you bought a new gun... so now what?

i recently picked up a new ruger frontier, and thought it would be interesting to see what everybody else does when they bring a new gun home...

over the course of several rifles, i've developed a pattern of what works for me, and this is what i do, right or wrong...

start by taking the gun apart, as far as you can, including disassembly of the bolt if you can. clean everything. do this prior to your scope mounting! hoppes #9 works well for everything outside of the bore, and i use montana extreme for the bore, followed by hoppes #9, finished w/ an oily patch.

next, i float the barrel. nothing exotic or sexy about floating a barrel - a deep well socket, 60 grit (or coarser if available) and a little elbow grease will do almost all of it. you may have a couple of points in the barrel channel that require just a little more attention than normal, but floating a barrel is a straightforward process. in the case of my little ruger, there was a speed bump that needed removal as well.

next, i work on the pillars. you will need aluminum/steel/copper tube from the hardware store. i like aluminum because it is easy to work w/ and tough enough for the job. i used 9/32 tube. you just need to make sure the action screws won't get stuck in the tube at all, and i prefer the action screws to not touch the barrel of the tube when the product is finished.

i start by cutting the tube longer than needed, and file it to fit. the point of pillars is to give the action and the action screw heads a solid, non-compressing point to sit on when the screws are tightened down.

file a little, and test fit the action and screw heads and the tube and stock fit frequently. like floating a barrel, it isn't hard - you just need to have a little time. i used a 3/8 drill bit to bore out the holes in the stock.

next, get ready to glass bed the works... enough written on this subject, so i won't go into too many details here... start by mocking up your action fit, and make sure the rifle doesn't sit too low in the stock, or that it isn't off center. i use a few wraps of masking tape to center the barrel in the channel and set 'float height' (for lack of a better descriptor).

get 'er bedded, come back in a couple hours and take everything back apart, clean up your messes while it is still somewhat easy to do, reassemble and let the works sit for about 72 hours.

and we're done for now...

i apologize in advance for not getting better pics - i have learned that i suck at photography.

next, either develop your load, or run an ammo test. in this case, since i will be picking up a 243 varminter and was curious about the velocity differences, i needed brass, primers and bullets are still scarce, i opted for the factory ammo route...

federal loading of barnes 85 triple shocks:

federal 95 grain fusion:

the rifle showed a preference for the heavier bullets, except for the hornady interlock 100 grain loading... didn't seem to care for 'em.

these groups were shot w/ the scout scope. i am tickled to death w/ the way it shoots factory ammo out of that fixed 2.75x scout scope. i have no doubt a higher powered scope would've shrunk those groups significantly, but i don't care enough to do a scope swap... i did have an extremely difficult time seeing the target, but liked the end result!

 

the scope is weird and hard to get used to. also, the low magnification isn't exactly conducive to shooting tight groups...

no, i didn't shoot it beforehand. and even if i did, i wouldn't have been satisfied w/ the results until i did the work anyway, so might as well skip the foreplay and get to it!

this one is a 243... i think if i run some barnes tsx at maximum velocity for the stub barrel i could have a viable deer whacker for the black hills, where shots come quick and short. however, i am struggling getting used to the scope, and may sit the rifle out for a year while i get the hang of the scope.

the scope is a burris, and i am not all that happy w/ it. it is supposed to have 1/2 moa clicks on it. if you look at the 2 barnes groups above, notice how one group is centered and the other is about 7/8" high? well, it took 4 clicks to get it there, so it should've been about 2" high if the click values were close. glass quality is acceptable, but not good. i do like the x-hairs, though. the eye relief on the scope is critical, too. a tight cheek weld and i see nothing. if my head is mis-positioned just a bit, i got nothing... i had a bad feeling that giving burris another shot was a mistake, but i pushed aside my bias and tried it anyway... yeah... not happy about that decision. lesson learned this time, i hope...

        Your pictures and your post in general are very informative. And i am quite impressed with your little rifle !

         Should I end up with a rifle like that, and I really like it, but I might go for a .308.    I would do this.

   Order a wolf spring part #3-0371, if your rifle has the L-6 trigger , if it has the standard MK-II trigger I would order a timney trigger, and then of course then install.

     I would then shoot the rifle, before I do anything else. I have Rugers that shot better after free floating and others that shot great with tip preasure.

      There are 2 reasons for this. 1st If somebody asks what I think of the Ruger 77 MII or the Hawkey , I would like to be able to tell them.

    If you alter the rifle significantly and it does not shoot well , it would be unfair to tell some one that it shoots poorly.

     Now if it shoots poorly out of the box, then by all means free float the barrel, and make further changes as your skill level will let you.

       But it sure looks like your changes worked well in this case.  But my hawkey .338 win mag shoots at least as well and all i did was the trigger spring...tj3006

 

 

   

oh... and 308... i'm w/ ya tj. this rifle would be perfection for me and you if it was in 308. but, i have my quota of 308's for now and have an absence of 6mm rifles, and an unused set of 243 dies, so... anyway, i'll probably do another one in 308, unless i can find a mountain rifle 700 walnut stock by big green in 308 (pretty rare find out here).

     Dakota, the trigger spring costs about 3.50 and is a snap to put in.  One of the cooler things about this sight and the guys on it is that , we would do the opisate things I mean I would do only the trigger before i shot it, and you would do every thing but the trigger, but no insults traded, in fact we seem to respect the other guy's point of view.

   that is how it should be...tj3006

  

i used to do the fix only what is broken stuff, but i would always have the nagging thought in the back of my mind that i could get the rifle to shoot better if only i would float, or bed, or whatever. so now, i just do that stuff as a matter of course.

as far as the trigger goes, yeah, the factory trigger on this frontier is probably the worst trigger on a factory gun i have ever handled (winchester m70's prior to the plant closing definitely give the ruger trigger a run for its money, though). however, once i'm done w/ the bench work, i've found a close range gun really gets treated like a shotgun, i.e., slap the trigger, so i decided i could deal w/ this trigger as it is.

normally, a trigger gets done when i have the gun pulled apart for bedding.

Good post!! It needs to be put in the Archives..........Kingpin