I would like anyones experiences in floating a barrel. I have a Ruger M77 Mark II in a standard stock.

I watched my neighbor relieve the pressure on his Ruger by loosening the barrel from the stock and wrap the barrel with aluminum foil. He then placed the barrel back in the stock and slid a piece of sandpaper in and worked the paper back and forth till he achieved the desired amount of relief. Is this an ok method or can it be done a better way?

Thanks,

7-30 Waters

I never free floated a Ruger, but it can't be that much different from the Remingtons I've done. Buy a piece of 1/2" or 3/4" wooden dowel and cut it down to about 6 inches long. Wrap the sandpaper around the dowel and start sanding. After you've removed enough material from the barrel channel, seal the channel with a couple of coats of varnish and you're set.

When I was playing with my ruger to test if floating the barrel would help ,I cut some shims out of a credit card to fit under the front reciever pad and the rear tang. It releived the binding on the reciever and floated the barrel to test fire it . The groups went from 2" plus to 3/4"



My ruger had a pad in the end of the barrel channel to put pressure on the barrel. I took a 1/2" deep socket and rapped sand paper around to match the barrel channel and sanded away.