Post by drhenley on May 25, 2018 15:58:20 GMT -5
This has always been a mystery to me. But something I read on a New Zealand web site finally made me understand what's going on with 10/22s.
The 10/22 is designed to have TWO mounting points to the stock. One is the actions screw, and the other is the barrel band. The rear of the action actually floats a bit, or is intended to. If the rear of the action were solidly bedded in the stock, then any stock warpage will pull the barrel off of being true, but with the rear of the action able to move around, and the action screw not too tight, then stock warpage just moves the position of the rear of the action in the stock.
This setup allows the barrel band to dampen barrel vibrations.
It works well enough for most purposes, but it just won't allow real precision.
There are two problems with free floating a 10/22 barrel. One is the way the barrel is mounted to the receiver. It's not a very solid setup, and a heavy barrel will cause the aluminum action to bend somewhat. There are aftermarket steel 10/22 actions to overcome this. But the most common solution is to use a carbon fiber sleeve to stiffen a lightweight barrel. Then you avoid over stressing the action.
The second problem is that rear of the action that is not solidly bedded in the stock. If you free float the barrel, you are left with only one solid bedding point - the action screw. So the rear of the action needs glass bedding when floating the barrel.
My 10/22 has a stainless barrel without a band, but it still contacts the stock in the same place as the regular 10/22, just no band to hold it down. I suspect this was a cause of the inaccuracy of my 10/22 - it relied on upward pressure from the stock alone, and probably was stressing the aluminum receiver too much. Whatever the cause, it had TERRIBLE accuracy with any ammo I tried in it.
As an experiment, I put some tape on the rear of the action to make it snug in the stock. One piece of tape wasn't sufficient - I had to have two layers of tape to get it snug - there was that much play at the rear of the receiver. Then I simply used a plumbing washer on the action screw to raise up the action, and therefore tilting up the barrel sufficiently to free float it without having to permanently modify the stock.
Then the problem was finding 22 ammo that gave the barrel the correct harmonics since the barrel was no longer being dampened.
I quickly discovered that Federal AutoMatch had the right harmonics and was shooting very small groups with it.
The vertical stringing in the picture (5 shots at 30 yards) is probably the shooter:
But the ammo that it REALLY liked was some high dollar German made SK "Standard Plus." Again, 5 shots at 30 yards:
The 10/22 is designed to have TWO mounting points to the stock. One is the actions screw, and the other is the barrel band. The rear of the action actually floats a bit, or is intended to. If the rear of the action were solidly bedded in the stock, then any stock warpage will pull the barrel off of being true, but with the rear of the action able to move around, and the action screw not too tight, then stock warpage just moves the position of the rear of the action in the stock.
This setup allows the barrel band to dampen barrel vibrations.
It works well enough for most purposes, but it just won't allow real precision.
There are two problems with free floating a 10/22 barrel. One is the way the barrel is mounted to the receiver. It's not a very solid setup, and a heavy barrel will cause the aluminum action to bend somewhat. There are aftermarket steel 10/22 actions to overcome this. But the most common solution is to use a carbon fiber sleeve to stiffen a lightweight barrel. Then you avoid over stressing the action.
The second problem is that rear of the action that is not solidly bedded in the stock. If you free float the barrel, you are left with only one solid bedding point - the action screw. So the rear of the action needs glass bedding when floating the barrel.
My 10/22 has a stainless barrel without a band, but it still contacts the stock in the same place as the regular 10/22, just no band to hold it down. I suspect this was a cause of the inaccuracy of my 10/22 - it relied on upward pressure from the stock alone, and probably was stressing the aluminum receiver too much. Whatever the cause, it had TERRIBLE accuracy with any ammo I tried in it.
As an experiment, I put some tape on the rear of the action to make it snug in the stock. One piece of tape wasn't sufficient - I had to have two layers of tape to get it snug - there was that much play at the rear of the receiver. Then I simply used a plumbing washer on the action screw to raise up the action, and therefore tilting up the barrel sufficiently to free float it without having to permanently modify the stock.
Then the problem was finding 22 ammo that gave the barrel the correct harmonics since the barrel was no longer being dampened.
I quickly discovered that Federal AutoMatch had the right harmonics and was shooting very small groups with it.
The vertical stringing in the picture (5 shots at 30 yards) is probably the shooter:
But the ammo that it REALLY liked was some high dollar German made SK "Standard Plus." Again, 5 shots at 30 yards: