Free floating

[wisconsinteacher]

Well I took my Ruger M77 apart after work and plan on free floating the barrel. I have had the rifle for 17 years and it shoots well, but I would like to get make it better. On the wood stock, you can see there the barrel marked the front of it. I am planning on using sandpaper to work it down slowly. I hope this works out for me. Do you think it is worth the time to do it?

 

[JD338]

wisconsinteacher

Only you can say if its worth it.
What kind of accuracy are you currently getting?
What level of accuracy are to looking to achieve?

JD338

 

[DrMike]

Only you can say if its worth it.

+1

Gun cranks always believe it is worthwhile to tweak their rifles. Whether that really effects anything may be debatable; but few cranks will quit trying to get a smidgen more accuracy out of their beloved rifles.

 

[cloverleaf]

DR Mike- If you could get me to LISTEN to that bit of wisdom, you would have saved me hundreds of hourd of therapy (read "tweaking" ) CL

 

[Elkman]

clover

Unless I am mistaken I do not have a rifle that can be floated that is not floated. After you finish floating and it still needs more tweaking then pillar bed and glass the recoil lug area and up the barrel a couple of inches. If all this makes it worse you can always add more glass.

Tip: a coarse round file works well, so does coarse sandpaper on the correct size dowel. After you get "that" shiny spot to disappear take a dollar bill and run it down the barrel channel to make sure another one wasn't created when you removed the first one!!!. Just remember it can "almost" always be fixed!!!!

 

[HeathSexton]

Free floating has helped all my Rugers except one, and it just shoots bad.

 

[PJGunner]

A quick and dirty way to see if free floating with make things better. Take an old expired credit card and cut a piece to fit under the receiver just behind the recoil lug. Tale another piece of the card and put it under the rear of the action so as to not warp it or put it under undue stress. Load up and shoot. Use a larger size targe at fost to insure your groups will be on the paper. In fact, I have a couple of rifle that shoot so well that way that I left the "shims" in place. They've been on those guns for years. I won't say it will improve your accuracy, only that it will give you an idea if free floating the barrel will make a difference. Where you go from there is up to you. Can't hurt to try and if groups turn out to be worse, at least you won't have to figure out how to replace the wood you removed.
Paul B.