My Rifle; The Latest .....

For anyone as yet unfamiliar with my new rifle, just look down the left side of the page there and click on April. It's all there. Second post I ever made is all about it. Make, model and serial number. I'm sure I mention it a few more times too, between then and now.

Anyway, just to bring everyone up to pace; It's original grouping, at 100 yards, was around the one inch. That is to say, I could get left, right, above and below an inch square. Just no way I could get inside that damn inch. No good.

Then Dean O' and I went out to the Bog and tried some shots at different ranges. At 200 yards I couldn't even get Near a fucking great 1 Ltr plastic bottle of water. Dean knows how I can shoot. He knew this wasn't my fault. He produced a fiver note and started drawing it down beneath my barrel. As it slipped between the barrel and the fore end wood, the damn note split cleanly in two! Case proven. My 'Floating Barrel' was laying on the sea bed.

For anyone who wonders what the fuck That's all about? In simple enough terms; A floating barrel is a rifle barrel set so it doesn't quite touch the wooden bit we hold. This means, as the round spins up the length of the barrel, the barrel is free to be knocked around in a consistent manner by the passage of that round. Thus, when the round exits and goes off on its way to the target, it's going in a uniform manner. Ok?

Now, my barrel was microscopically in touch with that wood. So, think of it like this. Spin a coin on a table. Right? Coin spins like fuck, quite happily. Your fingers make it spin and so it does. The round, like ye fingers, makes the barrel 'spin'. But, touch that spinning coin at all and what happens ....? Exactly. And that's what was happening here. So the barrel was throwing a wobbler and that was throwing my rounds all over the damn place. Simple.

Solution was simple too; Let Dean O' sort it out! LOL! I don't fuck with things like this.I haven't the confidence in my own ability not to fuck it up. So, yesterday, as I sat reading a thread in a forum, Dean sat there and wiped a bit of sand paper, then a drop of varnish over the wood of my dismantled rifle. He then put it all back together again and visibly demonstrated to me how my barrel could now be 'bent' downwards, toward the wood. Only it doesn't touch it any more.

Now, as he said; I'll be able to his what I'm firing at. Can't wait to get back out there and zero in my scope. Then I'll be back in business.

My Thanks to Dean. Good man.