Upgrades for factory rifles

wildcat3

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
I posted a thread a few days ago about Boyd’s stocks and who liked/disliked them. Turned out a lot of guys on the forum have fitted guns with a Boyd’s stock. Which leads me to this lost, what else have you done to improve or personalize your factory rifle? I like a nice rifle as much as anyone but can’t bring myself to spend the money on a high end custom build.
 

nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Trigger pull and bedding usually helps accuracy as much as anything on most average out of the box rifles. That usually cuts the group in half for the average shooter if you put good glass and mounting hardware on it.
 

TravisLH

Old Mossy Horns
Trigger pull and bedding usually helps accuracy as much as anything on most average out of the box rifles. That usually cuts the group in half for the average shooter if you put good glass and mounting hardware on it.

This..... the greatest bang for buck in accuracy improvements are ....
1 ....trigger- a light and consistent trigger will make decent shooters look great and mediocre shooter good.
2 ...proper bedding- the reason we bed rifles is so that every time you fire the rifle the action is fit into the stock the exact same way. Temp, moisture, and tension on the stock can change the actions position or put pressure on the barrel/action that will drastically shift its POI.

Old sniper that taught me long range shooting used to say “increasing accuracy is all about reducing variation.”

Another cheap thing you can do is hand lap the bolt lugs. Take some fine polishing compound on the back of the lugs and working the action a couple dozen times, makes the bolt seat as flush as possible with a round chambered

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FishHunt

Old Mossy Horns
Don't rely on memory for what works and doesn't work for your serious rifles. Keep a log of loads that work, all work done and what didn't work.

<>< Fish
 

MJ74

Old Mossy Horns
Trigger
Free float barrel
Action pillar bedded
Good base and rings
Good Scope

Handloads have helped accuracy as well as just about all others for me.

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Eric Revo

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Polish bolt face/bolt, polish lugs, true bases to action(not really necessary with the newer and better fitted bases anymore), true and lap scope rings(as before), adjust headspace/polish chamber, rebarrel
 

pinehunter

Eight Pointer
Hand load for it. Measure your max COAL to the rifling for the projectilesyou want to use and know how far you are working off the lands.

Cheap plastic stocked rifles will benefit from stiffening the fore end of the stock. I like one piece scope mounts like EGW for added support to the action. Bedding or installin a pressure point on the stock can help.
 

ncnat

Ten Pointer
Trigger pull.
Free floating barrel.
Good glass.

Remington has the crappiest triggers and magazines for the 597 .22LR.

It was a very accurate 597 but the trigger pull so bad I put it in the closet for 10 years. Gunsmiths said there was little they could do. After 10 years I broke the rifle back out and started looking for a solution. The problems were fixed for about $100.00 and 30 minutes of work with mags from Keep Shooting, a Mcarbo trigger spring kit and a Volquartsen target hammer. It is now my go to squirrel rifle.
 

kilerhamilton

Old Mossy Horns
In order.

If you can't see it you can't hit it. Scope of quality.
Even a Leupold vx1. Holds zero. That's what you want. 24x is nice though for target shooting.
A crap gun that shoots 2" @100yds is only 20" at 1000. Chest size. Seems deadly to me. Scopes that track correctly are most important. Navy seal buddy. "If a gun shoots an 1", I will shoot you at a mile".

Trigger. In a Savage you can trim the spring and polish your self.

Bed stock. I have a post on here where I did a Savage 10 with JB weld. Worked great and was simple enough.

Find a bullet it likes. Factory or had loaded.
I dont shoot enough to hand load. Hand loads do group better for me after running different powder charges with different bullets. I don't have time for that. Target shooting serria match Kings are $$ hunting thankfully a barns tsx shoots under an inch. Good enough for me.

Learn to shoot a bow properly. You will shoot a rifle like a pro.

Most important. I shoot small calibers better. I love my .223 bolt gun. It's probably a little flinch reflex with anything with much recoil. Espically hunting hanging a rifle out of a box stand.

Buy the way. Most factory guns promise 1moa.
Ruger American.
Savage
Etc.
 
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Guybo

Eight Pointer
Lots of good info and advice so there's not much that I can add to what's been said. I do pretty much what everyone else has mentioned, glass bed the stock, tweek the trigger if it can be adjusted if not I replace it, and a quality scope. I do have one rifle that I went a step further with and squared the bolt face. Other than that find a good load factory or handload and practice.
 

snakeskinner

Twelve Pointer
Lighter trigger and good handloads that take into account the twist rate and bullet length and have bullets seated properly for the chamber.
 

herman

Six Pointer
First thing with a factory rifle is get the trigger set that feels right for you.Then take it to the range and shoot some different loads at 100 yds.If it does good to your liking it doesn't need anything else.
I have a few factory rifles that have nothing done to them except trigger adjust or replaced.
I bought a ruger muzzleloader some years ago and it wouldn't shoot to good because it had a 17 lb trigger.Got it down to 3 lbs and shot 7 deer in a row all head shots .
Have some that only a trigger adjustment was all that was needed.
Three that comes to mind is 2 tikkas and one savage.
Couple target pics with savage and tikka 308308300yds.JPG308sav40809.JPG
 
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