Well guys, this may or may not have been asked before, but I guess I am going to ask it again.

Are you guys Free Floating the Forends on your Contenders? (Except for the contact where the attaching screws go into the barrel of course.)

The reason I am asking is, I have been shooting Indoor Bench Rest with a Super 14 Match Grade .22 LR Barrel. To this I have added a 3x12x Burris LER Handgun Scope. The first 3 targets I shot were fired with this barrel on my Stainless-Steel Frame using a Rynite Forend that had been Free Floated except for the saddles where the attaching screws go through.

When my Blued Frame (and the one I had planned on using with this Barrel) returned from Fox Ridge Outfitters after having the Easy Open Conversion done to it, I promptly put the Super 14 Match Grade .22 LR Barrel on this Blued Frame with the Walnut Herrett Finger Groove Grip and matching Forend on it. I could not get close to the scores with this frame and wood that I had shot with the Stainless Frame and Rynite Grip and Forend.

I have since opened up the barrel channel of the Walnut Forend, and glued washers into the bottom of the countersunk holes in the forend so that it is truly Free Floated except for these two contact points. I have not had the opportunity to shoot it since I did this modification (my Scope is back at Burris getting the AO changed so I can eliminate Parallax totally at 50 feet).

I was just wondering if anyone else has done something like this, and what the outcome was.

Thanks

Larry

Larry,

Greetings! I use free floated forends almost exclusively, and I prefer the Hanger bar or aluminum pillar bedded variety. [In my experiences, the hanger bar has the slight accuracy edge over the aluminum pillar beds, but the difference is so slight as to be almost negligible.]

IMO, using the rubber washers, while still superior to having full contact with the barrel, also can do weird things to accuracy and barrel harmonics sometimes, as the forend will tend to vibrate some according to the harmonics of a given round, much like a car motor held in place to the frame with rubber motor mounts. Resting the washer type bedded forends [the harder the rest, the worse it seems to get] tends to exagerate the effects of this as well.

The Hanger bar or aluminum pillar bedded variety do not seem nearly so susceptible to this effect no matter the softness or hardness of the rest, or even when using a bipod, which effect I have observed MOST [not all] of the time when using the rubber washer floating method.

So, given my personal experiences, I use the Hanger bar or aluminum pillar bedded variety of free floated forends almost exclusively

The forend on the pistol below is an 11" Virgin Valley hanger bar floated forend, with a 14" 22lr match T/C barrel.

Accuracy is outstanding: witness the group below as well, 100yrds

Good looking set up Sean. What part of Va are you in?

Thanks Sean. I guess I should have been more specific. The washers I glued to the recesses in the forend are not rubber, but in fact metal (guess I never paid attention to whether they are steel or alluminum).

Thanks again.

Larry

Hi Sean
Really nice lookin gun. What kind of grip is that and have you tried it on a barrel with recoil or just on a .22.
Mike