Is a free floating barrel a necessity or more of a preference for an AR that will be used for Recreation, Home Defense and WWIII / When China Invades / Zombie Apocalypse ?
A preference.
(necessity for precision shooting)
Hello Dan, Although I am fairly new to the AR, I understand the dynamics between a free floated AR barrel and one that is not. The barrel is basically already free floated until you either set it on a rest or put some kind of up and down pressure on it while you shoot. My AR is 100% stock, yet shoots very tight groups (it actually shoots the best groups after barrel has some build up), but I hold the rifle just under where the barrel screws in and around the magazine housing, hence no pressure on the barrel. If you are shooting off of a rest, in theory, you would have to have the exact same amount of pressure up and down and sideways on your barrel to get a really tight group. The free float tube virtually takes all of that out of the equation. I use a sand bag rest that I made myself that fits right under the receiver end of the barrel and butts against the magazine housing. It is much harder to move the barrel up and down if the rest is right against the lower verses near the end of the heat shield. Plus, I am a cheap skate with 2 16 year old daughters, so I’m trying to make the best of it stock. I am going to eventually free float my AR so that I can concentrate on the bullseye more and not so much on how much I am bending my barrel when I shoot, at least when I use a rest.
Harrell
yep.
a more dynamic environment would see the use of a bipod which then affects the handguard. If its not freefloated then it effectively contacts the barrel.
That’s about $300+ worth of components which pays a lot of cell phone bills (well maybe only a little with TWO 16yr old girls lol) :jester:
Dan, you are correct in that it does not cover a lot of cell phone bills, but it does equate into a trunk load of rolls of toilet paper. (lol)