FX Barrel Bands working well.

Recently competed in a rimfire tournament and had a lot of FX Impact M3's present shooting the 50 yard bench. Almost everyone had a barrel band on their .22 shooting the Altaros 40 grain kings. I never tried barrel bands but they all stated that it makes a significant difference. Anyone else agree? They were grabbing theirs from Tremor Air-guns. Has anyone tried these barreled bands and are barrel bands that affective?
 
i'm curious to hear the general consensus on barrel bands on air rifles.

....in long range rifle we generally tried to have the barrels free floating without anything else attached to the barrel such as a bipod or a carry strap etc.

some did advocate a pad support to Ruger 10/22 .22lr barrels....i believe because of the somewhat unconventional attachment of the barrel to the receiver
 
Recently competed in a rimfire tournament and had a lot of FX Impact M3's present shooting the 50 yard bench. Almost everyone had a barrel band on their .22 shooting the Altaros 40 grain kings. I never tried barrel bands but they all stated that it makes a significant difference. Anyone else agree? They were grabbing theirs from Tremor Air-guns. Has anyone tried these barreled bands and are barrel bands that affective?
I used to have a challenger pro long barrel (30" barrel), that had a barrel band. It kept the barrel straight, and kept it from moving around when handling it. Without the band there was a slight droop towards the end of the air tank.
 
Touchy subject. The maker of my air guns says not to let the barrel band touch the barrel. The barrel does move a little, yet it retains its accuracy.Free-floated barrels are what they are; the band is attached to the air tube and circles the barrel,but does not touch it.
It would seem that the band that touches creates a problem due to harmonics, but if a barrel is not securely fastened to the receiver, it needs the band. Thus, because of inferior barrel mating to the receiver, the bands may be needed.
to go a step farther,some custom guns have threaded barrel ,and thus can be free floated.
For the average airgunner no need to worry about any of this.