Carbine bayonet band - how tight and where?

[floydthecat]

I have a carbine with which I have won a couple of competitions and been well placed in others. Everything is OK except the barrel band, on which I had to fix the screw with a twist of wire in the slot, to stop it gradually shifting and the zero wandering.

In the article "Carbine shooting with accuracy" (available online) it says:

"... a bayonet lug barrel band outshoots the other kinds with the least fooling around. The rebuilds with a bayonet band are accurate ... The tight fit of the bayonet lug barrel band covers up and cures many other problems with carbines."

So I bought a bayonet barrel band (maybe repro, but that doesn't matter). But it does NOT have a "tight fit". In fact, it is a loose fit!

So how tight should the band be? I guess it should be a rubbing fit, like the original band. And where should it be tight? All the way along, or just front and rear?

Any advice will be welcome!

Patrick

How tight is a subjective matter. It should not move once installed at all. Normally, the screw will not bottom-out against the band-nut once snugged and should lock the hand guard in place. If you run the screw down to the point it bottoms and the band is still lose, I’d suggest you have an issue with the nose of the stock. The specification often used for the torque of the band-screw is “snug”.