Saturday, October 13, 2012

Wheeler FAT ( Firearms Accurizing Torque) Wrench

Thought I would revisit how to torque stock screws for accuracy, especially the Ruger 77 series and the Hawkeye rifles.

My son bought me a Wheeler Firearm Accurizing Torque Wrench for by 65th birthday recently and I am going to experiment a little with it on the Ruger Hawkeye .338 Federal. I have to admit that I was astonished at how difficult it is to get a straight answer from ANYONE concerning exactly how much to torque the front screw and the two rear screws on a Ruger Hawkeye or 77 series rifle. Every BLOG, every firearm and shooter's forum seem to have a variety of answers  that do NOT match, making it more or less a guessing or experimental game if one is having difficulties getting those MOA groups from one's rifle.

I have been very fortunate with a Ruger Mdl 77 .270 Win I purchased years ago. I have never paid any particular attention to reassembling the stock to the barreled action in regards to any specific torque to apply to the various stock screws. On the other hand I think I have only removed the barreled action from the stock maybe twice in all the years I owned it. Once was because I hunted in heavy rain for several days on a hunt in Maine a few years ago.The rifle has always shot well for me right out of the box and I have had several loads over the years that shot sub MOA groups. Probably the best shooting factory load I ever tried was the now discontinued Federal 130 grain Hi Shok load. It went under 3/4" center to center at 100 yards and shot 1.25 inches at 200 yards both with 3 shot groups. Wish I had bought about 25 boxes of factory loads back when. Fortunately however it will shoot Federal 150 grain loads and Remington 150 grain RN corelokts around the 1 inch mark at 100 yards. Winchester 150 grain power points also shoot extremely well.

In any event back to the various blogs, forums and comments on the Internet for the amount of torque to use on the stock screws for a Ruger bolt action rifle.

FIRST, here is an Explanation of how to convert "Inch Pounds" to "Foot Pounds" of torque. If you are advised to use let's say 65 pounds of torque on a particular stock screw, you would divide the 65 by 12 and arrive at 5.42 foot pounds rounded up. On a previous post I believe RUGER indicated 7.92 foot pounds of torque on the front screw which comes out to 95 inch pounds. That is a fair amount of torque as my new birthday present Wheeler torque wrench only has a range of from 10 to 65 inch pounds of torque.


VARIOUS WEBSITES, FORUMS, BLOGS ETC. FOLLOW:


  • TIGHTEN the front screw first with a WHITE KNUCKLE GRIP and give it all you got. Then do the same to the rear screw although not quite as much white knuckled as the front and then give the middle screw 1/4 turn past snug. Sort of vague, however consider it VERY tight on the front, tight on the rear and barely snug on the middle screw.

  • TIGHTEN the front screw to 95 inch pounds of torque, then the rear screw to 50 inch pounds of torque and then barely make the middle screw snug, or a 1/4 turn past what you consider snug. (I can't measure 95 inch pounds of torque with the tools I have).

  • TIGHTEN the front screw 60 inch pounds, the rear screw 40 to 50 inch pounds and the middle 1/4 turn past snug.

  • TIGHTEN the front screw 65 inch pounds, the rear 50 inch pounds and the middle 1/4 turn past snug.

There is some consistency concerning the middle screw and they all seem to indicate tighten this one last and make it just snug or 1/4 turn past snug.

On my Ruger .338 Federal, I used the Wheeler FAT wrench and did 65 inch pounds on the front screw FIRST, then 50 inch pounds on the rear most screw and then did the 1/4 turn past snug on the middle screw. This MAXED out the Wheeler FAT wrench torque available.



When all is said and done, I would guess it is somewhat of an on going experiment by making your settings, firing 3 shot groups at 100 yards out of a cold clean barrel off the bench, and then repeat the process at different settings until you achieve the required results OR are making yourself happy with what you are getting. You should then mark the torque on the front and rear screws somewhere handy so if you must disassemble the rifle, you can come back to your last setting.

This could be extensive experimenting depending on what caliber you have, how many different bullet weights you are trying including hand loads etc.

Best advice given I think on some of these forums is NOT to take it upon yourself to do a bedding job on your gun UNTIL you have done the testing with inch pounds of torque on the rifle and kept accurate records. IF you are not getting at LEAST consistent 1.5 inch groups with two or three different loads in your gun after experimenting with a torque wrench and shooting off the bench, then I would CALL RUGER before any further tinkering.

IF they won't make you happy, then you may want to think about making the switch to a Savage, or a Remington, Winchester etc. in the same caliber.





My Savage Weather Warrior bolt action with accu trigger was a tack driver right out of the box and still is. I never paid any attention to applying a specific torque to any stock screws.

Most guys are pretty happy with a rifle that will consistently group 1.5 inches at 100 yards and 3 inches at 200 yards. That takes in 95 % of N/E and woods hunting into consideration. IF you are hunting where 200 yards is a chip shot and shots can range out to 350 or 400 yards, you are NOT going to be happy with a 1.5 MOA rifle. On the other hand you certainly do NOT need any advice from me either.

OTHER tips would be depending on how much you have shot the rifle, to get any copper fouling out along with a thorough cleaning, before experimenting with a torque wrench and sending rounds down range.

Right now our NYS bow season is open so the my rifles are taking a back seat for now. I have (3) set up to hunt with now. A Ruger bolt action 77 Mark II in .270 Win, a Savage bolt action Weather Warrior with Accu-trigger in .308 Win and a Marlin Model 336 in .35 Rem with a Wild West happy Trigger. ALL three shoot under an inch at 100 yards.

Hope you have a great season.

I will do  another blog post on the Hawkeye .338 Federal probably after deer season is over in NY.

Dan

John 3:16

King James Version (KJV)
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

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