I hear this term used often. When a barrel is free floated where is the stock supposed to make contact with the barrel? What is the advantages of a free floated barrel over one that is not free floated? How do you know if you have a free floated barrel?
If the barrel if free floated then it will be free of metal to stock contact forward of the recoil lug. The advantage is there are no pressure points on the barrel and that lets it " whip" more consistantly when fired. The problem is some rifles don' t like free floating and shoot better fully bedded or with a pressure point. If you can take a dollar and slide it between the barrel and the stock all the way to the action then your rifle is probably floated. If it is a Savage then it is.
I' ll agree some rifles do shoot better with the barrels bedded, but I think the vast majority of them will shoot better free floated IF the action is bedded properly. You' ll generally find the better made rifles and target rifles with free floated barrels.
All true above, and all my guns are freefloated. But I have seen by one well known gunsmith, that if the forearm is properly bedded, I mean very good, even contact between the forearm and the barrel, this rifle can shoot better with the smaller ultralight barrel than being freefloated. Problem is most factory rifles don' t have this nice bedding. Its usually very crude or a big piece of metal with upward force. He showed on an oscilloscope when smacking a barrel with a object, simulating barrel whip, that the vibrations went down considerably. Kinda like striking tuning fork and rubbing your hands up it. Most competition shooters have 7lb barrels also.
Bigcountry- I think the guy who makes the NULA rifles is big on bedding his barrels for that reason. NULA rifles are very top of the line stuff where this would work as they are handmade, where remchesters are mass produced and don' t have tightly bedded actions or consistant stocks.
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Yep, thats who showed me this. Since I go thru Morgantown every other week, I decided to stop by his shop. I highly recommend if you are going thru. What he was explaining made alot of sense, when it comes to ultra light barrels.
But you won' t believe the pains he takes in bedding that forearm. Its alot more than my gunsmith.
I HAVE A REM 700 30-06 WOOD STOCK AND WEATHERBY VANGARD WOOD STOCK.UNTIL I HAD THE BARRELS GLASS BEDDED,WHEN WET AFTER HUNTING IN THE RAIN WOULD SHOOT ERACTIC.TRUE TEST IS TAKE A DOLLAR BILL AND PLACE IT AROUND THE BOTTOM SIDE OF THE BARREL AND SLIDE IT DOWN THE BARREL THROUGH THE STOCK.IF YOU CAN PULL ON EITHER SIDE OF THE BILL WITHOUT BINDING WITH THE STOCK YOU HAVE ENOUGH CLEARANCE BETWEEN BARREL AND STOCK.NO WORRIES.
As a Custom rifle builder I have some experiance here, so welcome to my opinions. A true free floating barrel is free from stock contact from the action froward. With most barrel contours this dollar bill clearance works fine but on ultra light barrels this is not enough clearance. Full bedding will work fine here untill the barrel warms up and then you have a climbing point of impact. This is not a fact that affects the average hunter, though an ulter light will heat up fast.
Most rifles will shoot best if the barrel is not truely free floating. When totally free floating the barrel is hanging by the threads so to speak, this causes action flex. For the best accuracy with most barrels bed the action and the chamber area of the barrel. By the way, if you want to check if you have enough clearance in the barrel channel, coat the barrel with lamp black or somthing simular, put the rifle back togther then shoot a few shots, take it apart and check for contact, you may be suprised.
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Judson, I have some problems with what your saying about ultralights. If a barrel is freefloated, I can see how it doesn' t climb as it heats up. But lets say a barrel is glass bedded all the way up to the end of the forearm, with not upward pressure, just laying perfectly against the metal of the barrel, how will it climb???? What physics or static pressure will cause this climb? I can see if you have the 10lbs of upward pressure. Why would you need more than a dollar bill. I know alot of people that glassbeds thier ultralights all the way up to the end. They do this because they love wood, but hate the warping when the barrel heats up and the wood swells, but in thier case, swelling is a moot point. I won' t do it on the two light guns I got cause I don' t want to cut out any of the wood on my medallion or mauser. Forearms are a little thin, so yes I freefloat. Just don' t understand your logic if you put in some proper pillars and bed properly. I never see these guns change POI as you are suggesting. All of my ultralights are very, very finicky. Yes, they all shoot less than a .75" with my handloads if I let cool 10 min between two shot strings, but changing weather, or COL very slightly has a huge impact. With these guns that are properly bedded, they seem more tolerant to changing loads since thier barrel whip goes down significantly with proper bedding.
Free Floating Barrel
