Thread: Bedding with 10 pounds of upwards pressure on the barrel.

So it is generally accepted that bedding the action and free floating the barrel improves accuracy. With too much time on my hands I came across this:
https://www.larrywillis.com/tip021.html

Can anyone shine a light on this contradiction to the normal way of free floating thinking?

Whilst I have little experience tuning rifles I can understand why some need bedding in different ways.
In a previous life i did a little machining.
There would be times where everything would machine nicely. Other times for no apparent reason what ever you were turning would get vibrations/harmonics like a bitch and make a final cut just horrible. Would try speeding up, slowing down, thicker and thinner cuts, bit of wood pressed against it etc. So i can quite understand some barrels needing full pressure over free floating

Hahaha @csmiffy, every machinist knows exactly what you are talking about there.

Back to the original point. My ruger stainless synthetic ultralight has pressure point factory bedding, I assume it's done to reduce harmonics.

Originally Posted by RUMPY

Hahaha @csmiffy, every machinist knows exactly what you are talking about there.

Back to the original point. My ruger stainless synthetic ultralight has pressure point factory bedding, I assume it's done to reduce harmonics.

Hey @RUMPY I hear that the Rugers can be a bit of a sod to bed. Never done I myself but have used Nathan’s bedding compound on two rifles and followed his instructions no worries.
https://www.ballisticstudies.com/Kno...tructions.html

Even more interesting was that he took a factory floated barrel and un-floated it.

Originally Posted by Sideshow

Hey @RUMPY I hear that the Rugers can be a bit of a sod to bed. Never done I myself but have used Nathan’s bedding compound on two rifles and followed his instructions no worries.
https://www.ballisticstudies.com/Kno...tructions.html

Yeah I have seen a rifle bedded with Nathan Fosters kit. Came up looking really nice. I'm not looking at bedding my rifle, shoots good enough to make things dead.

From what I understand, its mostly used for lighter barrels that are more picky about loads. Putting a pressure point up front will help dampen the barrel a bit and it should shoot better on average with most loads vs needing a very specific load to perform. The downside to this is if you change anything about the amount of pressure on the barrel, then POI and groups will likely change. This means if you normally shoot off a bag, but then you change to a bipod, or if you load/dont load the bipod, shoot off hand, shoot off a tree branch. It all has the potential to change your POI and groups. Same goes for a timber stock that is maybe not sealed properly and is zeroed in the middle of summer when its nice and dry, then taken out at the end of winter when it might have swelled a little with moisture, probably a change in POI and groups. Simple way to avoid all this is the free float the barrel. Free floated is not necessarily the most accurate, but it will be the most consistent. I would much rather have a rifle that shoots 1.5" groups into exactly the same spot all year than a rifle that shoots 0.75" groups, but only if you shoot it exactly the right way in the right conditions (for a hunting gun anyway)