I know but I’m just saying he might be convinced that it’s not for him.
I should clarify.
Using a magazine monopod without touching the foreend makes it wobbly and opens up my groups. (I don’t have a good 3 point contact, only 2 points)
Any pressure on the forend of mine move the POI up a noticable degree. The greater the pressure, the further it moves up.
So sighting it in from magazine monopod (only) would mean I would get a pretty wide “pattern” plus I would have to shoot it that way every time, otherwise I would start missing high.
If I do traditional magazine monpod and really jam it into the dirt, I probably could get tighter groups but I don’t know which way the barrel would be pointing.
I am really beginning to think I have a loose barrel nut based on what others are saying about their guns.
Your barrel nut is most likely loose. You can get a wrench from either Shooboy, H&W steel, or tacticool22. Also you will need to ensure that you are clamping on the barrel and not the upper receiver when tightening the barrel nut. If you clamp onto the upper you can twist the barrel in the upper and then it will be completely fubar.
Well, I don’t think it is a loose barrel nut.
Both of the diagnostic checks I saw mentioned around the net, fewer than 3 to 4 threads showing, and press barrel and ejector moves were negative on both rifles.
I think it is just the upper flexing from the big moment arm of the barrel.
I am going to email S&W with my info just to get confirmation and see if there are any tricks or something I am doing wrong.
I don’t see how free floating will help either. Without the end cap in place, the barrel is free floated now and I would think that adding an aluminum rail attached to the barrel nut wouldn’t really alleviate the tendency of the upper to allow the barrel to flex upwards when I bag it. If the FF rail was attached to something other than the barrel nut, I could see as an improvement.
It is too bad they don’t have an aluminum skeleton or something inside the upper to help resist the barrel from flexing the front of the upper.
I am going to give it one more try without the end cap, just to see if that fixes anything, I assume it won’t since I figure pressure on the barrel nut from the forearm will probably interfere. I am also going to mount it in a vice and see if that does anything.
I REALLY like this gun, if the damn zero wouldn’t move 3-4 inches.
I wonder if one of the aluminum uppers would be more accurate? Or maybe I just need to stick to bolt guns for small game hunting.
Quick ? Is the optic mounted to the forearm part of rail or receiver?
Receiver.
Leupold 2X7 33 in a Burris PEPR mount.
Mounted quite far back actually so I can get the best eye relief at 7X from prone.
I got to thinking about it.
Might be my form.
When I shoot from a front bag only, I tend to lean into the bag and crush the rifle into the bag slightly to reduce movement.
Next time I go shoot, I will just put it in a shooting vice and take as much of me out of the equation as possible.
Since I can’t do that shooting from sitting/standing that might be why I shoot low then. When I shoot from prone I again, usually lean somewhat heavily on the rifle.
My other rifles don’t seem to be affected, but my other guns aren’t plastic.
Update:
Well, I zeroed the rifle using a vice to eliminate any of my influence.
I got it down to shooting down to around an 1" at 50 yards, which I am satisfied with, especially considering I was using bulk .22 rounds.
I know it isn’t a loose barrel since it fell off my improvised bench barrel first and buried itself flash suppressor deep into dirt.
After some work, with a cleaning rod and a generous amount of water, it held zero.:moil:
It shot better from rest than my old Marlin 881 and almost as good from sitting but it moved around more since it is MUCH lighter.
As long as kept my hand under the forearm so I didn’t lean too heavily into the bag, it shot right to POA.
Definitely a keeper!
I am still going to draw up a barrel block to stick in the front of the forearm to act as a barrel tensioner/bedding block. I’ll make it on our MakerBot at work. If it helps reduce groups/makes the rifle less susceptible to forearm influence I will let everyone know.
ETA: Motor oil works great as a lube when you have washed all yours out with a hose and you don’t have any with you. 