BLR .308

[K9kodi]

So, my father and I are working on what is now a project. It should not have been. He’s always wanted a blr, and well within his retirement age he found a used 308 at a large mom and pop type hunting store. It’s in fantastic cosmetic shape, barrel is very clean and showed little wear.

For me it was grouping acceptable. My acceptability of accuracy from lever guns may be diff from his, but from my collection of jm stamped marlins and winchesters in 30-30 and .44 I’m quite happy with 1.5-2” groups at 100 yards. My semi custom bolt guns and custom ar platforms I demand sub moa grouping.

He also wasn’t happy with the trigger and tried loosening or taking pressure off a spring, I believe in the stock? Keep in mind I havnt looked up a schematic or diagram yet so I’m just chatting w yall before I get home.

I believe the misfires are directly related to his effort to lower trigger poundage.

Anyhow, anyone here have one, what groupings are acceptable, considering the barrel is good, good ammo and a good scope?

What approx trig weight are you experiencing?

 

[letrbuck]

BLRs are pretty notorious for having heavy trigger pulls, 5-6 pounds or more is pretty standard.

If it's grouping between 1.5 and 2" at 100, I'd be happy. You could spend a lot of time and money trying to make it better

Love BLRs, but they aren't what I think of when I think precision rifle

 

[K9kodi]

I’m in the same boat, I’m not looking for sub moa groups from my lever guns, semi auto blr rifles. It works for me if it downs game at 100-150 yards.

 

[RyanT26]

So, my father and I are working on what is now a project. It should not have been. He’s always wanted a blr, and well within his retirement age he found a used 308 at a large mom and pop type hunting store. It’s in fantastic cosmetic shape, barrel is very clean and showed little wear.

For me it was grouping acceptable. My acceptability of accuracy from lever guns may be diff from his, but from my collection of jm stamped marlins and winchesters in 30-30 and .44 I’m quite happy with 1.5-2” groups at 100 yards. My semi custom bolt guns and custom ar platforms I demand sub moa grouping.

He also wasn’t happy with the trigger and tried loosening or taking pressure off a spring, I believe in the stock? Keep in mind I havnt looked up a schematic or diagram yet so I’m just chatting w yall before I get home.

I believe the misfires are directly related to his effort to lower trigger poundage.

Anyhow, anyone here have one, what groupings are acceptable, considering the barrel is good, good ammo and a good scope?

What approx trig weight are you experiencing?

I had a . 243 for quite a while. They’re beautiful guns. The best I could ever achieve with it was 1.5” 3 round group. It almost seemed like the chamber was also tight because it was very picky on ammo. More than once, I thought I had a stuck case.
Trigger was all of 6 pounds.

I think the trigger is a bit of a nightmare to adjust, like it needs to be sent in to a gunsmith that specialize in that area.

 

[K9kodi]

Yea ima crank that mainspring back down and get it back to normal and do some research. Not having had one before or shot one before I’m going blind with relating it to others

 

[Kyguy]

BLR's are nightmares for DIY that have never worked on them. Get an action out of time and it's a hell that has to be experienced to appreciate, from what I've been told. I had a late 70's BLR in .308 for a bit. The trigger had been done on it (probably by the BLR guy in Pennsylvania but I can't remember his name) because it came from PA. It was on honest 2.75lbs on my scale. It shot just about everything into an inch, but Federal Fusions were 1/2-3/4 three shot groups all day. Once the barrel got hot, it opened up to 1.5"+. Find a smith that expressly states that they work on BLR's. It's not a job for the uninitiated.

 

[ColtyJr]

Neil Jones out of PA is your BLR guy for trigger job and what not

 

[slatebuilder]

I was wondering about the trigger too. I have 308 BLR that’s as my late grandfather’s. Nice rifle, but the trigger is a piece of work.

 

[TaperPin]

What cool guns. It’s nice that your pops found one he likes. Here’s the contact info down in the text of the photo for one guy who works on BLR’s that was highly thought of in a different forum and had a number of personal recommendations.

The other photo is off a gunsmith’s page showing the sear engagement. It’s quite impossible to polish sear surfaces by hand and retain good contact and angles, despite claims to the contrary. I have yet to see a freehand polished sear that is correct. A stoning jig doesn’t have to be fancy, but it holds the sear and stone at the correct angle so surfaces remain flat and the correct angle. For that reason it would be worth sending it to someone who specializes in them.

I would bet lunch the factory sear angle is on the conservative lawyer proof side and actually pushes the hammer back slightly, but a noticeable amount, as the trigger is pulled. Altering the angle, not just polishing surfaces, is another level of complication that requires good judgement, even among gunsmiths. If the angle is not enough, the gun will fire when the butt stock is bounced a short distance from a carpeted surface, jarring the mechanism. There must be trigger return springs in there that are probably stiffer than need be, but altering them incorrectly is a lot of frustration.

I’m set up with a guide, stones, diamond stone to flatten the sear stones, and have messed with probably 3 dozen of my own guns, but it’s so tedious to get correct, especially hooked sears like these, that I would send it to someone rather than practice on expensive parts that might be hard to replace.

 

[ktm450]

I was able to get mine to group really well. Under an inch with old school Hornady Interlock 165’s, but I lost the blacktail of a lifetime due to a tight chamber. Reloads would chamber and go almost the whole way in (visually everything was perfect). But would not chamber enough to allow trigger pull. Had a perfect shot on the buck and it bolted before I could rack another round. My fault for not checking every round beforehand.

A small base die fixed the issue.