Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Fore End Tip Pressure - Why?

Been playing with a second hand 243 that was well and truly floated, with tang and lug bedded. Would put several close or touching then throw one or two.

Put a solid upward-pressure speed bump under the barrel near the fore end tip and now it shoots very solid sub MOA and with consistency.


Rifle is a stainless Howa S2 with a 22” sporter barrel. I’ve had lots of Howas / Vanguards from 223Rem to 338WM and none of them has behaved quite this way.


Why do some need the bump, and some not?

Vibration node, barrel whip

I have never found forend pressure helped accuracy. Tried it again on a problem rifle two weeks ago. Results were worse than when it was free floating.
Not disputing your results, but my results have been the opposite.

This is my understanding. In rare cases fore end pressure will help some rifles shoot more accurately. It seems to happen most often with thinner profile barrels. But pressure will often result in POI shifts more easily. It becomes a choice of having a 1 MOA rifle that will sometimes shift POI, or a 1.5 MOA rifle that will always shoot to the same POI.

My son has a Japanese Wby and it was a NIGHTMARE to get anything to be consistent. I bedded a small spot at the forend and it shoots everything pretty well. That was in a cheap plastic stock. I’ll see how it does in a McMillan in a few months.

There is very little rhyme or reason to what will shoot best in my limited experience. Light barrels do respond to a pressure point on enough of a regular basis that Remington and others adopted this bedding method. I like it because it is easy to test to see if needed and easy to remove if not. With a good barrel and action I am liking neutral bedding whenever it works. Works with light and heavy barrels alike. It seems less affected by technique and sling use but not as much as a floated barrel does. But any crud in a floated barrel channel will throw things off so a typical trade off.

If dampness changes your stock, your POI will change, too......if the barrel is touching the fore stock. That's the reason for floating in the first place. I had an old rifle that was all over the place even after I floated the barrel. I checked the crown and it was uneven, so I cut it square with a crowning tool and the groups settled right down.

I don't KNOW crap.
The common knowledge is free floating is the holy trail.
I have floated any rifle I ever tinkered with, period.
Most, before ever shooting them, never tested before vs after.

But, when most factories who build rifles (ones with a rep for accurate guns)
use a pad, logic says there must be a reason.

My logic says that on average, they get a better average accuracy from more guns
with a pad, than without. In production, predicted consistency is everything.

Makes a fair bit of sense; to me anyway.

I have a Sako A7 in 308 Win. It was / is very accurate out of the box. It is floated.... kind of. It has a speed bump about 4” forward of the barrel shank. It’s hardly a fore end pressure point but it’s kind of a “six of one, half a dozen of the other” situation.

It shoots so well I’ve never made a single modification to the rifle.

If the muzzle of a free floated barrel moves above and below its natural resting position some value as the bullet moves down the barrel, it seems reasonable that a "bump" would cut that amplitude in half, and possibly more if the barrel is pushed up slightly above its natural resting position. In theory, less amplitude means less shot deviation, but as we know, it's not that simple. As others have mentioned, either fully bedded or free floated is the better way to go.

I had a 700 Rem in 260 that never grouped well, I decided to replace the barrel with a factory take-off barrel, when I unscrewed the original barrel after the first revolution you could literally shake the barrel and it would rattle, the factory threads were cut undersized, I tighted the barrel back, put a pad on the forearm tip so that it had upward pressure on the barrel and it immediately starting grouping great. Apparently the upward pressure put enough pressure on the undersized threads to stress them so they were tight.

Moral - a little upward barrel pressure does work sometimes.

drover

I was told once by a gunsmith I respect that a rifle with a properly squared action, high quality stress relieved barrel, correctly cut threads, and properly bedded stock will almost always shoot more consistently with a full free float. That same list is four items that most factory rifles rarely possess.

Amen on this from reivertom.
Good comments/advice.

More good comments here.
This post gives a person "plenty to think about", as it relates to bedding/stabilizing a barrel.

From what I've noticed, slim snouts like pressure, weatherby ulw really like it, model 7 260 really enjoyed it too....

He's right..

May be relevant, may not. I had a 25" Bartlein 2b chambered for 30/06. If I kept loads down to low book, it shot well. Lean on it any and it would string horribly. I built up a pad an inch or two back from the tip,and it would stack bullets. After a time,I decided to take a different route.

We pulled the barrel to build a 280AI on that action. The Smith assured me he would true the action before going ahead with the build. There was no more than 1/3 of the mating surface of the shoulder contacting the action! So, those that say sloppy gunsmithing can be helped along with tip pressure may very well be right. Needless to say I'll never use that lying suminabitch again. The Ackley was trued properly by an old bench rest buddy of mine and shoots wonderfully. Live and learn.

Pretty much agree with all points, especially neutral barrel bedding.

MM

All of my bolt actions are more or less stock and unaltered. The ones with stock tip pressure or full length bedding of the barrel in the stock shoot better than the free floated ones. These are all honest 1 to 2 MOA rifles, not much by internet standards, but will hold this for ten rounds. An earlier post about top notch rifles shooting better free floated than pressured makes sense, but it seems that some pressure is the way to make a lot of rifles that shoot O. K.

I've always just gone ahead and floated my wood guns but left any factory synthetic stocks alone. Knock on wood, I've never had any accuracy issues after floating or felt like I needed to try a pad. I just recently floated/bedded an old 700 mountain rifle in 308 but haven't had a chance to see what it can do yet. It had its pressure point right where the forend cap met the walnut. I'll try adding one back with a piece of a foam ear plug if its doesn't shoot worth a darn.