Disassembly of rifles and accuracy

[PogoJack]

Hey there everyone!

Going on a feral pig hunt in a month or so, don’t want to deal with mail or too much hassle with TSA so I got a short hard case that comes in under the 62 linear inches combined.

The problem is, that’s lengthwise. It is only 36 inches long. That pretty much rules out any long bolt action rifles unless I separate the barreled action from the stock.

My question to you experts is, how badly will my accuracy be affected by taking apart and re-assembling a Mauser style bolt action and traveling with it. I guess I could alternately take my Garand or SKS to be stylish, but I have an old Western Field 750a, a modern Mauser M18 and a Winchester 70 featherweight.

I’ve gotta be able to shoot these pigs in the eye at 100 yards and get them in one shot.

Of the above bolt actions, which would be less susceptible to losing zero and getting less accurate after disassembly and reassembly?

[colossians323]

Wouldn't you use an AR15 with a suppressor on a feral pig hunt?
At 100 yards you would be taking down a plethora

[PogoJack]

Wouldn't you use an AR15 with a suppressor on a feral pig hunt?
At 100 yards you would be taking down a plethora

I could do that but I’m not a champion sharp shooter and if I don’t get it just right, .223 isn’t going to be the best to stop it quickly on the off chance it comes my way.

[colossians323]

I can do head shots with a 10 1/2" suppressed sig 516 with a red dot sight at 100 yards (not free standing).
Not a sharp shooter, but dial your ar in and as you see in those videos, they are hitting the pigs on the move.
With a bolt action hunting gun your follow up shots will not be as fast

[ar15barrels]

My question to you experts is, how badly will my accuracy be affected by taking apart and re-assembling a Mauser style bolt action and traveling with it.
I’ve gotta be able to shoot these pigs in the eye at 100 yards and get them in one shot.

It's usually not an issue.
Just make sure to seat the action against the lug or bedding when you put it back together.
If there is a zero shift, it's usually only for a couple rounds until the action settles in against the stock from recoil.
In an ideal world, you can put the action back into the stock when you arrive near the hunting grounds and fire a few rounds to check your zero.
Doing that will settle the action into the stock AND confirm that the scope's zero was not knocked around in transit.
I would highly recommend doing that after travel even if you did NOT take the rifle apart for travel simply for the peace-of-mind to know your zero is good.

[Fjold]

I would recommend that you take the gun apart now and test it.

I would take the gun apart and let it rest for a day or two, then reinstall the barreled action back in the stock, making sure that the recoil lug is hard against the stock mortise. Then torque the action screws to a set value and check it for a zero shift. I would probably do this a couple of times to check consistency.

[sigstroker]

A dorm neighbor had a nice 6mm Remington, and one night as we're talking about it, he starts taking it out of the stock. I told him to stop, it would screw up his zero. "Pshaw" he said, and took it out. We took it out to try it out, and I was particularly excited because I had never fired a center fire rifle before. He said it was a real tack driver, and wanted to show me after my exploits in college with a .22 Magnum.

We set up a target, boom, boom, boom. It's about 6 inches off.

This was way back when all stocks were wood, so a plastic one might not be affected much. Can't you just re-zero when you get there?

[PogoJack]

I was trying not to re-zero but the great thing about thermal scopes is you can freeze the shot image and move the reticle to the actual point of impact.

I guess the thing to do here is to bring my ARs. I’d rather not mess up the zero or erode the wooden fit to the action.