Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Free floating

How come 95% of rifle builders will tell you a rifle will shoot the best free floated,but 95% of Nula owners say that they are the most accurate rifle they have ever owned.And they are bedded the entire lenght of the barrel.Just curious because it seems to contradict.

Because 95% of rifle builders are right for 95% of rifles.

NULA's start at $3500 and, as an equally expensive "glued" bench rifle, a lot of extra work can be invested.

No contradiction, both methods work, if your rich buy the NULA. I'd rather take this type of $800 package on a $3500 guided hunt than sit at home with a $3500, more like $4200 scoped NULA.

Either one will kill any lower 48 game at my ethical limit of 400 yards.

The most accurate rifles I have owned and shot have been floated.I have had 3/4 -1 1/2 inch groupers that went to .25 groupers being floated.The most accurate rifles I have seen not floated have been rem 721's and 722's I have had many that I would put up against a Nula any day.

Not ALL NULA owners are convinced of FL bedding.
Most won't go public and be ridiculed....we are likely the minority. I had two and one shot very well and the other did not. Shot one load well but others very average. #1 contours are likely best FL bedded but heavier than that I'll take floated.
My experience for what it's worth...

The most accurate rifles I shot were bedded. I think the flyweight barrels respond best to bedding, while heavier barrels can work either way. Floating is good for hunting rifles because the POI doesn't shift as much with changes in the stock or changes in how the rifle is held. It has also been my experience that floated barrels tend to shoot better with lighter weight bullets. I have shrunk the groups of more than one floated rifle by bedding the barrel just at the end of the forend. My floated Ruger Swede shot 120 grainers into a half-inch, but 140 grainers into an inch-and-a-half. After I put a good-fitting pressure pad in the forend, the 140 grainers shot well under an inch. My other Ruger Swede shoots well enough floated so it stayed that way. I almost always try floating because of its POI advantages, but the result is seldom smaller groups. My Win M70 XTR featherweight 270 shot half-inch groups from the factory. When I floated it the groups got a little bigger. They were still well under an inch so I left it floated. The action was bedded from the factory.

Flyweight barrels can do a full-length bed, but you have to bed it correctly in a stock that doesn't do mysterious things.
I have two FL-bedded rifles, both are lightweights and both were problem children before FL bedding. I tried full float, then forend padding, and the full bed was a last resort -- but it worked. Keep in mind that both stocks are old hardwood, well sealed inside and out, and I've not taken either rifle out in truly terrible wet weather. I have synthetics and stainless for the real gucky hunts.

I've shot over a dozen NULA's and have only run into one that didn't shoot extremely well full-length bedded, the way Melvin does it. That one barrel (a #1 contour 7mm) wouldn't shoot all that great no matter what I tried. It would do an inch or a little more with it's best loads, but was just one of those barrels that don't shoot all that well. Melvin rebarreled the rifle to .257 Ackley with a #2 24" contour and it started shooting sub-half-inch immediately.

That said, a lot of lightweight barrels will shoot fine free-floated. I suspect it has more to do with the threading and chambering job than barrel contour. Some factory barrels have barrel threads that are relatively loose in the action. Those often shoot better with some support, no matter the barrel contour.

Thank you all for the replies.Just received my McMillian edge today and am waiting on Pacnor on the #1 barrel in a 223AI.So for the replies I have gotten,free float first and if that doesn't work FL bed?

With a synthetic stock, that's the way I do it.

Thanks will do.

One more thing about free floating: If you're gonna float the barrel, then FLOAT it. Give it enough clearance below the barrel so it does not touch the stock while resting the rifle's weight on the forend when shooting. Give it enough clearance on the sides of the barrel so it doesn't touch the stock while holding the rifle tightly and torquing it a bit in an excited moment. I don't mean the kind of severe "gaposis" you see on some post-'64 Winchesters, or some of the gross bubba jobs you see at gun shows. But it definitely needs enough clearance to do the job. If the gun is sighted-in with the barrel free floated, and you lean on it or squeeze it enough to make the barrel touch when excited and shooting at a trophy animal, it WILL throw the bullet off course (just like holding a rifle hard against a tree will throw it off). Kimber does a pretty good job floating their barrels (when the stock isn't warped). My Kimber has maybe 30 to 40 thousandths of an inch clearance on the sides, and a bit more on the bottom (maybe 60 thousandths). I did have to take a few thou off one side of the channel because it was very close. Also make sure the stock is sealed up very well in the barrel channel. Some gun manufacturers don't do a very good job of that. Also seal the stock in the magazine well cutout, around the trigger, and under the buttplate.