Any reason not to free float a barrel?

Fox

Fox

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I have a remington 700 and I noticed that it looks like a previous owner bedded the action and the barrel, why would you not want it free floating?

I also have a bolt action 22LR, I checked it and that thing has contact with the stock to the barrel as well.

Both of these are wood stocks, to me I think I should float them both but is there any reason not to?
 
Typically the barrel of a round action bolt gun is bedded an inch or so beyond the recoil lug, but if the barrel is a very small contour, it might benefit from bedding the length of the chamber. What he may have done is bed full length of the barrel channel in order to stabilize the stock, but taped the barrel prior to bedding to provide relief between the barrel and the stock. I'd see how it shot before changing anything.
 
With the majority of rifles today the barrels are best floated. The reason the factory has bedded a pressure point is mostly so they can mass produce the stocks with no fitting of the metal... just tighten the screws up and the barrel will settle in the bedding point one way or another... often when you remove a bedding point the barrel is not centered in the barrel channel and you must make this happen when you bed the action...

Sometimes a barrel shoots better bedded but it is rare today...
 
I have a parker hale 30-06 and they originally were free floating, the stock flexed over time and was pushing the barrel up a lot, I would think that floating on a wood stock would minimize these changes. I did clear out that channel for the barrel but then testing 2 other bolt actions I had and both were not free floating.
 
I have floated several rifles,,approximately 8 I believe,,about half of them shot worse than they did with fore end pressure,,Rugers in particular like pressure,,,a light barrel I find likes pressure due to the "whip" of a light barrel, Remingtons on the other hand seem to do well with a floated barrel
 
I have bedded a few Remington's and a Ruger m77 all were free floating and produced noticeably better accuracy. I know some pencil barrel mountain rifles need full length bedding or a pressure point bedded into them in order to shoot to there full potential. My latest custom build sports a #4 contour barrel and I recently switched stocks prior to that it was bedded for 1.5 inches ahead of the lug and I decided this time to pillar bed the stock and bed nothing forward of the recoil lug and have it fully free floated. This has been slightly better shooting than the previous bedding job using same techniques. Whether it is attributed to a better fitting stock or a heavier overall weight I don't know.......
 
Fox said:
I have a parker hale 30-06 and they originally were free floating, the stock flexed over time and was pushing the barrel up a lot, I would think that floating on a wood stock would minimize these changes. I did clear out that channel for the barrel but then testing 2 other bolt actions I had and both were not free floating.
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I have the same gun and it had the same issue. I free floated the barrel and it now shoots better than it has a right too!
 
hoytcanon said:
Always shoot them first... don't #### around with something that works.
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Obviously

The 700 is in 222 Rem and I used to be able to shoot 5 shot groups at 100 yards I would be covering with a dime, but that was a while ago and the gun has been stored for about 10 years, I think it was actually bedded the whole length though, so consistent.

The other is a BSA Super Sport Five 22 LR, gun shot great but it is odd, the stock is clear of the barrel on the bottom at the front and contacts on one side, looks to me like it was free floating at one time.

I will be shooting them again, loading now for the 222 so interested to see what it shoots like with some tuned ammo but I am curious as to what others have said.

I have a Swedish mauser that shoots like a dream and it still has full wood, so I know what you mean.
 
hoytcanon said:
If it is so obvious, why are you on here asking for opinions...
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Did you actually read what I quoted? He said to shoot the gun first.

I was asking why anyone would not float a barrel out of the gate and I can see from some of the guys here that some barrels, lighter ones, tend to like some upward pressure on the barrel. For me this is tough because if you are shooting a rifle with a wood stock would the wood not change over a season and over time to change that upward pressure on the barrel, as we know, changes are what cause accuracy issues.

I am getting quite a bit of info here, I am amazed that some have said that floating it has made their accuracy worse, I thought that was not possible, hence why I am getting opinions before I float 2 rifles.
 
hoytcanon said:
Accuracy aside...
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Yes. Accuracy aside. If you take an inch and a half rifle, add pressure and make it a half an inch rifle (rare) good for you. But where that forearm goes so does the barrel. Now I don't know about you, but I use forearms on a rifle for their intended purpose. That is something to hold onto, screw a shooting sling to, and something to rest the rifle on. Point of impact shifts in the field soon can make that half inch rifle a fairly inaccurate club. No thanks.
 
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