Free Floated Barrel Question ......Win Mod 70

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Badlildoggy

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Hello Gents,

I just purchased my first Winchester Model 70, It is a mid-90's Sporter in 7mm STW, what surprises me is that the barrel is not free floated, it seems to be snug fit to the barrel for the length of the stock. Is this normal on these rifles? Next question, will this cause performance issues? Will the rifle be better if it is free floated?


Thanks for the help..
 
Free floating isn't always the answer...here's what I would do to check it.Grab a strip of paper 1 inch wide.Slide it between the barrel and stock,starting at the receiver end.Slide it forward to the muzzle end. Does it catch any where? If so you will have a pressure point and that will cause a accuracy issue. Mid 9o's rifle eh? Wood stock? Thin barrel? Sporter weight barrel? What I would do is make sure that the first inch of barrel in front of the receiver is bedded,then free float the rest until the forend. Bed the last inch of forend. If it has a black or forend tip of any type...DO NOT BED ON THIS...make sure the bedding is on the original stock.A barrel is like a tuning fork.When you fire a shot the barrel will get a spin action to it as the bullet travels down it.This is because of the rifling and physics...as the bullet exits the barrel and the barrel has a very small muzzle whip going on,the bullet has to exit the barrel at the same point every time to get accuracy.IE..if a bullet leaves the muzzle at say 2 o'clock,then 6 o'clock,then 10 o'clock...you wont have accuracy as the same as the bullet leaving the muzzle in the whip at 2 o'clock every time...Hope that makes sense to ya..
 
My 1958 vintage M70 Fwt 270 was factory "bedded" when got it about 1968 and it drove me crazy because it would change point of impact by as much a 4" at 100 yds throughout the hunting season as humidity a temperature changes affected the wooden stock. I glass bedded the receiver and first inch of the barrel forward of the receiver and floated the barrel in the mid '70's and it hasn't changed point of impact since then. I wouldn't say it became any more accurate but at least it is consistent as to point of impact from year to year. With 55 gr of IMR 4350 it will group any 130 gr bullet I have ever tried into 5 shot groups of about 1 1/8" at 100 yds off sandbags or a bipod so good enough for deer hunting. All my rifles, even the synthetic stocks, are glass bedded and free floated for a consistent point of impact.
 
Have you pulled the stock? You may find that it was bedded that way by the previous owner. Shoot it and see how it behaves and go from there. If it shoots and the interior of the stock is well sealed (which will prevent it from swelling or shrinking as the weather/climate changes) then don't sweat it.
 
iceman2 said:
How is it shooting now? Sometimes rifles don't like being free floating while others do.
Click to expand...

I think a major consideration relative to the above statement, revolves around the degree to which the gun is exposed to variable humidity. Much like Ol Flinter said; his gun was accurate but shifted because it was exposed to changing humidity during the hunting season. If you do want to free float the barrel, I would suggest making up a scraper or several out of drill rod or out of an automotive spring. Heat it red hot, hammer it to about 1/8" thick and grind the cutting end to roughly the radius of the area you want to open up. Bend the blade 90 degrees to an L shape and heat red hot and quench in water then polish a bit and reheat to golden brown and finish by grinding a 45 degree bevel along the cutting edge, to make it sharp

cheers mooncoon
 
Sorry, I forgot to add that No, I have not shot it. Thank you for all the input, I was definitely going to shoot it first, I am just not privy to the ways of the Mod 70 and thought it odd that the barrel appears fused to the stock throughout the fore end. And also yes, it is a thin sporter barrel as well.
 
IMO a free-floating barrel will get rid of one more problem when accuracy is an issue. With wooden stocks that are not free-floating the amount of pressure in puts on the rifle can vary over periods of time. Moisture will make your wooden stock move around ever so slightly leaving you with different amounts of pressure on your barrel from time to time. One day your gun may shoot well, a few months later it may not because of this. I've had a couple rifles that needed floating because of this, and they became far better shooters once fixed. Savage Arms believe's a "Free-floating" barrel is one of the essentials to an accurate rifle, they build damn accurate rifles....................
 
A 90s M70 would have been bedded with forend pressure and a couple of dabs of hot-melt glue at the recoil lug and tang. Those I took apart had red Loctite on the front and rear screws.

I like to give a rifle a chance to shoot the way it was built before changing anything. There was a time when I would have sworn that a rifle should be free-floated, but now I'm not so sure. In the last year I calmed down 5 barrels by putting in Devcon pads with considerable upward pressure, but have many more success stories of free-floating barrels. If anything, my current thinking is to leave things that work alone and if something isn't working to do the opposite.
 
Many vintages of M-70's came factory set up with fore end tip pressure. Many rifles set up this way shot exceedingly well, all the way to not so good. I would shoot the rifle with different loads to see what she will do, then take it from there. I had an early 1970's M-70 that shot better groups with tip pressure than free floated. So it will take some trial and error to see what your particular rifle and barrel like's.
 
I also have been hunting here over 40 years and never had any issue with humidity (after i glass bedded and free floated everything. While you may get slighter groups from a barrel with pressure point the center of the groups seems to wander. A well known gun maker in the states who guaranteed 1/2 groups . He said that only the poorer quality barrels shoot better with a pressure point. I tend to agree to the point of not keeping a rifle that does not perform to my expectations while free floated. That's how sternly I believe and while I don't hang on to a lot of rifles longer. By the way rifles that shoot well free floating seem to throw different weight bullets to very close to the same POI and the point of impact does not jump all over the place working up loads. I can usually go from minimum to maximum loads and still have all shots within 1-1/2'.

Just my observations

Neil

By the way I Drill out the action screw hole (front and rear) for the 2 pc trigger guards and Fill them with bedding compound -usually steel bed to form the pilars and have been doing this for over 20 yrs. Then ream out these holes to give a couple thou clearance so they do do interfere with with the recoil. the only part that you want absorbing recoil is the recoil lug-not the magazine or action screws or the tang.

neil
 
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