TRAY

I have read several articles about the subject matter above. It appears that the heavier barrels are all free-floating. However, there also seems to be some discussion on where the line is drawn on lighter barrels and whether free-floating is better than up-pressure on the barrel.

Any rule of thumb too follow besides just shooting? I'm thinking of purchasing a rifle that has a lighter barrel that's not free floated but has the action glass bedded recoil lug. I like the lighter rifles but don't want to sacrifice accuracy.

driftrider

This is a bit of a complicated subject, and I'm sure I don't know all there is to know about it, but here's a brief synopsis of what I've discovered while researching the topics related to rifle accuracy.

First, free-floating a barrel is kind of a compromise. Theoretically, the more the barrel is supported and dampened by the stock the better. When a gun fires the barrel vibrates at the frequency and amplitude inherent to its design. In a perfect world where conditions were controlled and consistant, a barrel that is properly supported by the stock would have much of this vibration dampened resulting in a rifle that should be more accurate in terms of small consistant group sizes than its free-floated counterpart. But this isn't a perfect world, and changes in temperature (both barrel and ambient), humidity, stock pressure due to how the foreend is support and gripped, etc... all can slightly change the shape of the stock and the pressure that it exerts on the barrel. These changes in pressure can cause the group sizes to vary, but more importantly it can cause the point of impact to shift. The solution to this problem is to free-float the barrel, thus taking the stock out of the equation. With a free-floated barrel changes in climate that effect the stock won't change the point of impact, but the barrel is now allowed to vibrate freely and with greater amplitude.

The reason why most heavy barreled rifles are free-floated is because the increased thickness of the barrel greatly reduces the amplitude of the vibrations it will experience when shot, thus cancelling out most of the negative effects of free-floating. So the combined effects of free-floating and a heavy barrel yield a rifle that shoots smaller groups than most light barreled rifles (because of reduce vibration amplitude and frequency) and with a consistant point of impact. The reason many light barreled rifles are not free-floated is because doing so would allow group sizes to become too large. Unless there is a major change in climate from sight-in to the field, any shifts in the point of impact would likely be small enough to be inconsequential on large game at normal ranges (with a well designed stock), but to a varmint hunter shooting at a baseball sized target at 300+ any shift in point-of-impact due is unacceptable.

As far as sacrificing accuracy with a lighter rifle, you may not have much of a choice. Rifles with slimmer lighter barrels are in general less intrinsically accurate than a similar rifle with a heavy barrel and the same load. As far as the potential effect of not having the barrel free-floated, I don't think it'll be too much of a problem if you sight in the rifle in weather conditions similar to the climate which you'll be hunting in, and are consistant in your technique. Just bear in mind that the point of impact might change a little from when the rifle is sighted in off a rifle rest or sandbags compared to when you are shooting in foeld conditions. The solution is to do the initial sight-in off bags then practice and fine tune from realistic field shooting positions.

Also important is finding the type of ammo that the gun shoots best. If you handload you can work up a pet load for the rifle, and if you shoot factory ammo it's a matter of trial and error.

All in all, I'd say don't sweat it too much, the accuracy will be sufficient for the application the rifle is intended for (shooting at big game). If you want a rifle for toting around all day up and down hills chasing deer and such, then you'll probably want to sacrifice a little accuracy for light weight and portability. Just don't get your expectations too high and think that it should be a sub-MOA shooter right out of the boxwith anything you feed it because that's not what it was designed for. If you want a rifle that you can and should expect sub-MOA performance from then get a good heavy barreled varmint rifle designed for that task. Life's full of compromises.

Mike

Briman

The mass produced factory barrels often have bores that aren't perfectly centered, may not be very straight, and may have stressed spots due to the machining of the barrels. When they heat up they tend to warp slightly and unpredictably, putting upward pressure on the end kind of prestresses the barrel to control some of the warping and errant vibrations as the barrel gets hot.

A heavy barrel is much stiffer and takes alot longer to get hot.

eldeguello

I'm afraid not! There is really NO way, other than shooting at the range, to determine if any given barrel is going to shoot better floated or with some kind of contact between the barrel and the stock. The required contact can range from none to full-length forend bedding, or anything in between, and you'll have to shoot your rifle with different degrees of contact between the barrel and the forend to find this out. It's exactly the same as with ammunition - you'll never know what load shoots best in any given gun until you actually shoot it in a specific gun.

Contrary to popular opinion, a light barrel CAN be as accurate as a heavy one, with the right forend treatment, the right ammo, and slower shooting! Light barrels just heat up faster, and this fact causes some of them to shoot bigger groups if you don't let them cool after three or four shots. (This is NOT true of ALL light barrels!!) You don't need a bull barrel to have an accurate rifle, but a heavy barrel is generally better on a target rifle, and NOT on a hunting rifle!! Actual accuracy of a barrel is determined by how precisely it is bored, rifled, chambered, crowned and fitted to the action, NOT upon how much metal is left on the outside.

diyj98

There's exceptions to every rule, but I'm a firm believer that a "properly" bedded rifle will almost always shoot better with a free floated barrel.

bigcountry

Eld, Melvin forbes will totally disagree with you on that statement. I have seen his rifles in action and have to side with him. He seems to have pressure bedding of light barrel rifles down to a science. I want his rifle so bad.

Nomercy

Most bbls shoot more accurately when free floated, most, not all...some need extra upward pressure at the end of the forend, but most will shoot better when inconsistent pressure sourses, i.e. the stock's contact points, are removed. Truth be told, if it's already glass bedded, I'm pretty surprised that it isn't already free floated.

What you should do: get the rifle, shoot it, if it isn't as accurate as you'd have hoped, then free float it, if that doesn't work, you're not out much, if it makes things worse, then you're out buying a new stock and starting over-get a HS or a Mcmillian.

What are you looking to do with your rifle, BTW, hunting rifles shouldn't have heavy bbls (varminters excluded), it's just too heavy for portage for no practical advantage...target rifles SHOULD be heavy, no, a light bbl isn't doomed to be inaccurate, but they just aren't going to shoot as well as a heavy bbl, maybe as well as some, but not as well as the average, you might consider buying a Browning or Savage with what they call a "medium weight target bbl".

brother hal

It has been my experience that free floated beats pressure points regarding accuracy. Just MY experience, and that is all that matters to me. I only have 4 rifles that I consistently hunt with, and they all have HS Precision stocks, which are free-floated.
For you, I would suggest that you shoot the gun first, trying several makes of ammo, and different bullets. Find the one that shoots the best groups. If that isn't good enough, ask your gunsmith what SMALL steps you can take to improve accuracy. Gun manufacturers (as in mass production hunting firearms) consider 1 & 1/2 to 2 inches MOA to be acceptable accuracy out of the box. If you want better, you can adjust/replace many things, ie. trigger pull vs Timney trigger, synthetic/fiberglass/laminated stock, glass bed the action, pillar bedding, full-length bedding block, true the bolt, replace barrel with match-grade barrel, and lots more. It all depends on what you want regarding accuracy, and how much you are willing to spend. You might get lucky and purchase a factory Rem 700 which shoots sub-moa right out of the box. Then again, you might have to do some tinkering to get that. It is all part of the experience!!!Good luck!
Good Hunting,
Hal