barrel floating

[zx10mike]

guys on my tikka the barrel is not floated all the way,would this be bad for accuracy? any tikka owners found this?i'm getting inconsistant accuracy .25 one min .60 the next no real reason or pattern.

[rfd]

that's the first thing i make sure of with any rifle added to my gun closet - float the barrel past the action. only takes some hefty sandpaper and big dowel and some elbow grease. i want a LOT of room twixt barrel and stock. if the rifle's stock is that synthetic wiggly plastic, in almost all cases it won't be stiff enuf so i'll pour in some rockite to stiffen it like, well, concrete (which is what rockite is!). just did that to my RAR in .243win, making it stiff as steel, no movement at all ....

[zx10mike]

cheers rfd i have dremeled it out and it floats to the action now.made no difference to groups mind but hopefully when the barrel gets warm poi will be solid.is your rifle heavy now ? i want to keep mine light and filling it with concrete i suspect won't do this

[rfd]

there's a trade-off compromise for everything. i wanted to add weight, mainly in the butt stock and now the total rifle weight (with scope and bipod) is a bit over 10# which is good with me. stiffening the front end with rockite added at best maybe 6 ounces and cured it from bending and touching the barrel.

but, there are many other considerations for consistent accuracy, and that includes the shooter, the rounds, the scope, the barrel and barrel heat-up, venue conditions, etc.

i only handload and have a LOT of bullets and powders yet to test out, but here's the results of the last 7 of the first 30 rounds i put through my RAR in .243win only 4 dayze ago ... 60gr sierra hp varmint, 37.5gr h4895 ... the first two shots were for dialing in the swfa 10x42 scope @ 100yds (the first 23 rounds were for break-in at 50yds) ...

[zx10mike]

some tidy groups there..i shot of a harris in a farm yard .i must also be honest and say i bought nosler custom brass a a pound a piece which was so good last time i had a .204 i just did not bother with prep.tonight i have gone through things and my first find was a stupid mistake .on my reading dies i had basicly had the de cap pin to low and i can only asume the expander met the bottom of the case and bent.i have been dragging a expander that was seriously on the pee through my necks.now straightened and expander removed.next i turned my atention to the brass.when i first got it a couple of cases had a good size coil of brass trimmings in.i thought thats not good and checked the rest.tonight i have uniformed the primer pockets that were crazy tight and de burred the flash holes and you can see the size difference in the holes ,obviously mr nosler and mr k&m don't agree on flash hole size.i'll re work every possible thing and try again then as i said before accept the rifle /my limits.this may take a while

[rfd]

the way cool thing will be that Eureka! moment when you get the right load for yer rifle dialed in ... it'll happen, good luck!

[zx10mike]

just to finish the thread as such it all came together and floating the barrel certainly did more good than harm .its a factory rifle on a harris bipod and is shooting around the .30"which i might be able to tweak more but that is about as good as i can shoot which is all one can ask from a rifle.