Thread: "Feather in my hat" 308win Featherweight load development

Originally Posted by akaroa1

@dannyb Come on we expect better than that from you

Not wanting to hijack your thread
But I did this group this morning with a genuine circa 1840 14 gauge percussion double rifle
Open express sights at 25 yards
So no excuses

Attachment 228929

You can blame @Micky Duck because he mentioned me.
I shouldn't even be in this space

5 round group?

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Just buy a box of fed blue and if it doesn't shoot them you're wasting your time chasing a load for it

Your not wrong there

I worked with / had two of these, a .308 and a .30-06. Both wouldn’t shoot better than 1 1/2 moa at best. Even putting the 08 into a mcm stock did not improve it.
Both pretty to look at but both gone.

The timber stocks while aesthetic seem to compound recoil in my opinion.

Good luck with your quest.


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'The timber stocks while aesthetic seem to compound recoil in my opinion.'

Interesting thought.

I often wondered about different stock designs improving or making recoil worse, hadn't thought to much about the medium the stock is made of being the issue.
I have often thought that maybe I should just save my pennies and get a new Sako 85 walnut.
Surely they should be accurate and mild to shoot?

I don't think it's the fact it is timber, I think weight has more to do with it and recoil pad, my Finnbear is also wood but heavier and with a more substantial recoil pad and it is a relative pussycat to shoot with a stout load and 178gn pills.

We used to say "life is too short to tolerate useless dogs and inaccurate guns". Drastic measures were taken with both.

Nowadays I 'spose the useless dogs would have to be given to Dog Rescue and the inaccurate guns to Danny

Originally Posted by 7mm tragic

'The timber stocks while aesthetic seem to compound recoil in my opinion.'

Interesting thought.

I often wondered about different stock designs improving or making recoil worse, hadn't thought to much about the medium the stock is made of being the issue.
I have often thought that maybe I should just save my pennies and get a new Sako 85 walnut.
Surely they should be accurate and mild to shoot?

Well I’ve tried a Ramline and Browns Precision stock , about all that was around in the ‘80s, on my 308 Liteweight. Feck all difference in recoil but upset the balance of rifle. Noisy too. Went back to original wooden stock, far nicer to handle especially on cold days.

Originally Posted by woods223

Well I’ve tried a Ramline and Browns Precision stock , about all that was around in the ‘80s, on my 308 Liteweight. Feck all difference in recoil but upset the balance of rifle. Noisy too. Went back to original wooden stock, far nicer to handle especially on cold days.

As it happens my featherweight came with a Boyds laminate thumb hole stock.
I just can't gel with the look and feel of the thumb hole stock so the first thing I did was put the action back in the original stock.
As a last resort I will try the boyds stock but I suspect it won't make any diffence.
I suspect I now know why it was for sale in the first place.

Originally Posted by dannyb

The Dirty 06 finnbear needs to be sub moa as I want to set that up as my tops/longer range rifle, the Featherweight as long as it is consistent and around moa it will be more than adaquate, obviously I strive for sub moa cause well I'm a fussy cnut. I will be satisfied with around 1" as long as it's consistent and I've done everything I can to give it the best chance of doing better.

Don't expect miracles with the Finnbear either Danny, you are dealing with old school classic in which 1.5moa is very acceptable to the makers at the time. These were not known as tack drivers as we know of this day and age with modern engineering.
However, good luck with the process of bettering its performance. Enjoying the up dated posts.

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Originally Posted by Mathias

Don't expect miracles with the Finnbear either Danny, you are dealing with old school classic in which 1.5moa is very acceptable to the makers at the time. These were not known as tack drivers as we know of this day and age with modern engineering.
However, good luck with the process of bettering its performance. Enjoying the up dated posts.

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it either will or it won't but no matter what I will be satisfied knowing i have given it every chance to be the best it can be. As everyone knows I love a bit of a challenge and a bit of load development so in my element here. If the Finn cannot be dragged into sub moa it won't be the end of the world.

My Sako 85 the walnut stock is a different recoil lug system, aquired a ken henderson carbon stock and the recoil system is the same set up as the tika, must have got lucky as both work well. Walnut stock is beded at the back tang a recoil lug done by Greystone, Carbon stock I fully beded using Devcon. Did put a limbsaver recoil pad on the walnut. Both mild to shoot with 178s at near 2600 from 308.
I would imagine Danny your Lupo is nice to shoot, modern design has achieved awesome things.

Originally Posted by flock

My Sako 85 the walnut stock is a different recoil lug system, aquired a ken henderson carbon stock and the recoil system is the same set up as the tika, must have got lucky as both work well. Walnut stock is beded at the back tang a recoil lug done by Greystone, Carbon stock I fully beded using Devcon. Did put a limbsaver recoil pad on the walnut. Both mild to shoot with 178s at near 2600 from 308.
I would imagine Danny your Lupo is nice to shoot, modern design has achieved awesome things.

The Lupo is superb to shoot, even shooting heavies the recoil is akin to a 223, it's not fussy on ammo, easy to load for and with the shim kit it fits like a glove. if I had to have just 1 rifle it would be the Lupo that is for sure.

Just had a birdbrain, rebarrel with a Gisborne job.

Danny - I bought my Featherweight 22.250 new. I said I had to bed it but Ive just remembered that I had the factory crown re-done too. It was quite rough. So not certain what made the difference. I got it down to shooting .5 moa in the end but only 2 or 3 shot groups and then it wandered all over the place. I liked the gun a lot. Burnt the barrel out in the end.

Couple ideas, don't cost much. Give it a JBs bore paste, I use croil light penertating oil then fowards and backwards a jag/rag JBs then clean it out as norm. Have heard of a guy inpegnating projecties with cutting compound then firing them, reckons it took a rifle from not shooting to shoting with 2 shots. A bore scope would be handy as well. Have a good lok at the crown also.