Customising your hunting rifle

Often a hunting rifle will require some customisation to transform it to what you want. It’s not always the case that ‘enhancements’ are to improve accuracy or aesthetics. The following are some of the changes I’ve done to my hunting rifles. On new rifles some modifications may void the warranty and if that is a major concern to you, then perhaps wait until any such period is over.

Bedding job

A proper bedding job, which may include floating the barrel and sometimes using aluminium pillars, often improves the shotto-shot consistency of a rifle. On my .270 after it was pillar bedded, groups virtually halved in size. On the other hand, a Ruger .338 RCM already shot well and after floating and bedding, it still performed the same.

There are different schools of thought on how a hunting rifle should be bedded. Some argue that with a