541 vs 581

[ppkny]

Jeff59:
I have one of the older 581's and had a 541 trigger assembly put in it by a gunsmith in Ilion, NY (location of Remington Arms plant). He used to work for Remington and opened up his own shop.
If you are interested his shop is White Dog Gunsmithing 62 Central Ave. Ilion, NY 13357 315-894-6211. This was in 1992 so I don't know if he's still there. Cost was $70 and I still have the old 581 trigger set.
I have my 581 out of the stock right now and with a Leupold VarX III 6.5x20 and high steel rings it weighs a whooping 4 lbs. and 11 ozs.

[genphideaux]

I'm new to silhouette and recently purchased a 581 in nice shape for a pretty good price.

The trigger on mine is really heavy so I'm having it re-worked.

After that what would be the best use of my money to get the gun to an acceptable level of accuracy for a beginner?

Jeff

Find some ammo it likes and buy a bunch, then practice.......that by far will be your best use of money.

[Jerry G]

I would start with the bedding. Doesn't cost much and you could even do it yourself. With only 48 inch lbs on the action screws, I don't think you need to pillar bed it.

If you can get it to shoot under 1.25 minutes you are there (5 shot group). If not, you need a new barrel.

Have fun and don't get discouraged if you can't hit more than 10 or 15 animals your first few times out. That's where we all started.

[jeff59]

Thanks for the info on the 581. This gives me some direction to get started.

After I get the trigger work done and the snow clears here in Colorado I'll get out and do some ammo testing and a lot of practicing. I'll post the results in a new thread.

Then I can make a decision on how to proceed with improvements.

Jeff

[dwl]

Shakes;

I can offer some first hand information. I've shot 581, 541S and am currently shooting a Pearson 581.

The 581 is very light weight and the trigger is non-adjustable. The 541S that I shot was very accurate, on par with any Anschutz, and the trigger was adjustable. I had it set to 2 lbs 2 oz. That gun took me into AAA but at 7.5 lbs I was giving away 1 pound of stabilizing weight.

In the end I wanted more from the 541 but I wasn't willing to butcher that one. It was in too nice a condition for modifying, so I began looking around for the next gun. I wanted something at 8.5 lbs, with a 2 stage trigger and a stock with better configuration. What I found was Marv Pearson, who was already building a rifle with those requirements on a 541/581 action.

Marv built me one. I bought a 581 for $175 and sent him the action and he returned a finished gun with a Shilen barrel, an Anschutz 2 stage trigger and a Pharr stock along with Marv's rings, base and trigger guard.

The gun is great. It's everything it is supposed to be. Marv's point in developing the Pearson 581 was to use the lightest possible action and put the weight in the barrel. Boy is there weight in the barrel!

This gun sent me back to school to learn to deal with the significant change in balance and managing a 2 stage trigger. Even while learning this new gun my scores have gone up. It's a great gun.

As a starting shooter you can buy a gun a number of different price points. It depends on your budget. My choice for the least expensive gun would be the Savage single shot with the Accu-Trigger for under $200. You can modify your 10-22 as one of the shooters at my range has done that puts him in the $400-$500 range. For $500 - $700 you've got the 541T and 541S. At $760 - $800 there is the Kimber HS. At $1500 to $2000 (prices vary the exchange rate and the solar flare cycle) there are the Anschutz. Above that are the custom guns, most of which are build on Anschutz actions.

One note on custom guns. Mine, built on a 581 action doesn't feed a smooth as an Aschutz. That drives some folks nuts. There are other actions beyond the ones mentioned. These are just ones I have experience with.

dwl

[shakes]

Thanks dwl for the info. I called and taked to Marvin and got some info. Its sounds like if I'm going to be shooting the gun for a very long time(which I plan on doing)this would be the way to go. Spend the money and get a custom gun. My father told me that he would give me one of his Brno #4 that he has and I could use that action to base my custom off of. I guess I cant complain.

[ajj]

Whoa! Have you checked out what nice #4's are going for these days? There are better ways to get donor actions.

[yankee]

Test different types of ammo in the rifle to find out which the rifle likes best. Ammo testing for silhouette is usually done at 100 meters. I usually shoot ten. 5 shot groups at a target then dry patch the barrel just once then shoot another kind of ammo. You will find the first 5 shots will be a bit wild but should start settling down in the second 5 shots. This will take you some time but will eliminate the bad ammo real quick and show you what the rifle likes. Try to be as consistant in you shooting off the bench as possible.