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Mossberg 100 ATR- free floated barrel

Awastatyme

.270 WIN
I know that the atr100 is stated to have a free floated barrel, but I can only slide a dollar bill 1" down the stock.
Is this somthing I sould let Mossberg know about or go ahead and brake out the drimmle and do it myself?
 
Re: Free floated barrel

the way I understand it, having a free floating barrel only really matters if you have a wood stock.....anyone else know different.? What is the stock made of ?
 
Re: Free floated barrel

I believe the stock is synthetic...and Oli is correct, free floating only helps with wood furniture, because it is prone to warping. All else is a marketing gimmick...
 
Re: Free floated barrel

...but but but... I want my barrel so free floating that it lifts right off the gun like a balloon from a little kids hand! :lol:
 
Re: Free floated barrel

SHOOTER13 said:
I believe the stock is synthetic...and Oli is correct, free floating only helps with wood furniture, because it is prone to warping. All else is a marketing gimmick...
Yeah kinda, it’s not really warpage because the wood on a stock is kiln dried and not prone to warp....but since it is kiln dried it is very likely to be affected by humidity changes and rainy days. Think of it like a sponge , as the wood picks up moisture in the air it swells and pushes against the barrel ever so slightly bending the barrel by a hair throwing your shots off. Dry climate no big deal but in wet climates it can give you very inconsistent shots. Floating the barrel allows for the wood under the barrel to breath. Synthetic stocks should actually be glass bedded and a tight fit to the barrel to reduce barrel harmonics….
 
Re: Free floated barrel

Yes my stock is Synthetic.

oli700 said:
[quote="SHOOTER13"Synthetic stocks should actually be glass bedded and a tight fit to the barrel to reduce barrel harmonics….

That is something I did not know.
I guess the best thing right now would be to leave it alone until I can afford to have it glassed bedded.
At least I will not have to worry about messing up the camouflage that my ATR came with.
 
Re: Free floated barrel

Well sir, it is just a thing to do if you are shooting competitively or your life depends on all your bullets going in the same hole. If you can get a 3 inch group at 100 yards you are good for 90% of hunting. A friend had his Ruger M77 done last year. I did some trigger work for him the year before so I spent some time with the gun. I shot it after, about five rounds and not one right after another but I took my time. I could not tell a difference. Does it make a difference technically , yes but I think it is more noticeable if you take fast shots and get the barrel hot and are real dialed into your rifle.....he did it because everything has to be perfect, and that’s cool too but he admits that he can’t notice too much either. The gun shot 1 moa before the stock work...he obsessed with a sub 1 moa M77
 
Re: Free floated barrel

Yeah I should be ok since my farthest hunting shot where I will be hunting at will be between 75-100 yards.
 
Re: Free floated barrel

oli700 said:
SHOOTER13 said:
I believe the stock is synthetic...and Oli is correct, free floating only helps with wood furniture, because it is prone to warping. All else is a marketing gimmick...
Yeah kinda, it’s not really warpage because the wood on a stock is kiln dried and not prone to warp....but since it is kiln dried it is very likely to be affected by humidity changes and rainy days. Think of it like a sponge , as the wood picks up moisture in the air it swells and pushes against the barrel ever so slightly bending the barrel by a hair throwing your shots off. Dry climate no big deal but in wet climates it can give you very inconsistent shots. Floating the barrel allows for the wood under the barrel to breath. Synthetic stocks should actually be glass bedded and a tight fit to the barrel to reduce barrel harmonics….

====================================

Kinda what I meant...but you nailed it Oli !

Just like solid wood doors that swell in the humidity of summer, not closing right... and then close tight in winter, as they should.

Thanks... ;)
 
Re: Free floated barrel

One other aspect of free floated stocks that no one has mentioned is the barrel heating up.

As the steel heats up it expands. If it's not free floated as it expands it will push against the stock a differing amount shot to shot making your consistency worse.

There are many benefits to free floating the barrel, wood, synthetic, or otherwise. Knowing what I know now, I'll never own a non-floated rifle again.

My stock was touching my barrel when I checked it too. I used a knife to shave it a little because it was a small amount. If it's touching a lot I'd break out the dremmel. I'd also remove the action from the stock before attempting anything so you don't slip and muff up the finish on the metal.
 
Re: Free floated barrel

Be careful when cutting away material on the stock to get that barrel free floated. All barrel needs is free floated up to where barrel flares out before being joined to receiver, which is somewhere around 2 to 3 inches from receiver, because this is an area where you will have expansion only, you should not have barrel flex. You want that receiver solid in the stock, which for a synthetic stock, it's impossible when plastic has a give to it. I can tell you that with my ATR in 30-06 using 150gr Rem CoreLokts, with Nikon scope, I can put 3 holes into the size of a Half Dollar at 100yds, so I ain't touching my stock, which has barrel free floated for 1/2 way up to receiver. So make sure you're using the best factory, or reloaded ammo that you know your rifle will shoot before doing any cutting of the stock. Remember these are HUNTING rifles, NOT TARGET rifles, even though they can shoot just as well as any other Factory rifle out there.
Del
 
I disagree. I think stock to barrel contact is bad whether it's wood or synthetic. You may not notice much or any difference, especially if you're not using a bipod, but if you can't make the amount of pressure against the barrel the same every time, it will affect accuracy to some extent.
 
I noticed my barrel was touching the stock on one side but not the other. I didn't really pay too much attention when i first got my ATR but after i saw this thread I checked. I didnt have a file or anything like that but im good with a dremel so ground down the one side of the inside of the stock so it wouldn't touch the barrel anymore. Curious now when I shoot it to see any differences in accuracy.
 
When I free floated mine what I did was I removed the stock from the barreled receiver and put a layer of duct tape on the barrel to keep from marring the finish. Then I put everything back together with a strip of 220 sandpaper in between the stock and the barrel. Then I worked it back and forth whitightening the screws until they were tight. Then I took it back apart and removed the tape for the barrel. Doing it that way I kept my work nice and even.
 
When I used a sling in a 2 point military support, I could flex the stock enough to touch the barrel. Changing to a Boyds stock eliminated that.
 
I took the do-it-yourself route.

I had noticed after I brought the rifle home that the forearm was curved badly into the barrel, but didn't want to do anything about it right away as it was minute of coyote on the ones I had taken up to that point (not all that far really for a .243 on doggies), and still shiny new to me.
After the front sling mount - if you want to call it that - got munched by a bi-pod I had on it, and then missed a dog, I began doing some investigating.

Turns out even the trigger was rubbing! :confused: Dremel!! come hither my most excellent space making-polisherupper! Man, I hogged that thing out like, .... like, .. ... lets just say LOTS. I mean everything. I didn't care about the stock anymore. Good thing too because as I was doing the forearm I remembered reading somewhere that when doing this to a plastic stock that it will want to curve in even more to a point where it stops. "They" were right. As I post more around here you'll see the gap lol, but like I said... don't care. I'm about functional!!

As I look at the inside of the stock now, the only spots I DID NOT touch was where the action naturally sits on the stock screw "pillars", the lug area, and the back tab shelf behind the trigger hole. I DID hit basically all around the inside edge of the whole stock, where it needed it ...and the trigger hole (crazy!).

I torqued my stock screws down to 20 in/lbs and called it done. The result? ... I really don't remember this rifle being this accurate. It's only diet has ever been roughly 100 or so 55ish gr 3800ish ft/sec song stoppers. How often do I clean it? Haha, ...hahaha. K, where was I...

Sub moa, even from my brother who hadn't shot it yet (although he did beat me at .22 battleship!). (Twice).

I had plans of bedding some other certain areas but ... why? lol I guess till I miss the next dog..
 
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