ADL free float question.

W

Woodchuck2

Guest
I'm trying to get my ADL .243 Win ready for factory shooting. I've gotten some bullets figured out and was inspecting the rifle last night. It has 2 nibs in the muzzle end of the stock that are in contact with the barrel. Could this hurt accuracy by removing them. It seems I read somewhere that in a particular test it degraded accuracy when they floated the barrel.
 
pillar bed the action and free float the barrel. Those nibs are there so the factory can control the amount of airspace around the rest of the barrel for a consistant look on the store shelf. Nothing to do with accuracy, it's about selling guns.

Paul
 
Since the rifle is an ADL I assume that it's got a light barrel on it. Some light barrels do seem to shoot better with some upward pressure at the forend, but I've never had a rifle that did no matter what the barrel weight. Scrape or sand out the factory pressure points in the barrel channel, and shoot the rifle. If accuracy doesn't improve you can always put a pad in the same place with some glass bedding compound. Make sure that the recoil lug is making full contact with the rear of its recess in the stock too. If it's legal where you're at pillar bedding and glassing the ear of the recoil lug recess will help.
 
Whatever the barrel contour, free floating a barrel without bedding the action can very easily reduce accuracy. I would try doing both (floating and bedding) at the same time. What is your current level of accuracy? Do you reload?
 
Larry, the guys where I shoot are pretty lax on requirements (last week I had to shoot my factory Savage in Custom Sporter because I was the only one who showed up for factory). I'm not wanting to do a lot of stuff to this rifle because eventually I want to rebarrel it and put it in a new stock.
 
From my experience shooting factory class 12 years and more ago, and depending on the distances you'll be shooting at I'd be willing to bet that a light barrelled .243 would likely not do too well, so maybe just seeing how it shoots the way it is, then fiddling with it (bedding, floating the barrel, etc) to see what helps and what doesn't (or even hurts) will be informative. As Boyd says just floating the barrel without bedding may well hurt accuracy.

Depends on how much time and energy you want to spend.

Maybe 20 years ago I was fiddling with a 700 Mountain Rifle in .280 Rem and had planned on floating the barrel and bedding the action. It shot very well for a light factory hunting rifle though so I left it like it came from the box outside of getting the trigger down to 3 lb. After working on loads for it the accuracy started to go south so I took it apart and was surprised to find that the recoil lug was only making partial contact with the rear of its recess, and action and barrel were trying to move to get the recoil lug snugged up to the recess. The barrel got floated and the action bedded, and accuracy returned. Sometimes it's hard to tell what a rifle will do without doing some shooting.
 
As with any factory rifle, your at the mercy of the barrel. The problem is that untill all other issues are resolved, you never know what
the barrel will do. Many factory guns will surprise you and shoot pretty good, once they have been gone thru. Having never seen a factory
rifle that was correct in bedding, I rarely shoot one without doing some work. There are however lots of other items that require attention
 
remington puts those pressure points in there for a reason. the reason being they prefer that all rifles shoot fair, instead of some shooting great and some shooting terribly. i personally would float the barrel and see what happens. if it shoots worse, you can always put pressure points back in without altering the appearance of the rifle.
 
My experience with ADL's (synthetic stocks) is the recoil lugs don't bottom out in the slot of the stock. So with my .243 ADL, I simply placed a little metal bar (~.060 thick) inside the recoil lug slot to let the recoil lug rest on, and thus it raise the barrel up until it "floated." Removing the little pressure point spots at the end of the stock don't help. After floating the barrel, I am getting 1/2" groups with 100 gr. Sierra Spitzer handloads.

Hope this helps.

Gene

Edit: I employ the same principle with my Ruger M77's except I use two thicknesses of an old credit card to shim the action up with. It can really make a difference with a Ruger!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Woodchuck, I had a 30-06 Adl factory that shot decent with the same plastic stock and pressure pads on the end as yours has, but a friend sold me a new hs-presicion for a hundred bucks and I couldnt resist leaving well enough alone. I had a smith put a hinged floor plate and bed the action float the barrel and lighten the trigger. Boy did I mess up we could not get it to shoot for nothing.To make a long story short, I ended up putting about .040 rubber were pads use to be. And it shot great especially in cool weather with 178 A-Maxs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top