Barrel tension screw?

[Larry Ashcraft]

My son bought this rifle from my best friend last night. It is as new (14 rounds fired). My friend had a trigger job done, had the barrel floated and had a barrel tension screw installed. He didn't know why, the gunsmith told him he needed it, so he did it.

Particulars:

Ruger No. 1
22-250
Leupold Vari-X III 6.5-20

He shot it this morning and the groups are pretty impressive, especially since we were using factory loads and some handloads for my wife's Browning A-Bolt. Handloads around .75" (and less), factory loads around 2" (horizontal stringing on these).

My question is: what does the barrel tension screw do? Do we tighten or loosen it when vertical stringing is a problem? Or do we just leave it alone?

 

[Chawbaccer]

I'd see how it shoots, if stringing is a problem I'd take the screw out and see what happens.

 

[Jim Watson]

The main effect of the barrel "tension screw" is to keep the foreend hanger from flexing and letting the wood touch the barrel after free floating. If you want to tinker with it to see if it affects accuracy, I guess you will have to shoot the gun and see what happens. I know of no way to predict how YOUR barrel will respond.