Uncle_Bambi
Copper BB
Just wanted to add to the database a bit, regarding my experience with a brand new Patriot in 6.5 Creedmoor that I bought myself for Christmas. I wanted something inexpensive that I could tinker with, and boy did I get that - in spades.
Out of the box and brand new, the gun shot for crap...... I'm talking 3-4" groups at 100 yards. Just horrible. No problem, I wanted a project, and I got one. So, I took the rifle apart to see about bedding the action. Arghhhh...... the design of this rifle is horrible. The magazine well is a cheap plastic insert, and the action rests on a plastic pier in the rear and another in the front. There is a recoil lug insert between the barrel ring and the barrel, and it slides into a rectangular well in the stock. That's it. Almost nowhere to apply bedding.
I mixed up some compound anyway, and bedded the recoil lug area as well as the first two inches of the barrel. In addition, I filled in about four inches of the honeycomb fore-end, to try to stiffen up the flex. Also, I bedded the rear tang. The groups tightened up somewhat, but were still hovering at just under three inches. Ugh.
A couple of other problems reared their ugly head as well...
Problem 1: With the scope zeroed at 100 yards, I only had about 6 clicks of elevation before I reached the scopes upper limit. I tried a different set of rings and another scope, all to no avail. I called Mossberg tech support - they told me it was normal and to shim the scope. Hmmmmmm.............
Problem 2: Turns out, there is about 1/2" of space between the top of the mag well insert and the action. The rear action screw passes through this space and if you tighten the action screw a little too much, it cracks and distorts the magazine well and screws up magazine insertion/extraction (yeah - I did that). Another call to Mossberg - to their credit they sent me a new mag well insert and magazine. That was a very gracious thing to do, and I give them a lot of credit for helping me out.
So now I'm thinking pillar bedding. That turned out to be a very tricky proposition, as there is just no meat in the rear to glue the pillar to, and to make matters worse you have to notch the rear of the rear pillar to get the trigger housing (which is hanging in space) to seat fully in the action. Ok - so I was pointed to a thread describing a way to do it, dry fit the pieces, roughed up everything and epoxied everything in place. What a pain in the buttocks......
I had a chance to run up to the BLM land behind my house and get it zeroed. Then I shot some reloads just to see if I could put a group together. Praise the Lord, I've now got a sub-MOA gun (but not by much)
My advice? If you buy one, resign yourself that it is what it is - an inexpensive price-point truck gun. It is not worth the hassle of buying one to tinker with......sure, it was fun for awhile and now it shoots great, but I came close to tossing it in the pond a couple of times on the way to today. The main problem is that the way it is made just does not allow for bedding or adding pillars. The stock is the weak point, it truly is a cheap piece of junk. I suppose a Boyd's would improve things greatly, but why add $200 to a $250 gun? That would just be silly.
I thought I could get away with building a nice hunting rig on the cheap, but boy oh boy it was a rough road getting there. I learned a lot though, so I got that going for me.
Out of the box and brand new, the gun shot for crap...... I'm talking 3-4" groups at 100 yards. Just horrible. No problem, I wanted a project, and I got one. So, I took the rifle apart to see about bedding the action. Arghhhh...... the design of this rifle is horrible. The magazine well is a cheap plastic insert, and the action rests on a plastic pier in the rear and another in the front. There is a recoil lug insert between the barrel ring and the barrel, and it slides into a rectangular well in the stock. That's it. Almost nowhere to apply bedding.
I mixed up some compound anyway, and bedded the recoil lug area as well as the first two inches of the barrel. In addition, I filled in about four inches of the honeycomb fore-end, to try to stiffen up the flex. Also, I bedded the rear tang. The groups tightened up somewhat, but were still hovering at just under three inches. Ugh.
A couple of other problems reared their ugly head as well...
Problem 1: With the scope zeroed at 100 yards, I only had about 6 clicks of elevation before I reached the scopes upper limit. I tried a different set of rings and another scope, all to no avail. I called Mossberg tech support - they told me it was normal and to shim the scope. Hmmmmmm.............
Problem 2: Turns out, there is about 1/2" of space between the top of the mag well insert and the action. The rear action screw passes through this space and if you tighten the action screw a little too much, it cracks and distorts the magazine well and screws up magazine insertion/extraction (yeah - I did that). Another call to Mossberg - to their credit they sent me a new mag well insert and magazine. That was a very gracious thing to do, and I give them a lot of credit for helping me out.
So now I'm thinking pillar bedding. That turned out to be a very tricky proposition, as there is just no meat in the rear to glue the pillar to, and to make matters worse you have to notch the rear of the rear pillar to get the trigger housing (which is hanging in space) to seat fully in the action. Ok - so I was pointed to a thread describing a way to do it, dry fit the pieces, roughed up everything and epoxied everything in place. What a pain in the buttocks......
I had a chance to run up to the BLM land behind my house and get it zeroed. Then I shot some reloads just to see if I could put a group together. Praise the Lord, I've now got a sub-MOA gun (but not by much)
My advice? If you buy one, resign yourself that it is what it is - an inexpensive price-point truck gun. It is not worth the hassle of buying one to tinker with......sure, it was fun for awhile and now it shoots great, but I came close to tossing it in the pond a couple of times on the way to today. The main problem is that the way it is made just does not allow for bedding or adding pillars. The stock is the weak point, it truly is a cheap piece of junk. I suppose a Boyd's would improve things greatly, but why add $200 to a $250 gun? That would just be silly.
I thought I could get away with building a nice hunting rig on the cheap, but boy oh boy it was a rough road getting there. I learned a lot though, so I got that going for me.