Best rimfire accuracy gunsmiths?

Thanks, but most of that information seems to relate to 10/22's.
I have extensive accuracy records on many good silhouette and nice .22 sporter rifles I've owned over the years, and the good ones achieved 0.3" at 50 yards with Tenex without much trouble. The lot of Tenex I tested has averaged 0.3" for six 10-shot groups in more than one of my other rifles (a 10/22 and a dedicated match AR15 upper in .22LR.) I also tested a known-good lot of Eley Standard and got well-below expected accuracy.

For this rifle to be shooting bad vertical strings with known-good lots of Tenex and Standard at 50 yards suggests there is something mechanically wrong with it. So, I would like to send it to a top quality gunsmith, not fiddle with it in my garage. The factory barrel was chambered with a match reamer, but almost certainly was not chambered with a floating pilot; thus it can be eccentric and/or rough in the throat, etc. Setting it back with a properly done chamber may be required, after checking bedding, firing pin protrusion, and probably re-crowning. Those are not operations I am set up to do. I'm experienced with rifle accuracy (have in fact written a book and numerous articles on the subject) and am in pursuit of good results. I just haven't fooled with bolt-action rimfires in years so I've not kept up with the current "names" in rimfire accuracy work. (My accurate rimfires in recent years have been custom 10/22's and AR15's.)

That said, does anyone have any good accuracy smiths they can recommend based on personal experience?
Thanks,
John

John F,

Here's three that are well respected in rimfire:

Bill Myers 540-877-3607 [email protected]

Butch Hongisto 573-468-3234 [email protected]

Bill Calfee 812-967-2413

HTH,

jerry

Howdy, thanks all for the replies and reference. The rifle is a Japanese Win. 52B sporter repro, and the only evidence I see of possible modification is that the crown (rounded factory type) is polished, not blued. Not sure if they came this way or not. I took it out for one range session with calm conditions and tried various torque on the action/barrel screws, ranging from no barrel screw installed, to snugged down tight, and nothing worked. I have some Fiocchi and Lapua which I haven't tested yet, and agree they might work where the Eley doesn't. I have had one rifle that had a very marginal chamber, that worked well with Lapua Dominator L (now called Midas, I think) but wouldn't shoot really well with anything else; that speaks of a problem in itself, to me. Over the years, I have found that most of my rifles shoot better with Eley than anything else; have had several that shot good lots of Eley Standard better than they shot R-50! So, as a shortcut, I figure if the rifle won't shoot tolerably well with Eley Tenex (a known good lot), I start to worry. As it is a sporter, I could actually live with 0.4" average for 5-shot groups at 50 yards with Tenex and good lots of Standard, but expect 0.3" out of a quality rifle that is very well tuned. I only would expect 0.3" 10-shot group averages out of a dead-serious match rifle.

The chamber is factory original and is a short, match chamber.
It heavily engraves the bullet -- more than I am used to in Anschutz and Walthers I've owned, so that may be part of the problem. I believe a large part is probably bedding and that a good crown couldn't hurt. Unfortunately, there are NO local gunsmiths I'd trust with any gun I own; the only good one died about a year ago and the rest are ham-handed butchers. (Example: one drilled right through the chamber of an original Mannlicher Schoenauer when drilling and tapping for a scope mount... We are talking true Boone and Crocket idiots here.)

If I were able to relieve the barrel channel neatly without messing it up, I'd do that first and see what happens, but experience has taught me my limitations...

John

John,
I have two of these repro's and the crown was polished when they were taken out of the box "new". I found that mine shot best with the front action screw reasonably tight and the tang screw just snug, and with the forearm screw loose--and the barrel floating. I haven't tried a lot of different ammo but the old lot (about 5 years old) Federal UM1 shot terrific in both of them. Sadly, you can't find the "old" UM1 any more. However, one of them shot a little better than the other at the start--may have been a bedding thing, but I was going to restock it anyway in AAA wood so I didn't fool with it. When I restocked it, I bedded the front of the action, the tang area, and about 2-1/2" of the chamber area with Brownell's steel bed--left the barrel floating. When this was done the rifle out shot the other--it'll stay under a 1/2" regularly at fifty yards, on a good non windy day. It's a one hole gun at 25 yards with good ammo. I've had several of these rifles and they have all been great. The trim forearm makes it difficult to shoot them well--I corrected that on the restocked version, but it will no longer make Sporter weight. Heck of a squirrel rifle though. Keep us posted on what works.