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Hello Folks,
After battling the inner demons of "don't touch anything (collector)" vs "modify everything (shooter)" for quite some time with my 41 Tula svt-40 refurb.... I finally came to a compromise. I want to shoot and enjoy it but I didn't want to kill the collector value. In order to preserve the stock, I put the original away and picked up a repro from Poland. After hours and hours of fine fitting, I finally got it perfect with the barrel free floated. With the original stock, she was getting around 3-4" groups at 100 meters before some vertical stringing. Upon examination, I found that the stock was applying pressure to the bottom of the barrel and was slightly touching on the left, but like I said, instead of messing with it, I just put it away. IMO that definately contributed to the vertical stringing.
After hitting the range with the svt in the fitted repro stock, I noticed a significant positive change in vertical stringing, but to my surprise the groups did not really improve. I checked the headspace with cip specs and it's perfect. No significant wear anywhere. SS gas piston kit, like new gas regulator set at 1.3 and new springs all have been installed. The op rod is coencentric and the bore is excellent with pronounced rifling. Chamber looks good with clean flutes. Also the muzzle brake shows no signs of bullet impact or deflection. I have been using Novosibirsk new production 147 gr non corrosive the entire time and found it to be excellent (In my aimsurplus real PU sniper, that ammo is consistently giving me tight 1-1.5" groups.) So after refusing to give up upon examining most of the accuracy robbing aspects of a semi auto rifle, I went deeper.
I carefully removed the muzzle brake/front sight assembly pin and unscrewed it. To my shock and horror, I found something that I thought could not be possible from what people always say about these rifles (the crown cannot get damaged because of the brake). Well here it is, YES they surely can! Since I use a full brass brush and a Tipton carbon fiber rod, the damage was not caused by me for sure. I suspect that it was done by using the steel cleaning rod and possible cleaning from the front end that did such damage. Keep in mind that this damage was not visible at all looking through the brake. The damage was covered up by powder residue. Here is a pic
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Now I'm not a rocket scientist, but I do have a ton of firearms and I have some pretty good experience with crown/muzzle damage and how that effects accuracy. Also, my smith has re crowned some more modern firearms for me and the accuracy improved drastically.
That being said, what should one do? I guess it's the million dollar question. Do I have it re-crowned and damage the collector value or do I have it re-crowned so it can shoot better? I'm looking for opinions, so don't be shy.
After battling the inner demons of "don't touch anything (collector)" vs "modify everything (shooter)" for quite some time with my 41 Tula svt-40 refurb.... I finally came to a compromise. I want to shoot and enjoy it but I didn't want to kill the collector value. In order to preserve the stock, I put the original away and picked up a repro from Poland. After hours and hours of fine fitting, I finally got it perfect with the barrel free floated. With the original stock, she was getting around 3-4" groups at 100 meters before some vertical stringing. Upon examination, I found that the stock was applying pressure to the bottom of the barrel and was slightly touching on the left, but like I said, instead of messing with it, I just put it away. IMO that definately contributed to the vertical stringing.
After hitting the range with the svt in the fitted repro stock, I noticed a significant positive change in vertical stringing, but to my surprise the groups did not really improve. I checked the headspace with cip specs and it's perfect. No significant wear anywhere. SS gas piston kit, like new gas regulator set at 1.3 and new springs all have been installed. The op rod is coencentric and the bore is excellent with pronounced rifling. Chamber looks good with clean flutes. Also the muzzle brake shows no signs of bullet impact or deflection. I have been using Novosibirsk new production 147 gr non corrosive the entire time and found it to be excellent (In my aimsurplus real PU sniper, that ammo is consistently giving me tight 1-1.5" groups.) So after refusing to give up upon examining most of the accuracy robbing aspects of a semi auto rifle, I went deeper.
I carefully removed the muzzle brake/front sight assembly pin and unscrewed it. To my shock and horror, I found something that I thought could not be possible from what people always say about these rifles (the crown cannot get damaged because of the brake). Well here it is, YES they surely can! Since I use a full brass brush and a Tipton carbon fiber rod, the damage was not caused by me for sure. I suspect that it was done by using the steel cleaning rod and possible cleaning from the front end that did such damage. Keep in mind that this damage was not visible at all looking through the brake. The damage was covered up by powder residue. Here is a pic
Now I'm not a rocket scientist, but I do have a ton of firearms and I have some pretty good experience with crown/muzzle damage and how that effects accuracy. Also, my smith has re crowned some more modern firearms for me and the accuracy improved drastically.
That being said, what should one do? I guess it's the million dollar question. Do I have it re-crowned and damage the collector value or do I have it re-crowned so it can shoot better? I'm looking for opinions, so don't be shy.
