For your curiosities on Summits

The Summit is unique in that it has a extremely slop-free hard fixed lock up more so than a traditional 2-pice bolt action. When it locks up the bolt has near zero slop.The other issue is that rimfire rim thicknesses varies greatly, so if the headspace you have set is not "ideal" for a particular round/rim thickness, you start getting wild flyers until you disassemble and do the time consuming tuning to headspace for that round.

I tested Feddersen barrels which historically delivers "more" consistency across widely varied ammo. Even then I am seeing that inconsistency and extreme preference for one round which is out of character for any Feddersen barrels I have owned. So that logic is some bolt float/slop is needed. This was tested using the same stock, trigger, barrel and torque and repeated the test many times. I did this because the Summit inconsistency from round to round was driving me insane on the same barrel which were 1/8" grouping and then move to the Summit and boom 1/2" groups with the same ammo in the same trigger and stock. Tune it and back to 1/8" groups, but the other ammo that delivered similar groups, boom 1/2" groups... made me nuts. Only explanation was no bolt slop.

I ended up doing some trickery to allow the bolt to have a tiny bit of slop. I drilled out the linkage on my Gen 2 shown in the first pic so that two silicon o-rings sit in between the linkage shown above and the bolt pin. The o-rings provide enough resistance for thin rims and is forgiving enough for thick rim rounds.

I will say half way into the mod I panicked about "what if it didn't work", I've trashed a Summit, but it worked and even smoothed out feeding. The net is that my Summit now has about the same bolt float as the semi now and now also deliver the same consistency. 1/8" barrel shoots as well across is wildly less picky about what it will shoot well and there is no linkage stress from the bolt locking out on an oddly thick rim.

I had mine out yesterday. I shot about 400 rounds at 25 and 50 yards for groups, and then another hundred at 100 yards for dope. I started by running through a bag of rando .22s lying around the shop. They were predictably musket balls all over the place. I went through five cartridges, and it liked SK Match best followed by Tenx, both with sub MOA groups, but CCI standard velocity was pretty darned tight for half the price. I did not change a single thing. I just cleaned the barrel back to steel like I always do, but suddenly it started shooting yesterday. My frustration with this rifle was finally alleviated. Either witchcraft/PFM technology, or (more likely) the barrel just needed broken in before it settled down. I previously had four or five hundred shots with this musket before it started shooting like a rifle.

1.6 mils of elevation was nuts on @ 100 yards. The SK Long Range Match grouped very well too, but it's a lot hotter and everything and was well high of my zero. I may re-zero and switch to it if my club ever hosts an NRL match, like they've been promising...for a year... I was pretty impressed with supersonic .22 that grouped that well. I would recommend trying it if you can find it.

Having no dope I then took it up to the long range sticking with the Tenx becasue I shot all the SKM I brought. Light breeze 0-5mph quartering from range left. I did not wait to shoot a condition. It took about 20 shots to figure out 6.6 mils @ 200 yards, but once I had the dial it was remarkably consistent. Then I extrapolated and took it out to 300 yards guessing 13 mils, saw I was shooting under, and got a second round hit @ 300 with 13.5 mils of elevation. I ended up @ 13.6 for the correct elevation @ 300. I'd say I was connecting with the plate three out of four shots for the rest of the box of ammo. I was holding left edge and even in the light breeze some of my shots were just off the right. It was late and I did not opt to go for 400 rack so that I could end on a high note. I hope the cheap Arken EP5 I have on it does not wind out before 400. It has a 20 rail under it, but with 13.6 @ 300 that's going to be alot of mils to get to 400.

My frustration with this Vloq barrel is over, and I am now back to being excited about it through no action or fix of my own. It must have just needed "broken in", although that's also a witchcraft answer that doesn't satisfy me one bit. That said, you can't argue with success. The SKM was the tightest group, so I'll roll the dice on a large lot purchase.

I was really about to throw in the towel and get a Kid barrel. Now I'm pretty sure that won't be necessary. A few more times out doping it and experimenting, and I think I'll be ready to compete (if they ever actually hold a match).