Here's my story around profiling down a barrel. I had a No4-223 conversion built with a Remington Varmint contour match barrel. Fullwood center bedded. It shot as a target rifle should:
- Fullwood + Remington Varmint contour
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- 50m w. central sight
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Perfection personified from the prone position; heavy like a TR gun.
But,
far too front heavy for standing offhand position; I never scored into the 90s with it
from standing. Was not at all a good 3-position gun.
So I decided to throw more cash at it, and convert it to the L39-style configuration, which involved reducing weight from the timber and barrel. I had it turned down to around a #1400 contour aka "heavy sporter". The gun shed around 400grams, but most importantly the balance fulcrum is now where it should be; near the magazine, so it balances beautifully from offhand. Made all the difference to my offhand scores.
- Final form; L39 configuration
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Nonetheless, after this change I shot it badly from prone, which puzzled me. I started wondering if accuracy had gone out the window since making the barrel lighter; in fact in frustration, that's what i emotionally concluded. Yet many of the old-timers were soothing me toward "
perhaps not, it's 223, bench it and find out".
So that's exactly what I did. For the first and last time in its life, I temporarily put the Artic Fox no drill scope mount on it, added a nice scope, and shot it over double bags. Lo and behold, this was the outcome:
- 50m, doubled bags + scope
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Since this clarified my confidence around the gun, I have been practicing more on it, and am shooting it well from prone once again. Turned out the problem was me, from the changed dynamics of a lighter feel. Gun must be driven more now, more focus on good markmanship fundementals. It's all tradeoffs.
TLDR: for 3p shooting or perhaps even TR, the gun groups the same after a weight reduction in the barrel. The shooter? Yeah maybe not so much; muscle memory has to be relearned for the different dynamics.