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Thread: Free Floating

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    Free Floating

    Can some please explain in laymans terms how free floating a barrel works?
    I have free floated barrels on several of my rifles. But my mind tells me if I could support/lock the barrel on both ends, it would be stationary and should be more accurate. It seems like it would eliminate barrel whip and cut down on harmonics. But obviously, I'm wrong.
    Independent Field Testing/R & D

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    Re-opened after OP let me know he did not find any answers.

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    Thanks Katar for the links.
    I'm not asking about the benefits of free float-less stress on the barrel, mounting capabilities for accessories-I know that aspect.

    What if you were able to use the free float hand guard but be able to secure the muzzle end also? Would that not make the barrel even more stable? It seems that the barrel would not have the ability to move.
    I'm asking if this would be a step forward or back for accuracy, or if anyone has ever attempted this.
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    Quote Originally Posted by shadow65 View Post
    Thanks Katar for the links.
    I'm not asking about the benefits of free float-less stress on the barrel, mounting capabilities for accessories-I know that aspect.

    What if you were able to use the free float hand guard but be able to secure the muzzle end also? Would that not make the barrel even more stable? It seems that the barrel would not have the ability to move.
    I'm asking if this would be a step forward or back for accuracy, or if anyone has ever attempted this.
    My take:
    Lets assume the problem is a loss of accuracy due to barrel whip.

    I think I get where you are going and lets assume you have a 16" carbine barrel. Lets use a 16" rail and pretend there is a means to attach the barrel to the end of a hand guard rail, lets assume a Larue rail and assume the mount to the upper is rigid.

    What will happen is the rail will prevent the muzzle from moving, essentially acting as a 2.5" diameter barrel. In doing so, you will be transferring some energy somewhere, most likely back to the upper. I cant say that this will be good or bad. The other issue is that the gas tube is still in the barrel and there are forces exerted inside that will cause movement of the barrel because the gas block exerts force on the barrel not along the axis. The barrel will still flex and have some form of a wave action inside the barrel, just restrained at two ends and it might very well be at a much higher frequency. This may or may not cause problems as well.

    Now consider that a free float tube is designed to keep the support hand from influencing the barrel. You now have direct contact again, negating the gains of a free float tube. It may not behave like jerking on the sling, but there will still be issues. You have also potentially subjected optics (and small screws) to a vibration they were better isolated from with the current set up.

    The unknowns over time do not seem to address any problems (loss of accuracy due to whip) as we do not fire our next shot until the recoil has been addressed and the target reacquired anyway. So even if the barrel is cut out of a dumpster sized block of steel, the time it takes to get the next sight picture is longer than it takes the barrel to stop. I would imagine the trigger reset takes longer than it takes the barrel to stop whipping.

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    Okay, so vibration, regardless of how secure the barrel is, will still influence the accuracy.
    Thanks for answering the question.
    I had a 10/22 that had the stock bedded. It just never shot as well as I thought it should. I took a chance and put bedding in the front of the stock so the barrel was actually resting on it, and the groups got better. That's what got me questioning.
    The 10/22 was probably a fluke.
    Dave
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    Quote Originally Posted by shadow65 View Post
    Okay, so vibration, regardless of how secure the barrel is, will still influence the accuracy.
    Thanks for answering the question.
    I had a 10/22 that had the stock bedded. It just never shot as well as I thought it should. I took a chance and put bedding in the front of the stock so the barrel was actually resting on it, and the groups got better. That's what got me questioning.
    The 10/22 was probably a fluke.
    Dave
    No, with the 10/22 you were using, you probably were just not exerting enough force to really move the barrel.

    In the case of an AR, if it is your first shot accuracy you seek, resting the muzzle-restrained gun on anything or holding the rail will move the barrel. The better option is to not move the barrel when you support it. Second shot accuracy will depend more on your reset and second sight picture than the barrel whip, but I believe all of those are secondary to the ammo you are using. Long range type shooting isn't my game, mechanical engineering is.

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    Thank you for the answers.
    Independent Field Testing/R & D

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    a hanging barrel is a more accurate barrel than one that gets moved around by pressure on the handguard.

    if you could come up with a handguard so rigid that it was un-moveable, you could immobilize the barrel with it... but something like that would probably be too heavy to have any practical application. fortunately, simply letting the barrel hang gets the platform as accurate as it needs to be.

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    What got me thinking was a video I saw of a rifle being fired in slow motion. The barrel whip was unbelievable. My simple mid can't wrap around a barrel moving that much and being as accurate as a stationary one.
    I talked with my buddy that went through sniper school. He explained the harmonics, vibration, ect...
    I know that's the way it is, so I'll just take it as that.
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