Recoil mitigation, harmonic dampening & modular weight distribution concepts

[Handsome Rob]

Yeah.

I just pulled the butt pad off my Choate stocked Savage .308 & crammed in 3 pounds of lead ingots, dampened with dry short-grain rice.
It balances nicely now, although it does weight 14 pounds.

Am I tacticool yet?

:D

[Clod Stomper]

Real, hard-core, operators are using long-grain rice.

So, no. Not yet.

[peejman]

14 lbs?!?!? :panic:

You can't possibly carry a rifle that weighs more than 7 lbs from the truck to the shooting bench. You'll have to stop for a rest break on the way or get one of those little carts.

[Handsome Rob]

Low speed, high drag.

Right???

[Fourtyfive]

I had to google all those big words .... :)

[z0mbies fear me]

Rice + lead= food poisoning! You should have used rice & beans then if you don't do any good you still would have dinner!

[Alleycat72]

14 lbs?!?!? :panic:
You can't possibly carry a rifle that weighs more than 7 lbs from the truck to the shooting bench. You'll have to stop for a rest break on the way or get one of those little carts.

Well, he's not exactly a small guy. LOL

[peejman]

Well, he's not exactly a small guy. LOL

 

 

Sarcasm doesn't always convey well in written form.

[Dolomite_supafly]

I don't think adding weight will do anything to reduce the harmonics even though it will reduce recoil and reduce flinching.

 

Something I have done in the past that does help is to place something between the stock and the barrel to act as a dampener. Not sure how much room you have but I have used foam earplugs, cork and a piece of sponge.

 

The way to tighten the stock, even if you do not have a torque wrench, is loosen both screws. Then hold the barrel away from the stock at the tip of the forearm. Then tighten the rear action screw and then tighten the front screw. This helps the lug set properly on the lug pad in the stock. But before tightening place the dampener about 1" from the tip of the forearm.

 

After you get the dampener installed shoot some groups and record the results. Then move the dampener back an inch, shoot some groups and record the results. Eventually you will find a sweet spot where the groups really tighten up. But if you change ammunition you need to start over because all ammunition is different and how your gun shoots it will be different.

 

And finally, NEVER clean your barrel unless the accuracy starts to fall off. I have found that Savages have the roughest looking bores but they do not shoot well unless they are copper fouled. My best groups were shot out of a factory Savage barrel that had over 600 rounds through it since the last cleaning. That factory Savage barrel turned in consistent .3", center to center, groups at 100 yards. It shot enough .2" groups to know they were not a fluke.

 

There is a lot of stuff that can be done to a Savage to improve consistency and consistency is what makes a gun accurate.

[jtmaze]

I have read several articles on putting a thin layer of cork between stock and barrel on a 91/30 to improve harmonics without the bayonet on. I am curious if it works. It is way down on my to do list. If I ever do it I will post results.


JTM
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dcloudy777]

14 pounds in a .308?

 

That thing probably shoots like a pellet gun.   :rock:

[Dolomite_supafly]

Here is another little gem of experience.

When bedding a gun you can either bed the receiver and free float the barrel or bed the barrel and free float the receiver. Each way has its own advantages and disadvantages.

A bedded action, where the barrel is free floated, is what you use to squeeze the last bit of accuracy out of the gun. So what is disadvantagepus about that? Well you generally only have one or two loads, factory or hand loads, that perform well and the rest will give you miserable accuracy.

A bedded barrel with a floated action is basically the opposite. You will not squeeze the best possible accuracy out of the gun but it will be accurate with a much wider selection of ammunition. Where your bedded action might have one or two super accurate loads a bedded barrel will have a dozen accurate loads but those loads will generally not be as accurate as a bedded action.

[Clod Stomper]

Here is another little gem of experience.

When bedding a gun you can either bed the receiver and free float the barrel or bed the barrel and free float the receiver. Each way has its own advantages and disadvantages.

A bedded action, where the barrel is free floated, is what you use to squeeze the last bit of accuracy out of the gun. So what is disadvantagepus about that? Well you generally only have one or two loads, factory or hand loads, that perform well and the rest will give you miserable accuracy.

A bedded barrel with a floated action is basically the opposite. You will not squeeze the best possible accuracy out of the gun but it will be accurate with a much wider selection of ammunition. Where your bedded action might have one or two super accurate loads a bedded barrel will have a dozen accurate loads but those loads will generally not be as accurate as a bedded action.

That's a good little tidbit to know. Since I'm not a benchrest shooter and like to shoot a variety of loads, I would bed the barrel. If I were to ever build another bolt gun for hunting, that is.

[peejman]

Here is another little gem of experience.

When bedding a gun you can either bed the receiver and free float the barrel or bed the barrel and free float the receiver. Each way has its own advantages and disadvantages.

A bedded action, where the barrel is free floated, is what you use to squeeze the last bit of accuracy out of the gun. So what is disadvantagepus about that? Well you generally only have one or two loads, factory or hand loads, that perform well and the rest will give you miserable accuracy.

A bedded barrel with a floated action is basically the opposite. You will not squeeze the best possible accuracy out of the gun but it will be accurate with a much wider selection of ammunition. Where your bedded action might have one or two super accurate loads a bedded barrel will have a dozen accurate loads but those loads will generally not be as accurate as a bedded action.

 

 

I seem to recall reading somewhere that the above is part of the reason for the full length forearms on many old guns.  They knew there was plenty of variation in the ammo.  They may not have fully understood barrel harmonics and such, but had plenty of empirical data of what worked the best.