Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Free-floating barrel Win M70 featherwght

Recently purchased used 2011 South Carolina-made custom grade wood stocked Win M70 featherweight. Everything in new condition. I’ve taken the action and barrel out of the stock – everything looks good pristine. The recoil lug is neatly factory glass bedded. There is no fiberglass bedding elsewhere. The rifle is advertised as having a free-floating barrel. However, upon passing a dollar bill between the barrel and the forend, I notice that it will pass, but hangs up at a couple points in the first 2-3 inches. After that, it passes freely all the way to the action. Looking down upon the barrel in the stock, it appears that the barrel is barely touching the left side of the stock while there is a slight visual gap on the right side between barrel and stock. Could anyone give me their thoughts on this situation? Should the barrel be absolutely free on both sides as I suspect?

I will not have a chance to sight in the rifle until April, so I don’t yet know if this situation will have an impact on accuracy. Maybe yes… Or, maybe the barrel is meant to have a slight amount of pressure at the end of the barrel? I am not going to do anything before actually shooting it. In the meantime, I wanted to canvas those who might have more insight into these things than myself. My thanks in advance for your thoughts, Danny.

Danny, I have had this problem on rifles of several makes. Sometimes this is done when the rifle is assembled, factory bedded or whatever. Sometimes the fore end warps and causes it. Choices: You can remove wood from the side of the channel where it is touching the barrel. It will not look great, depending on the thickness of the top edge of the fore end. And even if you do this, there is no guarantee that it will not warp again to one side or the other, even if the inside of the barrel channel is well sealed. Next choice, you can remove the factory "bedding" and re-bead the barreled action in the middle of the barrel channel. This may not work out very well if fore end warpage is the root cause of the problem. And, it may also warp again to one side or the other. Choice number 3, which I opted for and this is probably the one you don't want to hear, since your rifle has a custom grade wood stock, is buy a top quality synthetic stock for and properly bed or have your rifle bedded in that stock. RJ

I wouldn't fret until I had a chance to work with it a bit.

I've literally owned a dozen or more Win 70 Featherweights. The first thing I so is take them to my smith to have them fully bedded. Yours may be just fine the way it is and some have pressure points intentionally but the thin stocks can exert pressure on the barrel over time and weather (humidity) and for me, I always prefer fully bedded actions and barrels. Good luck and enjoy!

Thanks everyone for the helpful thoughts. When I get the chance to shoot the rifle, I'll post the results and what action or non-action I've taken. Regards, Danny.

Random contact is generally not great, but shoot it first and see. Good thing is that if you can stable a piece of sandpaper to a $2 dowel rod, then hit the sanded area with some polyurethane...it'll all be just fine.

Most rifles shoot better bedded. All rifles shoot best with some sort of consistent barrel contact, ranging from none (free float) to a little bit of consistent pressure (pressure point), to all the way full length bedding. As long as it's the same every time, you're good.

I had a similar situation with a used rifle I purchased. Great deal because "it wouldn't shoot!" It was a Featherweight in 300 Win Mag. Found exactly the same thing, contact on one side of barrel with stock. Wallowed it out to enable a couple of business cards to pass without obstruction. Still wouldn't shoot so wallowed it out some more. Same story. Finally my friend/gunsmith suggested bedding the light barrel 'neutral', which I did. Voila! Tack driver to this day! Those light barrels whip considerably more than we think.

Good advice. A lot of it depends on the op's experience, regarding glass bedding and working on rifles. Since hes asking the question, im assuming he is not experienced at doing the work himself. If it were me, id re-glass bed it with the barreled action centered in the stock. I also highly doubt the stock is warping. They are using pretty good wood on the new model 70's. Ive had a few new fwt's and none of them showed signs of warping. Also, the freefloating has been pretty generous on them. If it isnt, id open up the barrel channel a bit and re-seal with spar varnish or tru oil.

Hi everyone,
Since I posted last week, I took the time to make sure the lug was centred in the stock and then torqued the action screws to 35 inch pounds (as per manual), bearing down first on the front action screw before the rear. A dollar bill now passes the first few inches somewhat easier. It is still tight, but the dollar passes without the hangups as previously. This weekend the local temperatures got up to 32 degrees, giving me a chance to take the gun out and shoot it. Fired two shots to get on paper. Then fired two three-shot groups at 100 meters and achieved 1.5" groups wearing heavy gloves and using cheap .270 130 grain Winchester X-perts. When warmer days come, I will try some other makes and bullet weights to see if it is possible to get down to 1" or less. If such is the case, I won't touch the barrel channel or forend. Thanks again to everyone for the comments - Danny.