Onesock

I have a Remington 700 and the barrel is free floated except for about 1 inch at the fore stock. What are the pro's and con's of sanding away the pressure pt at the front or leaving it stock. Will free floating it hurt the groups which are good now?

blob

I have two Remington 700s and I free floated both as soon as I got them. Pressure points will keep a barrel from getting it's best harmonics as it will be held at that one point every shot. Some may say leave it as is, but I free float every barrel a ssoon as I get it. If for sme reason it doesn't shoot as well with the barrrel floated (never came upon that yet) you can always glue in a piece of woodor plastic to return the pressure point. I have heard of a few rifles shooting better with the points but my experience has been to float the barrel. In fact a custom rifle maker told me to cut away enough to put a thick playing card under it. I always use a doller bill but he told me to go even more. The two 700s I have , a 30/06 and a 22/250 both had pressure points right at the end of the barrel. I had to cut down a lot more on the 30/06 because they both have the same stock. Since I reload and shoot a bunch the free floating is justa common part of what I do. Also bringing the trigger pull down to 2.5 -4.0 LBS really helps the 700. I like to adjust mine down to 4.0 LBS. the 22/250 with the old 1-14 twist wasn't supposed to stablize a 70 grain bullet but with the lighter trigger pull and the floated barrel it shoot about .500 groups at 100 yards. Much better with the 60 grain. Try it you will likeit!

crimedog

YOU WILL NEED TO SAND.

Whether you free float or not you will need to sand, the presure point is uneven and will push to one side more and more with each shot. You will need to sand to adjust this problem to a minium. If you free float do yourself a favor and glass bed the rifle. You may or may not betighter grouping bullets by glass beding and free floating, but it will be more constant.

Roskoe

A lot of guns will shoot tighter groups with a fore-end pressure. Problem is that the group may not hit the same spot from day-to-day and week-to-week; due to the effect of temperature and humidity on the amount of pressure the stock exerts on the barrel at that point. The other issue is that a gun with fore-end pressure will usually shoot lower off of sand bags than it does from a Harris Bipod or a fence post. So you aren't really sure, in a specific situation, just where your gun is going to shoot.

First choice is a free floated barrel. If it is one of those black plastic stocked Remingtons, take out quite a bit of material - a gap the thickness of credit card would be about right.

PaJack

I own a ton of 700's! Remington's have a "crown" about 1" from the tip of the forearm,don't touch it...

stubblejumper

All of my guns have free floated barrels and shoot very accurately.However the biggest advantage of free floating is that the point of impact seems more consistant when the gun is fired in different tempertures or off of different rests or bipods.

blob

PAjack if yours shoot the groups you want with out bothering them, then I would be the first to say leave them as is. I was shooting1.5 groups before floating and now .500. Also if you are going to glass bead the rifle you will have to get rid of thefactory plastic stock as the bedding will not stick to it as it should. This calls for a new $250.00 stock. So if the rifle shoot good groups leave it alone. But everyone I have I had to float it to get the group I wanted. To some people a 2.5"-3" is ok and others like around .500. Imhave some old (1960) 30/06s tha twill out shoot these new 700s because it has a real good walnut American made stock not some plastic junk.

rjhans53

a bell and carlson is only about 150 but it's still some

crimedog

Actually you can glass bed a remington crappy plastic stock if you know how. You need to use a dremal tool to rough up the honey comb walls and other surfaces in the stock and enlarge the recoil lug area, drill hole's in the honey combs 1/8 diameter.The you need to clean the entire stock with 99% isopepal or asotone.

Pawildman

After having bedded more than one synthetic stock in the past with no problems, I wish to say that you need to roughen up the barrel channel and action area. Any areas that are to be corrected with bedding compound need to roughened and cleaned thoroughly with a grease removing solvent prior to using the compound. If you follow these steps, I feel you should do O.K. I USUALLY solid bed the rear of the recoil lug, while leaving a bit of clearance on the sides and bottom. Also, I solid bed about 1 1/2" of the barrel in front of the lug. The rest of the barrel is free-floated. Just my way of doing it, but it has always worked for me. Hope this helps-----