Custom Anschutz 54 Match rifle

[Didier]

Hello,

Surely this is not what you would expect an Anschutz 54 Match rifle to look like, but my ambition had always been to turn my vintage (1976 dated) .22 LR German girl into some kind of tactical-looking monster.

She does shoot straight but my impression is that she could do better still with some added weight at the muzzle, to make up for the loss of metal when she was threaded and for the missing front sight, all of which seem to have had some negative influence on her accuracy. I suppose some kind or brake or tuner would do the trick, provided I can adjust it a tad bit more forward or backward in order to get the perfect harmonics.

The suppressor, which was custom made, doesn't seem to work correctly, as it moves my shots completely off target when it is on.

Regards,

Didier

 

[HPIguy]

A suppressor is always going to change your POI as it's a weight hung off the end of the barrel. Does it actually suppress the sound?

You need a zero with the suppressor attached, and a zero without it. They will be different.

 

[Didier]

The suppressor does suppress the sound of subsonic rounds (Lapua Center-X ammo, for instance): what you hear is then mostly the sound of the rifle being cycled.

 

[68hoyt]

It could be the threads opening the end of the barrel but , ,,,,You had the muzzle cut ? If so Anschutz bore are said to be taper that is why they leave the swell on the end of the muzzle to help increase the tight muzzle . That could explain loss of accuracy ,,,,,,
although some have cut the muzzle and experienced no loss in accuracy
Is your rifle a repeater ?
What stock ,
Nice looking rig , I like Annie’s , I have pondered the same thing myself , some sort of prs/tactical Anschutz

 

[Didier]

The muzzle isn't cut - it's threaded only. I have read about a cut Anschutz barrel that yielded the same accuracy as before, but I wouldn't dare have mine cut.
The rifle is single shot. The chassis was designed and made by my gunsmith, who has quite a lot of experience in that area although this was the very first time he made one for a .22 LR rifle.

The barrel is hardened steel, so the gunsmith had to heat up the muzzle to be able to thread it.

The thread protector is made of aluminum, so I assume there should be some heavier device on the muzzle to lessen the vibrations.

 

[deadly0311]

Your gunsmith ruined your barrel when he heated it up. I’ve threaded 100s of Anschutz and never had a degradation in accuracy.

 

[Didier]

I don't think the barrel is ruined, because the loss in accuracy is only marginal. Of course I am no expert, but my feeling is that the barrel was originally tuned to a different weight with the front sight on and that some weight addition might help me get much better groupings.

 

[Hi-NV Shooter]

Hello,

Surely this is not what you would expect an Anschutz 54 Match rifle to look like, but my ambition had always been to turn my vintage (1976 dated) .22 LR German girl into some kind of tactical-looking monster.

She does shoot straight but my impression is that she could do better still with some added weight at the muzzle, to make up for the loss of metal when she was threaded and for the missing front sight, all of which seem to have had some negative influence on her accuracy. I suppose some kind or brake or tuner would do the trick, provided I can adjust it a tad bit more forward or backward in order to get the perfect harmonics.

The suppressor, which was custom made, doesn't seem to work correctly, as it moves my shots completely off target when it is on.

Regards,

Didier

View attachment 8263318View attachment 8263319

What do you mean by completely off target? is it lower POI from POA? or scattered shots? was the can timed (aligned) to the bore meaning you sure you are not getting strikes to the swipe?

Also, the barrel wasn't cut but it was turned down this can make the bore grow in diameter. which is not good for a rimfire. as far as weight to help make it shoot better. you can't just put weight on with the hopes it will shoot better, you need to be able to time the bullet's exit and for that you need adjustability(tuner)

Lee

 

[Supersubes]

I don't think the barrel is ruined, because the loss in accuracy is only marginal. Of course I am no expert, but my feeling is that the barrel was originally tuned to a different weight with the front sight on and that some weight addition might help me get much better groupings.

The loss of accuracy is what he means when he says “ruined”.

 

[Didier]

The suppressor was aligned to the bore, but I suppose that it is not adapted to a rimfire rifle, it being a scaled down version of the suppressors my gunsmith makes for centerfire rifles. I have two other commercial rimfire suppressors and the differences in the POI are minimal compared to this one.

So I suppose the only way for me to get this barrel to shoot tighter groups will be to find a tuner.

Thank you all for your comments and advice

Didier

 

[68hoyt]

You could use one of the tuners that also allows the use of your suppressor

 

[deadly0311]

Didier,

Please don’t take anything I’m about to say as a shot at your or your gunsmith.

I’ve threaded probably 400 Anschutz muzzles. I’ve also seen all manner of sub par work done to them and they don’t shoot well at all anymore. They are not hardened steel like your gunsmith told you. If he was having trouble cutting the threads it’s due to the sub par quality of his tools or his machining skills. The moment he told me he took a heat source to the muzzle to soften it, I’d have asked for him to replace the barrel on his dime. The barrels are button rifled and this does impart some level of stress. Anytime there is stress and you remove metal or add heat, it’s impossible to know where that stress is going. Good machining practices and quality tools help this immensely. The bores are not taper lapped, but they are cut in the blank for at a very specific point on the bar stock.

Adding weights may help some, but that barrel is ruined. From your pictures it also looks like the threads are very flat and the root looks shallow. This could be one of the reasons your custom made suppressor is not performing. The shoulder of your thread tenon looks awful and doesn’t look perpendicular to the bore.

I would be strongly willing to bet a months salary that your bore has bellmouthed. Gauge pins would tell you that pretty quickly.

If you want I can point you to someone in the factory that can replace your barrel if you’re in Europe or if you are in the US I’d be happy to help.

 

[Didier]

Thank you for your reply. Lothar Walher barrels are readily available in France, so I suppose this could be a solution for me.

Regards,

Didier

 

[Didier]

Another question: do you think cutting down the barrel and recrowning it might solve the problem?

 

[littlesister]

Didier,

Please don’t take anything I’m about to say as a shot at your or your gunsmith.

I’ve threaded probably 400 Anschutz muzzles. I’ve also seen all manner of sub par work done to them and they don’t shoot well at all anymore. They are not hardened steel like your gunsmith told you. If he was having trouble cutting the threads it’s due to the sub par quality of his tools or his machining skills. The moment he told me he took a heat source to the muzzle to soften it, I’d have asked for him to replace the barrel on his dime. The barrels are button rifled and this does impart some level of stress. Anytime there is stress and you remove metal or add heat, it’s impossible to know where that stress is going. Good machining practices and quality tools help this immensely. The bores are not taper lapped, but they are cut in the blank for at a very specific point on the bar stock.

Adding weights may help some, but that barrel is ruined. From your pictures it also looks like the threads are very flat and the root looks shallow. This could be one of the reasons your custom made suppressor is not performing. The shoulder of your thread tenon looks awful and doesn’t look perpendicular to the bore.

I would be strongly willing to bet a months salary that your bore has bellmouthed. Gauge pins would tell you that pretty quickly.

If you want I can point you to someone in the factory that can replace your barrel if you’re in Europe or if you are in the US I’d be happy to help.

My thoughts exactly! Can't believe anyone would do that to a annie barrel. That barrel has been ruined.

 

[deadly0311]

Another question: do you think cutting down the barrel and recrowning it might solve the problem?

No

 

[68hoyt]

You could take a ball gauge and mic the bore from the edge onwards and see if it gets smaller , past the threaded part back into the barrel to the ,,,,, shoulder and see if it gets smaller , that would tell you if it’s worth cutting and crowning again

 

[68hoyt]

Then again , how much did you groups change from factory to threaded ?

 

[68hoyt]

Didier,
How much did you groups change from factory barrel to the threaded barrel ?
Also is that the same scope base set up you were using before ? On the factory rifle and now on the chassis ?

 

[littlesister]

The loss of accuracy is what he means when he says “ruined”.

 

[littlesister]

I certainly don't know everything about barrels and how to make one as accurate as possible. Actually I know very little but from reading your post I believe I have a better understanding of how they work than you do. A few things you need to understand. Anschutz does not nor anyone else tune a barrel with the weight of the front sight. You might add a tuner and eliminate some vertical but you can't undo the damage that has been done by removing that much metal at the crown. The profile Anschutz uses on their barrels purposely leaves more metal at the crown to hold bore diameters to their specs. Removing metal at this point is the worse possible thing you can do to a Annie barrel. If you're not happy with the accuracy as is, you could have a qualified gunsmith slug the barrel to see if there is another tight spot at a reasonable length and cut and crown at that point. If he can't find a tight spot or he finds that the bore diameter actually open up as he pushes the slug through, you'll just have to live with it!

 

[68hoyt]

littlesister​

The loss of accuracy is what he means when he says “ruined”.​

I don't think the barrel is ruined, because the loss in accuracy is only marginal. Of course I am no expert, but my feeling is that the barrel was originally tuned to a different weight with the front sight on and that some weight addition might help me get much better groupings.

 

[Didier]

Didier,
How much did you groups change from factory barrel to the threaded barrel ?
Also is that the same scope base set up you were using before ? On the factory rifle and now on the chassis ?

I would say the rifle still groups at 50 meters, but the groups were not as tight as they used to be: I was unable to get a one-hole group at that distance last time I shot her.

 

[68hoyt]

Is your scope mounting different now ?

 

[Hi-NV Shooter]

I certainly don't know everything about barrels and how to make one as accurate as possible. Actually I know very little but from reading your post I believe I have a better understanding of how they work than you do. A few things you need to understand. Anschutz does not nor anyone else tune a barrel with the weight of the front sight. You might add a tuner and eliminate some vertical but you can't undo the damage that has been done by removing that much metal at the crown. The profile Anschutz uses on their barrels purposely leaves more metal at the crown to hold bore diameters to their specs. Removing metal at this point is the worse possible thing you can do to a Annie barrel. If you're not happy with the accuracy as is, you could have a qualified gunsmith slug the barrel to see if there is another tight spot at a reasonable length and cut and crown at that point. If he can't find a tight spot or he finds that the bore diameter actually open up as he pushes the slug through, you'll just have to live with it!

That is not correct the raised portion at the muzzle is to help align the horizontal plane between rear and front for open sights that these rifles were made for. that is a common myth about why Anschutz match 54 barrels has the swell or dog knot for a tighter bore. Anschutz does not purposely put a so call choke at the muzzle.

Lee

 

[Didier]

Is your scope mounting different now ?

No, I have a new scope on but the mounting is the same.

 

[Didier]

Hello to all,
I eventually asked my gunsmith to redo the crown of my barrel last week and I daresay that it did the job: although I am by no means a marksman, accuracy does seem to be back. Here are two ten-shot groups at 50 m. The weather is quite wet and a bit cold in northern France at the moment and it was already dark when I took those shots, so I suppose my rifle would do better in broad daylight and by higher temperatures.

Oddly enough, my Anschütz seemed to like British Eley Force ammo just as much as her native (and pricey) RWS 50 ammunition...

I did not reajust my scope in between shots, hence the different POI.

Regards,

Didier

 

[68hoyt]

Good deal !!!!!

 

[chevy_man]

The barrel is hardened steel, so the gunsmith had to heat up the muzzle to be able to thread it.

I would find a new gunsmith. Even if the barrel was hardened (which they all are too a point, more that they're heat treated to get a specific hardness, which is still softer than tool steel) he had no reason to get after it with heat and try annealing it.

Carbide cutting tools are a dime a dozen and they make new ones in China every day. There's no excuse to not use carbide for single point cutting.

If he got after it with a die, he doesn't ever need to touch a rifle.


If that's what he did, he doesn't have enough understanding of metallurgy to be running machine tools and charging money for it. He may be able to make stuff, but I'd try and find a gunsmith that actually understands the machining to modify a rifle.

 

[littlesister]

Hello to all,
I eventually asked my gunsmith to redo the crown of my barrel last week and I daresay that it did the job: although I am by no means a marksman, accuracy does seem to be back. Here are two ten-shot groups at 50 m. The weather is quite wet and a bit cold in northern France at the moment and it was already dark when I took those shots, so I suppose my rifle would do better in broad daylight and by higher temperatures.

View attachment 8272841
Oddly enough, my Anschütz seemed to like British Eley Force ammo just as much as her native (and pricey) RWS 50 ammunition...

View attachment 8272842
I did not reajust my scope in between shots, hence the different POI.

Regards,

Didier

If your happy with the way it shoots that's really all that matters. but I wouldn't say the accuracy is back. If those are 50yd groups their really not very good. You have both vertical and horizontal stringing. You can forget the Eley Force group as its not very consistent ammo but R50 is top quality ammo And I would expect much better 50yd accuracy. I've owned and shot a lot of Annies over the years and their capable of shooting much better groups than yours. I would test some more quality ammo to see if it improves. If it doesn't that barrel really has been damaged beyond repair!

 

[1911Shootist]

The weather is quite wet and a bit cold in northern France at the moment and it was already dark when I took those shots, so I suppose my rifle would do better in broad daylight and by higher temperatures.

How cold? I notice a drastic increase in groups below ~40F / 5C with most of my 22's, even with biathlon ammo (although that ammo does help). Seems like cold affects all 22LR, some at lower temps than others.

 

[Didier]

The temperature was approximately 50F.

I think that most people on here do not seem to consider that the weakest point in my setup is the shooter.

The above targets are the results I got before the barrel was threaded - were they noticeably better? I don't think so.

Maybe I should try to improve my shooting technique...

 

[68hoyt]

Didier
You said you weren’t a marksman and the weather wasn’t perfect and 10 shot groups , I thought you were doing ok for what you stated
Try a few five shot groups to make everyone happy

 

[Didier]

Didier
You said you weren’t a marksman and the weather wasn’t perfect and 10 shot groups , I thought you were doing ok for what you stated
Try a few five shot groups to make everyone happy

Thank you for your more positive take on the matter. I suppose five-shot groups won't be necessary - to me, the threading, if it did damage accuracy, only did so marginally. Maybe the barrel and the shooter cannot do any better than that, but I will take my Annie to the 100 m range next week to see how she performs there. I do think the shooting technique has a lot to do with accuracy: this is what makes the difference between a marksman and an average shooter like me, but I shall try to improve my shooting skills.

Best regards,

Didier

 

[68hoyt]

If you have a friend of known better skill , I do , let them have a go at it and see if it will group better , just to see if the rifle is ok you know

 

[Mr.BR]

With rimfires you should always look to test couple of different lots of ammo , as you might get a considerable improvement with right ammo

 

[Lil' Tone]

Hello,

Surely this is not what you would expect an Anschutz 54 Match rifle to look like, but my ambition had always been to turn my vintage (1976 dated) .22 LR German girl into some kind of tactical-looking monster.

She does shoot straight but my impression is that she could do better still with some added weight at the muzzle, to make up for the loss of metal when she was threaded and for the missing front sight, all of which seem to have had some negative influence on her accuracy. I suppose some kind or brake or tuner would do the trick, provided I can adjust it a tad bit more forward or backward in order to get the perfect harmonics.

The suppressor, which was custom made, doesn't seem to work correctly, as it moves my shots completely off target when it is on.

Regards,

Didier

View attachment 8263318View attachment 8263319

What diving board/scope link are you using on the Adversus mount? It doesn't look like the OEM diving board for the Audere mount.

 

[Didier]

What diving board/scope link are you using on the Adversus mount? It doesn't look like the OEM diving board for the Audere mount.

Actually it is a genuine Adversus H25 scope link.

 

[Lil' Tone]

I wonder when they made the design change then. The current scope links don't look like that anymore.