Thanks Kitch. Sounds like you did a great job. Anytime you can get groups to shrink by 1/2, you know you did something right. That's generally what I shoot for. If you are referring to your std wt 270 on the freefloat, they were not ever freefloated from the factory. The pre 64 fwt's were advertised as having the freefloating barrel for accuracy, but the std wt's were always meticulously inletted for their own barreled action. Winchester generally did a very nice job on them. If you take too much out of the barrel channel and then torque the forend screw too much, it can make the groups go wonky. This is why I generally full length bed the std wt's or if I'm feeling really gung ho I freefloat them and use a dummy screw like I did with my 338 Alaskan and EricM's 30-06. Both of those rifles are exceptional shooters and POI stays the same since there's never any contact (uneven or otherwise) in the barrel channel.
