I had this same problem, and done everything that you have done, my first area of concern was the 3 bolts holding the Scope rail on, 2x 4mm tiny bolts and 1 x 5mm bolt this seems very weak, especially the first thing most Guys do is add a Sabre tactical front rail which puts even more stress on those tiny mounting bolt and to make it worse some use a top mounted Bipod such as the GRS one all stressing those tiny bolts, So fitting a Backbone rail thats one piece and held on with 8x 4mm bolts seems a very worthwhile upgrade.
the second area of concern was the barrel itself, this is how not to fit a barrel to a rifle, held in with one grub screw any a clamp if you have the barrel tensioning kit, I glued in the Carbon liner, then got a 16mm Id 20mm od carbon tube, then a 20mm Id 25mm od Carbon tube, I skimmed off the 20mm tube so it would fit tightly into the 25mm tube, so once it was all together then was no flexing anywhere, I refit the barrel to the action, then I Modified a 25mm Scope mount and made a bracket that connected the Barrel to the Backbone rail, tensioned the barrel, then tightened my modified barrel mount, so the barrel+ backbone rail fitted with a Spuhr single piece mount are all as one, tuned it to the smallest group I could achieve, then Zeroed for 65 Yards MPBR
I can now completely rely on it, I have shot over 2500 Rabbits since making the modifications without altering my zero and it has been almost as reliable as my Trusty Theoben Rapid 7 ( which takes about 5 minutes to fix if there's a problem )
Although its working good now, it should have been like that before it left the factory for such an expensive rifle.
WHen you watch all the Promo videos of the SA pigeon shooters, youll notice they all sit at a bench first and check the Zero ( I wonder why? )
My friend bought the Panthera 700mm .25 at the same time I bought my Impact, and apart from the cocking handle falling out twice ( which I have since modified as well ) the rifle has been faultless with no zero shift at all, he laughs at the trouble I've had with my Impact but they are equally accurate now.
Would I buy another one, Yes now I know what to sort out , Might swap in my .30 cal Bobcat, although i have never had a problem with that since I bought it in 2012.
the second area of concern was the barrel itself, this is how not to fit a barrel to a rifle, held in with one grub screw any a clamp if you have the barrel tensioning kit, I glued in the Carbon liner, then got a 16mm Id 20mm od carbon tube, then a 20mm Id 25mm od Carbon tube, I skimmed off the 20mm tube so it would fit tightly into the 25mm tube, so once it was all together then was no flexing anywhere, I refit the barrel to the action, then I Modified a 25mm Scope mount and made a bracket that connected the Barrel to the Backbone rail, tensioned the barrel, then tightened my modified barrel mount, so the barrel+ backbone rail fitted with a Spuhr single piece mount are all as one, tuned it to the smallest group I could achieve, then Zeroed for 65 Yards MPBR
I can now completely rely on it, I have shot over 2500 Rabbits since making the modifications without altering my zero and it has been almost as reliable as my Trusty Theoben Rapid 7 ( which takes about 5 minutes to fix if there's a problem )
Although its working good now, it should have been like that before it left the factory for such an expensive rifle.
WHen you watch all the Promo videos of the SA pigeon shooters, youll notice they all sit at a bench first and check the Zero ( I wonder why? )
My friend bought the Panthera 700mm .25 at the same time I bought my Impact, and apart from the cocking handle falling out twice ( which I have since modified as well ) the rifle has been faultless with no zero shift at all, he laughs at the trouble I've had with my Impact but they are equally accurate now.
Would I buy another one, Yes now I know what to sort out , Might swap in my .30 cal Bobcat, although i have never had a problem with that since I bought it in 2012.
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