Free float vs full bed

[olegburn]

Is free floated barrel a must in modern rifles?
Couple of my bolt guns came free floated from factory and I have one or two I FF myself before I even took them to the range.
Is any body here can share their experience of post links that substantiate benefits or lack of free floating?
Thanks!

[Blue Avenger]

No, some respond to a pressure point.

[Dave Hoback]

Full bed refers to the Action, not the barrel. While there have been accurate examples of a rifle with non floated barrel, I’m gonna say you’ll be hard pressed to find a single person who does NOT float the barrel. I’ve never seen or even heard of anyone purposefully not floating the barrel.

[charlie b]

On sporter/light contour barrels it used to be common to have a small point of contact at the front of the stock. IF the stock was stable. But, that was not an easy thing to tune so it mostly went back to action bedding and free floated barrels.

Some two piece stocks, like single shots, did better with the forearm fully bedded. Again, it was an individual rifle kind of thing. Some muzzleloaders like to be fully bedded, but, the purists usually frown on it.

[Dave Hoback]

Heavy barrels don’t experience even close to what lightweight barrels exhibit. The Ruger Mini-14 comes to mind, with the barrel being crazy thin for its length. As a result, something like the Accuracy Systems barrel stabilizer is proven to increase accuracy. Something like that would have little effect on a heavy barrel.

[bsekf]

Full floating a bull barrel may not be a good idea. There will be a lot of weight hanging on the action screws. I keep thinking about a barrel block and hanging the action off the back, a free floated action!

[wbm]

Back in the day...actually may have been the day after creation... Winchester and Remington both used raised ridges at the front of the barrel channel on their wood stocks...when you tightened the action the barrel would contact the ridge and act as an upward lift pressure point on the barrel.

[Dave Hoback]

There’s nothing new under the sun. It’s all been done in the past. Free Floating, no matter how heavy the barrel, is almost 100% the chosen route for shooters. If your rifle is already accurate, going to a floated Action/bedded barrel, or trying to “Tune” vibration with a bit of pressure at a specific point likely won’t affect accuracy for the better.

[olegburn]

There’s nothing new under the sun. It’s all been done in the past. Free Floating, no matter how heavy the barrel, is almost 100% the chosen route for shooters. If your rifle is already accurate, going to a floated Action/bedded barrel, or trying to “Tune” vibration with a bit of pressure at a specific point likely won’t affect accuracy for the better.

There is no "stupid" questions on this forum, right?
So, I will go ahead with mine- what is "tuning" or vibration?
Isn't bullet long gone (left the barrel) before anything that can affect it ?
I hear a lot of terms used and "second hand" opinions there that float around.
I want to understand. I'm all ears.

[GrenGuy]

Your question is legitimate. As it relates to You original question, if a stock comes into contact with the barrel unevenly, it upsets the harmonics of the system. If the entire barrel is bedded, it needs to be nearly perfect. So back in the 60’s, as a cost saving measure, they started free floating, which was more accurate anyway. As far as tuning, many things can upset the harmony of the system, which can affect accuracy. Action screw torque, action bedding, warped stock touching the barrel, something attached to the barrel, barrel tuner installed, and on and on. Getting all of this in order, as well as finding a load Your rifle likes, is known as being “in tune”.

[Whynot]

I only have 1 rifle that has the barrel making contact with the stock all the way.... and it flat out shoots. But many more that are free floated that shoot just as good. So either way works..... but floating is much easier (cheaper) to do. It is also more forgiving for cheap flimsy stocks (that many rifles come in now) or warping stocks from moisture... and the way people love to change out barrels these days would also be more of a issue if it wasn't a free floated barrel. I would still hesitate to say that free floating is more accurate vs one that has been done correctly by a very skilled person- but being just as good with no downsides and simpler- really makes it a simple choice.

[Dave Hoback]

There is no "stupid" questions on this forum, right?
So, I will go ahead with mine- what is "tuning" or vibration?
Isn't bullet long gone (left the barrel) before anything that can affect it ?
I hear a lot of terms used and "second hand" opinions there that float around.
I want to understand. I'm all ears.


You misunderstood me. I wasn’t replying in relation to you’re posting. I think it’s a great topic. Relevance & “stupid or not” questioning has nothing to do with my post. Was simply an opinion from posts #6 & #7. Baggin’ what I’m rakin’? ;)

[Blue Avenger]

what is "tuning" or vibration?
Isn't bullet long gone (left the barrel) before anything that can affect it ?
.

the barrel starts to vibrate the instant it is fired. up and down ( and other directions) as the bullet travels down the barrel. Harmonic frequency. Changes in bullet weight, powder burn rates, primers, speed and every thing else you can think of all effect the rate of oscillation. One part of tuning is trying to get the bullet to exit the barrel on one of the stops where the barrel quit moving to change directions of its wiggling travel. Hand loading takes advantage of this by allowing you to for instance pick a bullet you like that may not be to great in your gun as a factory load and allow you to change the powder charge to change the vibration frequency and tighten up the group size..

[gbflyer]

Common practice is to float them, however there are some exceptions. I believe the NULA Melvin Forbes ultralight rifles are bedded end to end.

[Dave Hoback]

Not only does the oscillation start immediately, but it’s actually traveling down the length of the barrel at about 20,000FPS! I do remember a few years ago some people talking about their notion of reloading ammo to “time” the bullet exit on an oscillation rebound. I read posts talking about “the 3rd millisecond oscillation”, yadda, yadda and whatnot. Several forums this was “the thing” over a several month period. It just became a talking point with people repeating things they had no mechanical understanding of. LOL! Then I did ACTUAL research and it just made laugh.

Here’s a quick video explaining how little movement is occurring in “most” barrels. (Again, there are always exceptions, e.g., the Mini-14.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbuaH6D2Qgc

[olegburn]

You misunderstood me. I wasn’t replying in relation to you’re posting. I think it’s a great topic. Relevance & “stupid or not” questioning has nothing to do with my post. Was simply an opinion from posts #6 & #7. Baggin’ what I’m rakin’? ;)

I am Baggin! :)
And hoping to learn. Random questions pop up in my mind and in my quest to learn the subject I just turn to asking bunch of questions.
So far I'm only getting thought out responses from folks who tolerate my curiosity.

[olegburn]

Common practice is to float them, however there are some exceptions. I believe the NULA Melvin Forbes ultralight rifles are bedded end to end.

This!

[Dave Hoback]

I hear ya. Sorry it sounded like you thought. If you look through my history, you’ll find I’ve never once told a person their question was meaningless. You’ll also see I’m one of the most helpful persons here & typically among the first one to answer questions. Many of the same questions over & over. Never bothers me. I enjoy it.

[PhilC]

There is no "stupid" questions on this forum, right?
So, I will go ahead with mine- what is "tuning" or vibration?
Isn't bullet long gone (left the barrel) before anything that can affect it ?
I hear a lot of terms used and "second hand" opinions there that float around.
I want to understand. I'm all ears.
Search for posts by forum member CFJunkie, he's posted a lot about barrel exit time which relates to harmonics. Very good info. :thumb:

[olegburn]

Search for posts by forum member CFJunkie, he's posted a lot about barrel exit time which relates to harmonics. Very good info. :thumb:

Will do. Thanks!