Advice for floating barrel myself?

[Berper]

Hi guys,

Thinking about giving a little home-gunsmithing a go and floating the barrels on a pair of rifles.

Seems simple enough but I haven't done any hands on work with my guns before, is there's anything I'm missing or if it's pretty straight forward?

Any tips for doing it properly the first time?

Cheers.

[Vati]

It's easy as mate.

Measure the width of your barrel at the end of the stock and get a piece of dowel from Bunnings that is 2mm wider.

Take out the action so you have just the stock, wrap some sand paper around the dowel, and run in back and forth down the channel of the barrel.

It will be too wide to touch the bottom to start and you'll just be sanding off the sides of the stock in the channel, once you touch the bottom of it go deep enough to get it 2mm from where the barrel was and you're done.

Go slow and re-seat the action (no need to screw it in) a few times along the way to see how it's going and you should have no problems.

Takes a few minutes and voilà, 1 floated rifle barrel.

[Lorgar]

RE: the sandpaper, I forget what it's called exactly but Bunnings do a 'non-clogging' sandpaper.

It helps in expelling the timber/laminate dust rather than caking it on your paper and bringing the process to a halt.

Will make life a little easier for you...

[AlanK]

This is next on my to-do list too

Thanks for the how-to Vati.

[Blackened]

Slow and steady and you'll have a hard time mucking it up.

I also did mine way back when I had little experience in such things, floated in no problems though.

Bedding your rifle is a more serious challenge, but floating the barrel should be no problem for you.

[mahna]

Slow and steady and you'll have a hard time mucking it up.

You haven't seen my handman "skills"

I'd end up cutting the stock in two somehow knowing my luck.

[RealNick]

RE: the sandpaper, I forget what it's called exactly but Bunnings do a 'non-clogging' sandpaper.

It helps in expelling the timber/laminate dust rather than caking it on your paper and bringing the process to a halt.

Will make life a little easier for you...

I think you're thinking of stearated aluminium oxide paper - looks like white sand paper.

It's use in furniture making so should be somewhere around that section in store? As you say, handles the dust better without caking for a more consistent finish.