Hmmmm fat is I believe a term which could be applied to me
I am certainly carrying too much around the middle section
and according to the Docs chart am 70lbs overweight either that of about 10" too short
. I just got on the scale an they groaned a bit around to 226lbs..
As for the floating .................... well I swallowed all the guff years ago and did as you with a new converted Swedish Mauser sporter I brought. A commercial conversion with new M38 barrel so I floated it and it shoots very well but over the years the extra weight of tha floated barrel has compressed the bedding and now it need a complete bedding job
. A while after I acquired that Swede I got another 6.5mm rifle but this time a classic
it's a Mannlicher Mdl 1892 built into a Best Sporting rifle by Rigby's of London chambered in 6.5x53R (.256 Mannlicher). Of course it was not floated and after a trip to Rigby's for a clean and service (the trigger mech was full of crud, lint and grit
) they re-blacked the buttplate and trigger guard/magazine case and even found me a box of original Kynoch .256 rimmed ammo
.
I shot some of that ammo to check sight regulation, it has fixed express sights, stand for 100 and flip up leaves for 200 & 300 yards, with that Kynoch ammo it was on at 200 yards so I then developed a handload using Hornady 160 Grn RN bullets to duplicate it with Rel 19 powder. After over 100 years the bedding is fine and the rifle shoots to the sights. No scope but hey
.
It was then that I started to re-think the free floating barrel business and started to test the other rifles I had. A Century Arms sporterised P-14 was the next test case. The stock was poorly, i.e cheaply inletted, so a bedding job was done on it and the barrel was floated on this one and yes it shot quite well. Being a 303 I shot it with some good Greek HXP69 ammo and with a 4x40 scope it even shot well at 600 yards. however another P-14 conversion in 303 I had but this time by Parker-Hale with target sights even with it quite severly erroded throat would out shoot it at 200 yards. Holding the Vee bull on a Bisley target was childs play with good ammo and the PH5B rearsight that was until the throat errosion got to be about 5-6" long and accuracy tailed off
a re-barrel was called for but prooved to be too expensive so the rifle was canibilised and removed from my licence. That rifle had a nice streaked walnut stock which I still have and of course was pressure bedded in the barrel channel and with the ERA barrel outshot the new barrel on the Century Arms rifle. I no longer have that particular century rifle as it was sold to make room for something else several years ago now. I do have my nephews one which was "new" when he got it but the chambering job was over tight and handloading for it a nightmare so when it became mine i had it re-chambered to 303 Improved and it's still a work in progress.
I have 5 rifles that have floated barrels, three of which came that way from the factory and they are:-
P-H 1200V
Mauser M96 Slide Bolt
Sportco M44 single shot target rifle
The other two are:
Century Arms P-14 sporter (303 Imp)
Swedish Mauser sporter conversion
None of whch is my most accurate rifle.. Now since moving here I am fighting the dreaded "rust", has something to do with being closer to the sea and the fens I suppose. It's just plain damper and more humid here. Now whenever I acquire a new,to me, rifle I shoot it first before looking to improve or sort any problems that show up in the testing. I have spent hours trying to correct some ones butchery on a .243 BSA Majestic. The walnut is a very nice Honey colour but some previous owner had wrecked the bedding and barrel channel in an attempt to free float it. The rifle shot patterns and I have had to rebuild the barrel channel with wood filler
it's now pressure bedded and shoots much better. once I save up the funds it will off to a riflesmith I know to have a professional and hopefully un-noticable repair to the barrel channel. My work was just to prove it could be done and check that pressure point bedding improved the grouping. It will also give the gunsmith a ball park figure of pressure to work with so should cut the time and cost slightly.
Have fun with your new CZ and if your happy I suppose that's all that really matters
