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free floating barrels

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ToddGeddes63

ToddGeddes63

Member
Aug 15, 2020
890
577
Boise Idaho, United States
I have a friend that has a fx crown mkiII .30 cal ,He was able to meet me at my job site yesterday for a shooting session . As he shot the fx I noticed that the barrel would rise ,creep, seemed to affect accuracy . I am by no means a expert or master of pcp guns, but I am a journeyman redneck, took a piece of foam from t he packaging of the pellets from pa and put it between the barrel and the air bottle, to take up the slack between the two, and the accuracy was back. It was fun to shoot the .30 cal fx and the gun is really nice and functions great. Has anyone had problems with guns without barrel band, I would like to hear from folks with free floating barrels , and if they have had issues and how they have corrected it. 
 
Granted, I'm pretty ignorant (and not just on this subject). But single-point mounted barrels like that just look like a bad idea. And skeletonized stocks, too.

Maybe some kind of clamp like they use with fire extinguishers, where there's a strap with a clamp that gets pushed over-center to lock it. Like this only suitably designed for this task.

fire extinguisher clamps | McMaster-Carr


 
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Generally, a well anchored free floating barrel is best. As with all elements of precision accuracy, consistency is key. A barrel band, or any other contact point, is just one more source of potential variance in pressure. Granted, some of the attachment systems in many rifles gives me pause, small grub screws that the lightest of contact might alter. But, if the shank of the barrel has a sufficiently long mating surface in the action, and with good screws, most work well. 
 
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I have a friend that has a fx crown mkiII .30 cal ,He was able to meet me at my job site yesterday for a shooting session . As he shot the fx I noticed that the barrel would rise ,creep, seemed to affect accuracy . I am by no means a expert or master of pcp guns, but I am a journeyman redneck, took a piece of foam from t he packaging of the pellets from pa and put it between the barrel and the air bottle, to take up the slack between the two, and the accuracy was back. It was fun to shoot the .30 cal fx and the gun is really nice and functions great. Has anyone had problems with guns without barrel band, I would like to hear from folks with free floating barrels , and if they have had issues and how they have corrected it.
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On bottle type pcp's a band will usually be effected by heat and fill pressure and thus flex the barrel. Bands work better mounted on pcp's with dedicated metal tubes. 

Sometimes a harder buna o-ring can stiffen up a barrel liner. Otherwise, there are carbon sleeves available here 910airguntuningandrepairsllc.com that take the place of the o-rings and work wonders for barrel flex by adding tension to the barrel system.
 
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Generally, a well anchored free floating barrel is best. As with all elements of precision accuracy, consistency is key. A barrel band, or any other contact point, is just one more source of potential variance in pressure. Granted, some of the attachment systems in many rifles gives me pause, small grub screws that the lightest of contact might alter. But, if the shank of the barrel has a sufficiently long mating surface in the action, and with good screws, most work well.
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Agreed👍
 
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They say free floating is best but i think the impact is the most accurate fx and it is not a free floating barrel the pellets are loaded in the back and about half way down the barrel is connected in the front of the reciever which would not make it free floating i dont have an impact but someone that does chime in on what i said i blew up the picture but can not tell ?
 
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My ZM2002 Gary Cane Anshutz has 2" into the receiver. Deepest I have run across. Thomas grips the barrel like a lathe collet. Why doesn't everybody? Change barrels is no big deal.

My Morini 10 meter pistol is a Pain in the a@# to change barrels. The 2 set screws for tightning the barrel are in line with the bore. You have to torque each back and forth slightly OR suffer clipping the moderator for bad shots.Anyhow, free floating is the way to go. Most guys I know have what looks like a barrel band but is drilled oversize. This protects the barrel from any hard knocks like dropping off a bench. Oh No! Never happened to me yet.

How about you?
 
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Free floating barrels are great if done correctly and don't flop around. A true tensioned system is best from my experience but others will disagree.One of the floppiest I've ever witnessed with the liner actually being compressed, terrible. This in turn will never hold a zero without some type of modifying. What shoots great today will be off by tomorrow or with the slightest bump. A true tensioned barrel can be aggressively used in the field with no change in poi.
 
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They say free floating is best but i think the impact is the most accurate fx and it is not a free floating barrel the pellets are loaded in the back and about half way down the barrel is connected in the front of the reciever which would not make it free floating i dont have an impact but someone that does chime in on what i said i blew up the picture but can not tell ?
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You are correct. Even though fx likes to call it a free floating it's about as far from free floating as you can get. The actual barrel is under slight compression and supported by orings inside another tube that is in turn supported by more orings in the gun's frame about a foot forward. A free floating barrel is one piece and touches nothing but the gun's receiver.

I still like my impact and it's more accurate than my hold.
 
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The single barrel connection on the Crown is fraught with trouble. The rifle is very accurate, but with the single connection at the receiver, the POI will shift from session to session. A barrel band will solve the problem, but the band needs the clamp on the bottle with nut plates because the printed plastic is too soft. You may note that on the new Maverick, the barrel now mounts with a collet type clinch nut. I assume this will be much better. The Impact does not suffer from this fault because it uses forward barrel support.
 
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The single barrel connection on the Crown is fraught with trouble. The rifle is very accurate, but with the single connection at the receiver, the POI will shift from session to session. A barrel band will solve the problem, but the band needs the clamp on the bottle with nut plates because the printed plastic is too soft. You may note that on the new Maverick, the barrel now mounts with a collet type clinch nut. I assume this will be much better. The Impact does not suffer from this fault because it uses forward barrel support.
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Some isolated Crowns maybe, but the same can be said about other guns regardless of manufacturer as well whether they are unsupported or supported. I've said it before, my G1 30cal Crown is the most consistent take it out and shoot gun, it doesn't shift from session to session but maybe I have the one and only though.. The Boss is also unsupported and it's been a winner for years. 

I have a Impact also but it doesn't have a forward barrel support external of the shroud anyway. Maybe I'm not understanding your comment on that statement though.

Jking
 
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Some isolated Crowns maybe, but the same can be said about other guns regardless of manufacturer as well whether they are unsupported or supported. I've said it before, my G1 30cal Crown is the most consistent take it out and shoot gun, it doesn't shift from session to session but maybe I have the one and only though.. The Boss is also unsupported and it's been a winner for years. 

I have a Impact also but it doesn't have a forward barrel support external of the shroud anyway. Maybe I'm not understanding your comment on that statement though.

Jking
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barrel support -.1608565246.jpg

 
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Since everything is affected by temperature, and temp causing either expansion or contraction, the least amount of influencing components touching the barrel is normally the best way to go. 

If you look at the rimfire and centerfire benchrest world, as well as the other more precision oriented disciplines, the barrels are free floated and supported by rigid actions, which helps avoid POI shifts and certainly aids in the amazing precision these rifles and shooters are capable of. 

In the name of weight reduction, cost, convenience, etc, most airguns are built quite frail in comparison. Personally I'm amazed some of these shoot as well as they do! But that doesn't mean I would trust or expect the more frail systems to hold zero.

But a contact point touching a barrel can change the harmonics of it, maybe also reducing some flex and slack in how the barrel is mounted, which could improve how well it groups. Especially a band could help keeping the thin barrel from being bent beyond what it should be if the barrel is impacted. 

I trust my Mac1 USFT(super rigid receiver) which has a free floated barrel to keep its zero and to consistently shoot well on a constant basis. My FX Royale which also has a free floated barrel comes next. All the rest of my AG's I have to check the zero right before I start shooting, sometimes they are GTG but it seems half the time I have to reset the turrets, sometimes they were way off, which is so annoying to me.
 
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Some isolated Crowns maybe, but the same can be said about other guns regardless of manufacturer as well whether they are unsupported or supported. I've said it before, my G1 30cal Crown is the most consistent take it out and shoot gun, it doesn't shift from session to session but maybe I have the one and only though.. The Boss is also unsupported and it's been a winner for years. 

I have a Impact also but it doesn't have a forward barrel support external of the shroud anyway. Maybe I'm not understanding your comment on that statement though.

Jking
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barrel support -.1608565246.jpg
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Well, that is correct Heavy, I was thinking more toward a barrel to bottle clamp. You are 100% correct though as the Orings forward do support it. I hadn't had enough coffee this morning to fully wake up. Haha, that's my story...
 
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