Question about fore stocks on precision rifles

Dumptruck

Dumptruck

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Why is it bad for the forestock to touch the barrel?

On my Enfiled the fore stock is clamped to the barrel. I am looking at a Remington Model 700 SPS and read a review that the barrel sometimes contacted the fore stock because of the flexibility of the Hogue stock.
 
The barrel is not there to give rigidity to the stock. If the stock flexes it's just not the best design. Many if not most barrels perform the best if they are floated to enable unaffected vibration on firing.
The Enfield design has a clamped on forestock for production expediency and intended as it was as a battle rifle it made the most solid design. There are Enfield designs adapted for more precision shooting many of which have floated barrels.
 
many rifles are not "free floated" as the stock will actually touch the barrel.
It is said that for "accruacy" go'ers like their barrel free floated because sometimes the stock will put uneven pressure to barrel when fired. causing the bullet to spread apart.
most and many rifles are still not free floated and stocks will rub against barrels and when you start reloading and re bedding your own rifles, first thing you will look at is if the stock is giving uneven pressure to the barrel. I usually take the grinder and grind the stock away to freefloat it if its just a cheap factory stock.
 
A barrel when fired is like a guitar string. The goal is to get the freq and amplitude the same each time to create a "note" that is "intune".

Now put your finger somewhere else on that string - different "sound".

Same applies to a barrel making contact with the stock. IF, and this is a huge IF, the contact is identical from shot to shot, no problems. However, since a stock makes contact with other forces, the ability to influence the barrel in another way changes its harmonics and thus how/where the bullet ends up.

by free floating a barrel, we isolate it from external influences. This simplifies tuning and thus makes a barrel more consistent/repeatable - we call this accuracy.

Jerry
 
Mystic Precision said:
A barrel when fired is like a guitar string. The goal is to get the freq and amplitude the same each time to create a "note" that is "intune".

Now put your finger somewhere else on that string - different "sound".

Same applies to a barrel making contact with the stock. IF, and this is a huge IF, the contact is identical from shot to shot, no problems. However, since a stock makes contact with other forces, the ability to influence the barrel in another way changes its harmonics and thus how/where the bullet ends up.

by free floating a barrel, we isolate it from external influences. This simplifies tuning and thus makes a barrel more consistent/repeatable - we call this accuracy.

Jerry
Click to expand...

Very well explained Jerry
 
Mystic Precision said:
A barrel when fired is like a guitar string. The goal is to get the freq and amplitude the same each time to create a "note" that is "intune".

Now put your finger somewhere else on that string - different "sound".

Same applies to a barrel making contact with the stock. IF, and this is a huge IF, the contact is identical from shot to shot, no problems. However, since a stock makes contact with other forces, the ability to influence the barrel in another way changes its harmonics and thus how/where the bullet ends up.

by free floating a barrel, we isolate it from external influences. This simplifies tuning and thus makes a barrel more consistent/repeatable - we call this accuracy.

Jerry
Click to expand...

Thanks! That makes sense to me.
 
Enfield are an oddity! In my old book 'Target Rifle Shooting', they recommend the woodwork contacting the underside of the Enfield barrel, about 3 inches ahead of the 'barrel re-inforce'. They even show a spring balance being used to pull the barrel away from the woodwork, so that you can get the right ammount of pressure. Mind you, this was state of the art stuff back in the 70's!
 
This type of tech shows up today in military match shooting. Lots of garands and other full wood stocked rifles that use simple ways to improve accuracy. Even the AR's.

No matter what surrounds the barrel, the key is freeing it up from external forces that can affect the vibration from shot to shot.

So for a full wood enfield, bedding/reinforcing the fit near the receiver is not a bad idea (2pc stock afterall). BUT hollowing out the forestock and handguard, even the front ferrule to clear the barrel is a very positive thing. Barrels are insulated and cooling is slow but if the barrel sees consistent conditions, very good results can be tuned

Jerry
 
Other thing with a Lee-Enfield is that they were designed to have a 17" blade bayonet or spike bayonet doing nasty things at the muzzle end. They needed to be tough in a way a target rifle will never be expected to do. Plus a minute of military will never be good enough for a precision rifle, but it did what it was expected to do in those situations. Also I believe it may have something to do with their action design as the free floated No5 rifles did have troubles in their design with POI changes after rapid fire
 
To be clear I used the Enfiled as an example but my rugers are the same. My Husqvarna with a Hogue stock doesn't touch but I never really thought about it until I read reviews on the Remington.
 
Enfields are pressure bedded. This is simply a way to tune the rifle to the load rather than the load to the rifle. Ammunition was mass produced therefore no tuning available. The Enfields design required the barrel be in contact with the forestock so pressure bedding is done to make the barrel do what is expected. Ideally the forestock is bedded from the draws to the knox form, free floated to the last 2 inches where it places 4-6 lbs of upward pressure. You can also tune sporting rifles in a similar way by shimming under the barrel until your ammo of choice shoots as good as it can. This is backwards from conventional precision rifle tuning but makes sense for mass produced arms and ammunition. When developing a load for your precision rifle ideally you want rock solid bedding and a free floating barrel while you tune your load to suit your rifle.
 
Its all about what they were intended for. a battle rifle is designed to shoot at targets the size of a human while filthy, wet, and fed with bulk ammo. "precision" is about being able to reliably place shots closer together and to do that the variables have to be minimized. harmonics, or the amount the barrel vibrates during the shooting phase would be affected by anything that inconsistently interferes with the normal pattern of vibration. free floating helps that, but there are many rifles including the LE that are reputed to shoot better with material between the tip of the forestock and the barrel. I don't think it matters as long as things don't change between shots.
 
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