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I have this old rifle that surprised me last weekend. It's a special rifle that I put together a couple decades ago, but it was never exceptionally accurate, which was always a bit of a disappointment.
It's an older Model 700 ADL. I bought it really cheap at a pawn shop in my wife's hometown on the weekend I proposed over 20 years ago. The bore was rusted badly, and the wood stock was ugly, painted over with a cheap pad poorly installed. I bought it for the action.
I had a barrel that came from a gunsmith I knew, a take-off Sendero in .308 Win, stainless, fluted, bull barrel. I also had a roughly inletted, unfinished stock (barely more than a blank) that I had bought years earlier from an old amateur gunsmith in my hometown. It's a beautiful piece of myrtle from the valley where I grew up. It was a project that took a couple years, but I had the barrel installed by a good gunsmith, and spent many, many hours on the stock. We hogged a channel on the inside of the forend and filled it with epoxy to prevent warping, then pillar bedded the action. I spent a lot of time really trying to do it right. I put a nice Burris scope on it that cost me almost nothing.
It turned out really nice, great looking rifle. I tried several loads in it, and the best it would shoot was around 1moa. That's not bad all in all, and I know a factory Sendero barrel isn't anything special, but I was hoping for better. I'm not a serious bench-rest shooter; I'm good for maybe .5moa on a good day. I've shot it occasionally over the years, but not a lot. A few months ago I decided to refinish the stock, took it apart and put it back together a couple times, careful to torque the screws as I had in the past.
Funny thing, I shot ten rounds through it the other day, to re-zero it after all the work. The first shot was high, getting settled in the sandbags. The next five went into a .44" group. I adjusted the scope, and shot the next four into .35". It was late so we packed up and headed home. I'm almost afraid to take it out again, in case it was just the luckiest string of shots I've ever fired.
Anyhow, I just thought I'd share the story, in case anyone was interested.
It's an older Model 700 ADL. I bought it really cheap at a pawn shop in my wife's hometown on the weekend I proposed over 20 years ago. The bore was rusted badly, and the wood stock was ugly, painted over with a cheap pad poorly installed. I bought it for the action.
I had a barrel that came from a gunsmith I knew, a take-off Sendero in .308 Win, stainless, fluted, bull barrel. I also had a roughly inletted, unfinished stock (barely more than a blank) that I had bought years earlier from an old amateur gunsmith in my hometown. It's a beautiful piece of myrtle from the valley where I grew up. It was a project that took a couple years, but I had the barrel installed by a good gunsmith, and spent many, many hours on the stock. We hogged a channel on the inside of the forend and filled it with epoxy to prevent warping, then pillar bedded the action. I spent a lot of time really trying to do it right. I put a nice Burris scope on it that cost me almost nothing.
It turned out really nice, great looking rifle. I tried several loads in it, and the best it would shoot was around 1moa. That's not bad all in all, and I know a factory Sendero barrel isn't anything special, but I was hoping for better. I'm not a serious bench-rest shooter; I'm good for maybe .5moa on a good day. I've shot it occasionally over the years, but not a lot. A few months ago I decided to refinish the stock, took it apart and put it back together a couple times, careful to torque the screws as I had in the past.
Funny thing, I shot ten rounds through it the other day, to re-zero it after all the work. The first shot was high, getting settled in the sandbags. The next five went into a .44" group. I adjusted the scope, and shot the next four into .35". It was late so we packed up and headed home. I'm almost afraid to take it out again, in case it was just the luckiest string of shots I've ever fired.
Anyhow, I just thought I'd share the story, in case anyone was interested.