I hear you. I've owned a number of remingtons from the 80s that had raised spots in the stock (wood or synthetic) near the forend cap. None of them shot well until I removed that pressure point. I am a bit puzzled why pressure points would work with a wood stock, which can expand and contract with temp and humidity - seems like sometimes it would be apply more pressure, and sometimes less. And consistency has always been the key to accuracy. Floating offers that consistency.

However, floating also means that all "consistency" from repeated shots must come from the action, action support, and barrel itself. I would conjecture that if floating doesn't work, then something is not quite right in the action or barrel; i.e. untrue bolt or action face or perhaps uneven lugs. In other words, if an action or barrel is not quite up to snuff, I would bet that pressure could actually help the situation. If this is true, then the downside of floating is that it puts more demands on the quality of the barrel and of the installation process.

I have no idea if this is true, just thinking aloud...

9.3X62 - not disputing you at all, this is one of those things like barrel break-in where six different experts will have six different opinions. Makes it fun for us laymen, huh?

Chris Dichter of Pac-Nor insists on free floating for his barrels. One smith I know insists that all but bull barrels be full length bedded with upward pressure.

Another smith of good repute and long experience says if you hand him a factory Remington he would bet money that it would shoot if you full length bedded the barrel with no pressure - just "laid it gently in the bedding compound all nice and squishy". He thinks most factory tubes benefit from pressure but a custom tube like a Pac-Nor, Shilen or whatever will give best results if free floated.

The fellow that figures out how to ask a barrel what it wants before hand is going to make a million dollars.

Ya rolls the dice and ya takes yer chances...



The problem with the pressure pads as they come from the factory is that they may not bear evenly on the barrel but instead push it up and to the right or left or whatever.



However, factory barrels, especially light contour barrels, DO often shoot better with pressure.



As my first statement implies, this is one of those things you just have to try.



First - free float the barrel. You did not say if you are handloading or not, but either way give the free floated barrel a fair shake. Try a few different loads or different brands/weights of ammo.



Then - put a business card or three under the barrel about an inch from the forend tip. Don't over do it, but use enough so that they are tight enough that you can't pull them out. Usually you have to loosen the action screws a bit to be able to slide the cards in under the barrel. make sure to squish the barrel down onto the cards good while you re-tighten the screws (a handy little tip from "been there and done that"). Try again with a few different loads. This is free and if it shoots worse then you can remove the cards.



If it shoots better then leave those cards in place, take the rifle to a gunsmith and have him duplicate the pressure. He does this by turning the rifle upside down in a vise clamped to the stock and hanging weights from the barrel right in front of the forend until he can just slide the cards out. Then he will add a bedding pad under the barrel with the same amount of weight hanging from it, providing uniform contact and pressure up under the barrel.



I did this with a factory Model 70 - pressure was uneven in the barrel channel, it shot okay for two or three but then threw flyers. I free floated it and it shot worse, added a glass bedding pad with 8 pounds of upward pressure (equivalent of 3 business cards worth) and now it shoots leetle tiny clusters.



Now the wrinkle - if your stock is a factory injection molded stock then you may be better to free float and take your chances. The "tupperware" stocks MAY not be stiff enough to provide a good upward pressure. I've heard folks claim they are okay and others claim they aren't. I don't know - never owned one.



But the bottom line is - it doesn't shoot like you want now, so there's no harm in experimenting.

my model 7 is in .243 with a wood stock and shot much better after i floated the barrel and bedded the action. although it still shows a decided preference for sierra 100 grn pro hunter bullets.

i did bed a pressure pad near the tip but found no difference and have since removed it.

this being said, all guns are different. the old adage says lightweight sporters like pressure on the barrel and only heavier barrels respond well to floating. also that floating will often make your groups more consistent but not a whole lot smaller. are those statements true? i would guess that with a large enough sample population those tendencies may hold true but my experience tells me that you just don't know what your gun will do until you try different things.

also, if you don't reload be sure to try a few different bullet weights and brands of factory ammo. good chance that one will shoot better.

Yes, floating should help. I float all my sporter-weight rifles, even the ultralights. I've never had much luck with pressure points, and I am not even convinced that the idea of a pressure point make a lot of sense, at least in a wood stocked rifle. McMillan, who makes stocks and BR rifles, claims that 98% of rifles shoot their best with a floated barrel. My experience is consistent with this claim.

BTW, there is floating and the FLOATING. Some smiths cut a substantial channel around the barrel, others do a very subtle float. Make sure you know what you're asking for. IN my experience, a nice uniform subtle float works just fine.

Good luck.

My experience is that free floating makes a rifle more consistent and may eliminate vertical stringing. It will not always make a rifle more accurate; in fact I've seen the opposite several times.

I have a Remington Model 7 in 300 Rem SAUM. I consistently get 2 really close, sometimes touching holes in paper at 100 yards. I nearly always get a wide right flyer shot in a three shot group. I spoke with a guy last week about it. He told me that the barrel needs to be free floated. It has a factory synthetic stock and I thought that sporter rifles are supposed to shoot better with some dampening pressure on the barrel. I want as much accuracy as I can achieve while of course minimizing the number of times I have to re-zero. Please help with this rifle. Thanks in advance.

Ooops! I do handload and havetried only one of my loads in this rifle. I started with 58.5 grains of IMR 4350, Nosler Partition 180 grain, and worked up to the manual max in one grain increments. I shot one three shot group at 100 yards with each of these loads as well as one three shot group from a box of Remington factory loads pushing 180 gr. partitions. The results are pretty common among all of those loads...at least one flyer and 90% of the time, it is to the right. I allowed 5 minutes between shots.

I have to be honest and tell ya that I don't know what type of stock I have other than it is synthetic and it is factory. I'm wandering about one of the aftermarket stocks that can be "tuned" as well.

I had a Tikka .270 that did the same thing and the barrel was floated by a mile. I mean you could sling a cat underneath the barrel at any point.
The problem with it was heat buildup. If I waited patiently and spaced my shots it would put all three in the same hole at 100 yards. I think this indicates a metal stress problem in the barrel itself. I sometimes wonder if forend pressure would help control this problem.
All guns are different, it could be in your case that floating will solve it, there's no hard and fast rules.

That is exactly what the guy told me he thought was causing the problem. He suggested putting a small piece of cardboard between the barrel and end of the stock, but I have no space. I have 2 Rugers and 2 Remington centerfire rifles and the dollar test won't fly with any of them.

I glass bed all my rifles and about 3 inchs of the barrel forward of the action. The rest of the way is free floated I have found that this works out the best for me.

I use mostly wood stocks, but what I like to do is first free float the barrel, then bed the action. Then on some rifles I will do as previously suggested and bed the barrel with no pressure. I think the two most important things are one, to have the action bedded rock solid, and two, to make sure that there is not pressure from the stock on the bbl in random and uneven spots, and free floating is the simplest and surest way to achive that.