ducktail
Bearcat
Have y'all ever heard of anyone free floating one of those black skeleton stocks?? How well does it work?
free floating
- Thread starter ducktail
- Start date
41 mag fan
Single-Sixer
We have floated a few of them at the shop I work at. To do it we had to bed the action to give it a little more support. The results ran about half and half. The ones that it helped it was a big improvement. Steve
Lloyd Smale
Blackhawk
did my 762x39 and it cut groups in half.
SReagle
Single-Sixer
What is Free Floating 1. & Bedding the Stock 2. "Exactly"
And any body try that on a Mini 30 ?
I ask because I have a relatively good idea, but not exactly positive on the definition here.
Thank you.
And any body try that on a Mini 30 ?
I ask because I have a relatively good idea, but not exactly positive on the definition here.
Thank you.
SReagle, Glass-bedding the barreled action is a process whereby a product such as "Acra-Glass" (from Brownell's) is mixed up and placed in a roughed out stock at the points where metal meets wood. It then hardens after a brief time and becomes a permanent part of the stock. The idea is to keep the barreled action from 1. moving in the stock under recoil, 2. preventing moisture in the wood (humidity, etc.) from warping the stock thereby putting unwanted pressure on the metal, and 3. dampening barrel vibrations contributing to better accuracy. That's pretty much the basic description of "bedding". Free "floating" the barrel is a process whereby only the first inch or so of the barrel is bedded, right close to the receiver, (either with Acra-Glass or simply stock wood "contact") and the "rest" of the barrel is "floated" off any contact with the wood stock thereby called "free floating". There are pros and cons with either bedding the "entire" barrel or "free-floating" it, that affect ultimate accuracy of the rifle depending on various factors involved such as type of cartridge, overall weight, barrel size, rifling, bolt movement, etc., etc. This is a "brief" description of what you are asking!.............................Dick :idea:
fighterpilot
Bearcat
I free floated the barrel of my Remington model 700 BDL in .300 win mag. and the groups opened up from about 3/4" to about 1 1/2", so I took the stock off and bedded the front of the stock so that it made contact with the barrel just as it came from the factory and my groups went back to the original small size. So for me and that rifle, free floating the barrel did not work. Now if I would have tried one of those barrel deresonators slipped over the barrel, I might have been able to tune the barrel's harmonic vibration to cut down the groups back to 3/4"; however, I don't like the way they look and it was just as easy to bed the barrel near the forward end to get it back to the way it was done at the factory.
Ducktail,
Here's a trick you can use to determine if your rifle needs to be floated. Use some material from an old butter/margarine tub to cut some shims (or AARP fake plastic ID cards).
1. Fire a few groups without any shims as a baseline.
2. Add shims under both ends of the reciever to simulate free floating the barrel. And fire a few more groups for comparison. If your group size improves, then floating the barrel and bedding the reciever is in order (although I tend to just leave the shims in place).
3. If your group size dosen't improve, remove the shims beneath the reciever and add one beneath the barrel, just back from the stock forend tip. Fire a few more groups for comparison with the baseline. If the extra forend pressure improves your group size, leave the shim in place. If not, remove the shim and use your rifle in the original configuration.
Note: Ruger will address inaccuracy issues, UNTIL you make a change to the stock (ie bedding). Then Ruger will want the rifle brought back to factory configuration (ie you will buy a new stock) before addressing any inaccuracy issues. That's why I usually just use the shims.
Hope this helps,
Ted
Here's a trick you can use to determine if your rifle needs to be floated. Use some material from an old butter/margarine tub to cut some shims (or AARP fake plastic ID cards).
1. Fire a few groups without any shims as a baseline.
2. Add shims under both ends of the reciever to simulate free floating the barrel. And fire a few more groups for comparison. If your group size improves, then floating the barrel and bedding the reciever is in order (although I tend to just leave the shims in place).
3. If your group size dosen't improve, remove the shims beneath the reciever and add one beneath the barrel, just back from the stock forend tip. Fire a few more groups for comparison with the baseline. If the extra forend pressure improves your group size, leave the shim in place. If not, remove the shim and use your rifle in the original configuration.
Note: Ruger will address inaccuracy issues, UNTIL you make a change to the stock (ie bedding). Then Ruger will want the rifle brought back to factory configuration (ie you will buy a new stock) before addressing any inaccuracy issues. That's why I usually just use the shims.
Hope this helps,
Ted
fighterpilot, I have bedded a lot of stocks in my day and I believe had you "originally" bedded the complete barrel, those groups would have shrunk to 1/2 inch! Those barrel "vibrations" make a big difference in a lot of rifles I have delt with in the past! I have seen far better results from fully bedding barrels than free-floating them and have come to recommend this action when bedding a rifle. From experience, I am no longer on the "side" of the free-floaters!..........................Dick :wink: PS: I never have flown in a "fighter" but sure have worked on a lot of them during an AF career: F-86, F-89, F-100, F-101, F-102, F104, F-105, & F-4!
