Bergara & their new... No Gunsmithing Barrels...
at both ends of the headstock, the muzzle thread could be cut for a moderator or muzzle brake and finally crowned. I went for a recessed crown due to this being a predominantly sporting rifle.
What the Proof House does in engineering terms is to dance a very fine line between `non-destructive` and `destructive` testing. Well my gun never got this far as it was returned un-proofed after the trigger blade (thankfully I fitted a scrap bin item for this trip) was ‘mysteriously’ snapped-off somewhere along its otherwise comfortably undamaged journey to Birmingham and back. It was fitted with another trigger and sent back to proof and two months after its construction, it returned, this time also needing re-crowning as ‘someone’ had now managed to ding the crown…… but at least it was stamped with proof marks. A quick trip through the milling machine to relieve the stock’s barrel-channel and make room for the larger recoil-lug and then a full bedding job with pillars and Devcon finally had it ready to shoot.
Shooting Results
As a test bench, this rifle is always being altered and fiddled about with and I certainly don’t have the experience and patience that fellow writer Laurie Holland does to exhaustively test my own handloads once they are `good enough` for me - certainly in this case with field use intended. Covered in mud and dust, reliability is more important than sub ¼ MOA accuracy!
Every barrel will have it’s own personal diet and this one was no different. I started out using Lapua brass with CCI BR primers with Hodgdon H4350 powder driving 87gr Hornady V-max bullets. I thought this choice a perfect start for its longer-range varminting role and H4350 is a bit of a favourite of mine. I had acceptable accuracy at sub 1 MOA at 100 yards but felt this gun should be capable of more and went through 70 and 75gr V-max along with their 105 A-max cousins.
Powders both faster and slower were tried, Viht N140, N150 and N160 showed no gain. Frustration aside, a change of tack to Sierra bullets paid dividends, the 70gr Blitzkings, 100gr soft points and most importantly, the 107gr Matchkings were now dipping consistently below the half-inch mark, the 70s preferring H4350 and the 107’s fairly characteristically liking H4831sc.
For a bit of McQueen’s or tactical shooting, of which I am a fan, the 107s deserved further tweaking and seating depth alterations although not critical, did pay dividends. At five thou. off the rifling, I was comfortably into the sub half-inch zone consistently with forays well below ¼ MOA. Remember, this is not a heavy target competition gun with a custom or even blueprinted action, it is a plain Jane Remmy and, even with make up, still not terribly attractive but very serviceable and inexpensive.
After running in the barrel, I have found the honed internal finish promised by Bergara has led to little
A very economical barrel, bringing a shot out gun back to life.
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