Rifle Magazine – July-August 2019

30 http://www.riflemagazine.com Rifle 305

An aluminum bedding frame
extends from the tang to the front
of the receiver. Plus, aluminum pil-
lars are glued into the front- and
rear-action screw holes to sup-
port the receiver. Tightening the
action screws pulls the receiver
into the frame. However, one thing
was bothersome: When the action
screws are loose, the barreled ac-
tion can slide back and forth a
small amount because of the loose
fit of the receiver’s recoil lug in the
stock mortise. Perhaps it’s only in
my head, but I can’t help but think
the barreled action will slap back
and forth slightly on firing, even if
the receiver screws are tight.
I mounted a Leupold VX-Free-
dom 3-9x 40mm scope in Rem-
ington-supplied medium scope
mounts on the Mountain Rifle. The
whole outfit weighed 7 pounds, 9
ounces.

I shot four factory loads and

three different handloaded .270

cartridges with the rifle supported

on a bench. The accompanying ta-

ble lists the average size of two,

three-shot groups fired at 100

yards.

Shooting the groups took hours.

The first group from the nearly

cold barrel was fairly tight. How-

ever, those three shots signifi-

cantly heated up the skinny barrel,

and three bullets from the second

series of three shots often spread

several inches.

The stock’s forearm is stiff, and

there is little flex when it and the

free-floated barrel are squeezed

together. I thought the rifle might

shoot tighter groups when the

barrel was hot by placing a strip

of bedding compound or a shim

at the front of the stock’s barrel

channel to put some upward pres-

sure on the barrel to dampen some

of the vibration.

To determine if that would help,

I placed a plastic card between

the tip of the barrel channel of the

Mountain Rifle’s stock and bar-

rel. From a fouled and cold barrel,

three Nosler 130-grain Ballistic

Tip bullets loaded over 58.0 grains

of H-4831 formed a 1.20-inch group

at 100 yards. After the barrel had

cooled for a few minutes, three

more bullets landed in 2.57 inches.

I removed the shim and shot

the same load after the barrel had

completely cooled. The first group

measured 1.82 inches. After the

barrel had cooled for a few min-

utes, a second group measured

2.66 inches.

I followed the same procedure

shooting Federal Premium .270

cartridges loaded with Sierra

150-grain GameKing BTSP bul-

lets. With the shim in place, the

first group measured 1.32 inches

and the second 4.0 inches. With

the shim removed, the first three

bullets landed in 2.48 inches and

the second measured 4.30 inches.

There really was not much differ-

ence between groups shot with a

shim in place or not.

All the loads listed in the table

were fired without a shim, and the

barrel was allowed to cool for 20

minutes between groups.

The Mountain Rifle shot the

best with Federal’s Non-Typical

ammunition. The Non-Typical’s

150-grain softpoint/roundnose bul-

lets are somewhat unusual for

the .270, which is mainly thought

Factory loads shot in the Remington Mountain Rifle SS .270 Winchester included

(left to right): Browning 130-grain BXS Solid Expansion, Federal Power-Shok 130

Copper, Federal Premium 140 Trophy Bonded Tip and Federal 150-grain Non-

Typical Whitetail.

Remington’s Mountain Rifle is chambered in four

standard-length cartridges and two short-action

cartridges. All versions feature a 22-inch barrel.

Remington

Mountain Rifle

of as a long-range big-game car-

tridge loaded with sharp-pointed

bullets. Non-Typical loads shot so

well at 100 yards, I also tried them

at 300 yards. The first three bul-

lets landed in a 1.09-inch circle. I

thought that had to be a fluke. I re-

turned to the Mountain Rifle half