Oh God free float............................. free float
not again...
Just make sure the bedding for the action is done properly and that the barrel sits true in the channel with about 10-15lbs upward pressure at the fore tip pressure point and that it's not pushing the muzzle to the right or left and the rifle will probably shoot very well indeed.
of all my rifles only a few are free floated, two of those are HB target rifles and came that way, a P-H 1200TX and a Sportco M44, the third a HB varmint (P-H 1200V) meant for the American market and so was floated to help the marketing boys
. the other is a sporterised Swedish Mauser which I ashamed to say that I did before I realised what a crock it is
. I read the articles an swallowed the whole sales pitch and flaoted the barrel BEFORE SHOOTING THE RIFLE so I will never know if it actually needed it or not. Something I will never do again.
Now I am currently trying to repair the damage to a later 1950's BSA majestic Featherweight stock that some ass hole of a former owner also swallowed this crap and ruined the bedding in doing so
. It has also taken over 3 days to get the copper fouling out of the bore. I thought the bore was well worn and was ready to order the new barrel for it but I now believe once I get the stock bedding sorted and the pressure point bedding re-instated properly it will shoot well once again. Oh yes the tang screw had been tightened by King Kong himself but the front screw was olny nipped up
.
That's a half stock of course. I have never had to play with the BSA CF2 Stutzen that I have which is a full stock and funny thing it does not have a floated barrel either in fact there is a barrel band which the front sling stud screws into as the wood of the stutzen full stock is very slim at that point so the band takes the load around the barrel.
This was the aforementioned idiots idea of floating:-
he sanded out the barrel channel and place card shims UNDER the recoil lug to raise the action and save on the sanding
although he did widen the channel so it not has an uneven and un-slightly gap at the side of the barrel and he managed to ruin the pressure point for the bedding. The hollowed out stock is std BSA for a Featherweight to get the weight down. No lightweight hunting rifles are not a new idea
.
The fore-stock at the small schnable tip had been split at one time and this very neat splice repair was done. Then idiot got to work with the sandpaper and ruined it.
You can just make out the gap around the side d the receiver ring again idiots handiwork to I'll have to cut out more now to allow for a proper film of bedding and do a complete re-bed job and re-instate the fore tip pressure point.
At the moment with Federal Fusion 150 grain ammunition it shoots about a 22 group, oh that was with a card shim to give the barrel some pressure. it did shoot a hand load tighter but until we get the bedding sorted we are basically wasting ammo.
