Well, I couldn't wait to shoot this gun after building my custom stock set. When I built the forend, I wanted to be sure that i did it correctly. I cut a very deep channel into the forend with closer tolerances on the sides and very front so that it does not look like a kid installed it. I did however leave a little larger than factory stock gap to ensure no contact in humid/warm weather.
After reading the FAQs I decided to bed the forend from the back to the lug and float the barrel forward of that. What I did was bed it out past the lug a bit to ensure stability and support the lug a bit as I extended the stock 2 inches compared to the standard H&R wood stock and mounted the Sling/bipod 2 inches further out. When I bedded the back of the forend, I cut my bedding into seperate 1 inch sections so that I could remove/add them at will until I found a sweet spot. On top of that, I shimmed the spacer so that it lines up perfect and the action is smooth but nice and tight. There is no wiggling the barrel when it is closed, all the way open or anywhere in between. The gun now weighs 11.6LBS.
RANGE REPORT:
Temp= right on the freezing mark
Winds 10 mph Right to Left.
Bullets= Storebought Winchester whitebox FMJs 55Gr.
Shooting apparatus. My (censored word) and a harris bipod sitting against a woodpile at a buddies farm (hehe)
Anyhow, the first couple shots were off the mark from prior to the stock installation. They were grouping roughly 2-2.5 inches. Not great but acceptable for coyote killing. After 6 or so more shots, I removed the aft piece of bedding and shot 2 more. They seemed to group very nice and I made a small adjustment to the scope to change my POI and fired 3 more shots. 2 rounds were touching and the 3rd was 5/8" low. Unreal how much difference removing a 1 inch square of bedding made. Considering I was shooting off the ground with factory ammo, I am very pleased with the way the gun shoots. I am almost afraid to shoot it again in case it was just luck
Since I ran out of time, I left on a good note and will hopefuly get to shoot it some more this weekend.
