I have a hogue overmolded stock on my howa 1500 22-250 and after an unsuccessful first round attempt at handloading, I decided to go and get some tuning on it before I tried any more handloads. Shoots remington factory ammo around or just over MOA off a bipod. It has since been glass bedded and a timney trigger installed at 2lbs and it is getting re crowned as there was a mark on one of the lands near the muzzle. Now it shoots the factory remington ammo under an inch off the bipod.

But what intrigued me is that they showed me there was 7 thou flex in the stock. Its been worked down to 1 thou but they said with a bipod, synthetic stocks just dont perform. The only other thing they suggest is to fill the void in the foregrip with bedding compound to make the stock more rigid.

My main questions are,

1) Does 1 thou of flex seem acceptable considering the stock?
2) If i purchased a bipod with a swivel on it, would this help in reducing error from flex when using a standard harris bipod.

Im re trying the handloads when the rifle comes back. Using ADI benchmark 2 powder and 55gr sierra blitzkings, 55gr hornady vmax and the 55gr speer TNT with CCI benchrest primers. Brass is remington neck sized, with primer pockets uniformed and flash holes beburred. COL is a smidge over 2.5" for the ballistic tips and a smidge under with the TNT.

Thoughts appreciated.

I have a hogue overmolded stock on my howa 1500 22-250 and after an unsuccessful first round attempt at handloading, I decided to go and get some tuning on it before I tried any more handloads. Shoots remington factory ammo around or just over MOA off a bipod. It has since been glass bedded and a timney trigger installed at 2lbs and it is getting re crowned as there was a mark on one of the lands near the muzzle. Now it shoots the factory remington ammo under an inch off the bipod.

But what intrigued me is that they showed me there was 7 thou flex in the stock. Its been worked down to 1 thou but they said with a bipod, synthetic stocks just dont perform. The only other thing they suggest is to fill the void in the foregrip with bedding compound to make the stock more rigid.

My main questions are,

1) Does 1 thou of flex seem acceptable considering the stock?
2) If i purchased a bipod with a swivel on it, would this help in reducing error from flex when using a standard harris bipod.

Im re trying the handloads when the rifle comes back. Using ADI benchmark 2 powder and 55gr sierra blitzkings, 55gr hornady vmax and the 55gr speer TNT with CCI benchrest primers. Brass is remington neck sized, with primer pockets uniformed and flash holes beburred. COL is a smidge over 2.5" for the ballistic tips and a smidge under with the TNT.

Thoughts appreciated.
if all you're doing is capping critters i wouldn't worry about it at all if it is shooting to your satisfaction. if you're looking to get into target shooting competition then i would by a differant stock rather than trying to reinforce that one. lot's of folks have tried to stiffen up those savage syntetics but get only marginal results. i would think the same would hold true on any brand synthetic but i would see what others have to say.

I have taken a few of the Ramline (cheep!) synthetic stocks, filled the forearms with glass and rebedded the rifle to free-float the barrel with better results than when new. The weight reducing cavities are quite large in the forends, so I uised styrofoam cut to size to fill the voids about 75% and then glassed the remaining, being sure to get some on all sides of the styrofoam blocks. Have to rough up the stock frame with a rasp or Dremel tool to get the glass to stick, though. Even used the metal powder supplied by Brownell to mix with the glass to get a "steel-glass" compound.

My Light Varmint Stanless Fluted Rem 700 came with a synthetic stock. This was the first one I ever purchased and I was less than thrilled with it because of the flexing. I knew when I bought the gun I'd have to replace it and did so with a Boyd's laminated stock. I like the laminated stock a lot better than the synthetic. Not only did it stiffen the fore end but it moved the point of balance back to a much better location. Even though the gun is heavier it is better balanced and that makes up for the added heft.

It should be back by tomorrow, so a quick shoot with a box of factory loads will be the main tester. If they go under an inch or at an inch at 150 then Im happy. I dont need to shoot targets, its a varmint rifle so the inch is the magic mark. Handloads will be the key to getting sub moa's.

Really the only thing now is deciding which bipod to put back on it. The standard harris or the swivel type. Ive got a hunch the swivel one might be more forgiving in the flex department.

Suggestions?

go swivel, i've yet to see anyone post a swivel model for sale because they wanted to get the std. model. however i have seen plenty of std. models put up for sale because they wanted the swivel model. tells me something.

Stock flex with the less expensive synthetic stocks is a problem, but most rifles with these stocks will still function well with game loads. Some of the more expensive glass stocks are much better, but also much more costly.

Like Flashhole I like laminated stocks for target rifles with standard wood coming in next. Folks have bedded some of the injection molded plastic stocks, but they don't take well to bedding and often the glass bedding will separate from the stock if no mechanical locks are used. kdub did an excellent job of describing how to fill the large cast in holes in these if you plan on bedding one.

Check out Boyds and Richards Micro-fit for some really nice laminated and standard wood stock patterns.