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Free floating a weatherby.?
- Thread starter Bwbraven
- Start date
Dixie Gunsmithing
Moderator Emeritus
I always recommend free floating a barrel. Any place a stock touches a barrel, can cause it to shoot off, especially as it heats up. I always suggest only bedding the action. and leaving about 0.01" to 0.02" clearance between the barrel and forearm.
Thanks I've heard about 50/50 both ways. I know weatherby believed that a Forearm pressure point improved accuracy on his rifles. I've heard some say they have free floated and improved accuracy and others say it got worse with weatherby rifles. I picked up a factory stock for $20 and free floated it yesterday I will pillar and glass bed the action next.
I've heard the same thing about bedding and free floating Ruger actions.Thanks I've heard about 50/50 both ways. I know weatherby believed that a Forearm pressure point improved accuracy on his rifles. I've heard some say they have free floated and improved accuracy and others say it got worse with weatherby rifles.
Bwbraven knows weatherby believed that a Forearm pressure point improved accuracy on his rifles.
Yes, Roy Weatherby did. Here's why.
I used to shoot rifle matches with the stock maker who designed and made Weatherby's first fancy stocks used on their Mauser style and later Weatherby actions. This stock maker also made stocks for competitive high power rifle shooters; they were used in winning most of the matches and setting most of the records for years. He also made custom stocks for hunters. Most custom stocks he fit to a rifle were epoxy bedded and the barrel totally free floating. He was also one of the first stock makers to use epoxy bedding.
He told Mr. Weatherby that the way those stocks were machine inletted for those actions, the shape of those actions would never fit the bedding perfectly for best accuracy. They needed to use hand tools to inlet each action perfectly; an expensive way to go. So a pressure point under the barrel at the fore end tip was suggested and that would probably be a cheap and reasonable fix for hunters. It would allow about 1 to 1.5 MOA accuracy from customers and that's good enough for the customers buying them. So, Weatherby stock had a pressure point on the barrel at the fore end's tip. Mr. Weatherby did not want to add the cost of epoxy bedding the barreled actions to the cost of the rifle.
This solved the accuracy problems with many of Weatherby's rifles which pleased him. So Weatherby had his shop make a couple of single shot actions for this stockmaker to use in his comptition rifles.
Other rifle makers have had their stocks shaped to put a bit of pressure on the barrel at the fore end tip. With receivers poorly fit to the stock, this typically helps accuracy. This has been known since the early 1900's.
Yes, Roy Weatherby did. Here's why.
I used to shoot rifle matches with the stock maker who designed and made Weatherby's first fancy stocks used on their Mauser style and later Weatherby actions. This stock maker also made stocks for competitive high power rifle shooters; they were used in winning most of the matches and setting most of the records for years. He also made custom stocks for hunters. Most custom stocks he fit to a rifle were epoxy bedded and the barrel totally free floating. He was also one of the first stock makers to use epoxy bedding.
He told Mr. Weatherby that the way those stocks were machine inletted for those actions, the shape of those actions would never fit the bedding perfectly for best accuracy. They needed to use hand tools to inlet each action perfectly; an expensive way to go. So a pressure point under the barrel at the fore end tip was suggested and that would probably be a cheap and reasonable fix for hunters. It would allow about 1 to 1.5 MOA accuracy from customers and that's good enough for the customers buying them. So, Weatherby stock had a pressure point on the barrel at the fore end's tip. Mr. Weatherby did not want to add the cost of epoxy bedding the barreled actions to the cost of the rifle.
This solved the accuracy problems with many of Weatherby's rifles which pleased him. So Weatherby had his shop make a couple of single shot actions for this stockmaker to use in his comptition rifles.
Other rifle makers have had their stocks shaped to put a bit of pressure on the barrel at the fore end tip. With receivers poorly fit to the stock, this typically helps accuracy. This has been known since the early 1900's.
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Dixie Gunsmithing
Moderator Emeritus
Yes, Roy Weatherby did. Here's why.
I used to shoot rifle matches with the stock maker who designed and made Weatherby's first fancy stocks used on their Mauser style and later Weatherby actions. This stock maker also made stocks for competitive high power rifle shooters; they were used in winning most of the matches and setting most of the records for years. He also made custom stocks for hunters. Most custom stocks he fit to a rifle were epoxy bedded and the barrel totally free floating. He was also one of the first stock makers to use epoxy bedding.
He told Mr. Weatherby that the way those stocks were machine inletted for those actions, the shape of those actions would never fit the bedding perfectly for best accuracy. They needed to use hand tools to inlet each action perfectly; an expensive way to go. So a pressure point under the barrel at the fore end tip was suggested and that would probably be a cheap and reasonable fix for hunters. It would allow about 1 to 1.5 MOA accuracy from customers and that's good enough for the customers buying them. So, Weatherby stock had a pressure point on the barrel at the fore end's tip. Mr. Weatherby did not want to add the cost of epoxy bedding the barreled actions to the cost of the rifle.
This solved the accuracy problems with many of Weatherby's rifles which pleased him. So Weatherby had his shop make a couple of single shot actions for this stockmaker to use in his comptition rifles.
Other rifle makers have had their stocks shaped to put a bit of pressure on the barrel at the fore end tip. With receivers poorly fit to the stock, this typically helps accuracy. This has been known since the early 1900's.
Did he ever mention barrel whip, or anything else, when he spoke of this? If I remember right, that was one reason they did that years ago. They did the same with the 52 Winchester, where they had the two adjustable rests in the forearm tip.
No, he didn't mention barrel whip. He didn't need to as all barrels in receivers with their recoil lug up front on the bottom of the receiver whip in the vertical axis. And that' amplified as the recoil axis is above the center of the butt pad and usually above it.
It's the barrel whip of the Remington 40X rimfire rifles that their "experts" thought they could tame. The system had two screws coming up at 45 degree angles to the barrel in the stock's fore end that was what Remington though could be tamed and be repeatable. It used a light bulb and a battery hooked up and each screw was adjusted to just barely contact the barrel. Then different clicks would be put on each screw and tested for accuracy. The theory was that with some amount of pressure on the barrel, it wouild shoot any lot of ammo very accurate.
That was a disaster because folks often sighted in and set those two screws to get small groups. Then after lunch and back on the bench, accuracy went sour again. And shooting in position was never as accurate as off the bench as different ones put different amounts of external pressure on the fore end. Whatever setting made decent groups from a bench were not good for position work.
Folks soon learned to go back to a totally free floating barrel as it would not have any pressure on it at any point regardless of the position it was shoulder in.
That mechanical device was invented by Al Freeland, a decent smallbore shooter in the '50's. He came up with a lot of good stuff, but this one was a disaster.
Winchester used to put a barrel band on their Model 52 target rifles' fore end to clamp it down with varying amounts of pressure. It was not used on their later versions of the 52 as it was proved to be an accuracy robber. Best things folks did with that barrel band was to remove it and hog out the fore end so the barrel free floated.
Anschutz has always totally free floated their match rifle barrels, as far as I know. They don't even epoxy bed the wood stocked ones.
It's the barrel whip of the Remington 40X rimfire rifles that their "experts" thought they could tame. The system had two screws coming up at 45 degree angles to the barrel in the stock's fore end that was what Remington though could be tamed and be repeatable. It used a light bulb and a battery hooked up and each screw was adjusted to just barely contact the barrel. Then different clicks would be put on each screw and tested for accuracy. The theory was that with some amount of pressure on the barrel, it wouild shoot any lot of ammo very accurate.
That was a disaster because folks often sighted in and set those two screws to get small groups. Then after lunch and back on the bench, accuracy went sour again. And shooting in position was never as accurate as off the bench as different ones put different amounts of external pressure on the fore end. Whatever setting made decent groups from a bench were not good for position work.
Folks soon learned to go back to a totally free floating barrel as it would not have any pressure on it at any point regardless of the position it was shoulder in.
That mechanical device was invented by Al Freeland, a decent smallbore shooter in the '50's. He came up with a lot of good stuff, but this one was a disaster.
Winchester used to put a barrel band on their Model 52 target rifles' fore end to clamp it down with varying amounts of pressure. It was not used on their later versions of the 52 as it was proved to be an accuracy robber. Best things folks did with that barrel band was to remove it and hog out the fore end so the barrel free floated.
Anschutz has always totally free floated their match rifle barrels, as far as I know. They don't even epoxy bed the wood stocked ones.
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Well I finally did it. I bought a timney trigger, aluminum pillars, and glass bedded the action, free floated the barrel. Got it all done this past weekend just waiting for it to cool off some outside so I can go shoot and see how it does. My 300wby vanguard had synthetic stock also so involved a lot of research and a little experimentation on the bedding part. I'll post results after I get to shoot again.