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2/17/2005 7:17:11 PM EDT
What kind of accuracy increase would I expect to see by free floating the barrel?

Anyone know of a website that discusses this in detail?
2/17/2005 7:53:43 PM EDT
[#1]
Depends how tight you "sling up" in position shooting, or if you happen to have a rifle that is much affected by barrel damping/vibration. On some rifles it's a pronounced problem, very little on others. Unfortunately in reality, it's a try it and see deal on each particular rifle, although to make you feel better about it, I' ve NEVER seen one get worse by free floating. In a few cases not much better, but never worse. It may however require a little load developement (or in the case of rimfire brand of ammo change). My main experience to be truthfull was in smallbore and in most cases it was a big improvement if a sling was used at all. The people that couldn't tell the difference weren't locked in tight enough. Thinking a bit, if you have one of the new "pencil" barrels, I think there may be substantial barrel movement with a tight sling. An aside; Don't forget to support the rifle on the bench under the handguard. I had an instance in the past where one of my shooters was upset that free float didn't "do a damn thing". Found him supporting the barrel on sandbags while bench firing!!
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