what I read on how the op worded his description of what happened. It seemed incredulous to me that an operation with such a known good reputation as PVA would try to accomplish this task in the way it was described but that's what it appeared to me what happened, perhaps by a " junior" or inexperienced smith at your facility for all I knew. There are a ton of gunsmiths in my area due to the fact that we have a top gunsmithing school in our area (which I also have attended) and not all of the students graduated at the top of the class if you know what I mean. Consequently, I have seen some unfortunate work in my area due to the influx of so many inexperienced smith's hanging out a shingle for the first time so nothing surprises me at this point.
Anyway, thank you for clarifying what actually happened and again my sincere apologies, I can only as you put it, "suppose" & comment based on the information given at the time.

 

[Iamero]

Hey guys! Just to bring this one to a close I wanted to let everyone know Josh at PVA builds one heck of a gun! I cleared a high spot in the stock and sanded that weird contact point in the bedding (neither of which were Josh's doing) down, threw together a load with 139 scenars touching the lands, and look at what I got! The high shot was the first one down the barrel after cleaned out the bore and then 5 shot group below that. I also started OCW with 140 ELD-M and thing I have some promising candidates, but hell I might just stick with the Scenars.

Enjoy!

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[Fursniper]

Congrats lamero, glad you got it worked out. Looks like you you now have a very nice shooting rig.