Tightening a Loose Forward Handguard
I read the post about the "O" ring between the front handguard and the gas cylinder to improve accuracy. Howsome-ever.......
I had a loose front handguard and put a strip of felt between the rear of the front handguard and front of the rear handguard so the front handguard had no slack forward or backward. It worked.
I read somewhere there should be some slack, i.e., the front handguard shouldn't be firmly buttressed. The reasoning is it will cause inaccuracy in the shots fired because it may tend to distort (bend, slightly) the barrel due to heat expansion.
Can anyone corroborate this reasoning?
P.S. How do you do spell check?
Thomas
Tightening loose front handgaurd.
On a standard Garand the front handgaurd should have a small amount of play. The theory being that as the barrel heats up and lengthens it will change the barrel harmonics. Also you should have a small amount of clearance between the rear handgaurd and the front of the receiver. On a match rifle most people remove metal handgaurd support then epoxy and screw the front hangaurd to the barrel band while opening up the nose cap on the front handgaurd so it doesn't contact the barrel or the rear of the gas cylinder. This would disqualify the rifle from JCG match participation though.
Terry