Free Floating v Pressure bedding

[zonie]

Isaac:  I'm not sure I would do anything in your case 1/2 " after a lengthy cooling is pretty good    Anytime you switch something going from pressure bedded to free floated you run the risk of things not working as you hoped.   In other words instant gratifaction may not happen and a lot of extra load work-up can be needed.  Sometimes you luck out, but I find that unusual.  This is one of the reason I don't agree with letting a barrel cool between shots.   Normally what I do testing  after fouling shots is fire 5 round groups one shot after another then stop and let it cool to the touch and shoot another test load and repeat .  This will tell me more about a rifle than letting it cool between shots.  

What size groups are you getting when you don't let the barrel cool , one shot right after the other ?   If it's 1 1/2 "  that's acceptable for a scoped std hunting rifle ,  1 " is pretty darn good , 3/4" is really good and 1/2" is exceptional,   those are the standards I strive to attain, doesn't mean I get there with all rifles easily.  

I've seen it to where the shots may be stringing vertical,  at an angle,  or worst case horizontal ,  I might raise an eyebrow, but the groups are still within acceptable sizes.  At least it's telling me down the road if I choose what needs to be done.  Let's face it some rifles will never cluster in one ragged hole.  

A good friend of mine awhile back got drawn for antelope here which is an extremely hard tag to get,  and decided his 7mm rem mag wasn't good enough and decided to free float, bad mistake, it was throwing bullets all over the place.  Crisis management set's in and nothing he did worked to get the rifle shooting until he put one of those donuts on the barrel.  My point is be careful for what you ask for, and you don't have the time to correct it.

I do agree with Duby for lack of a better word gripping the stock and having forend movement.  I think that can be very true under certain conditions.  Very small free floating gaps in the barrel channel,  very lite forend contours, crappy stock, being ham handed with a lot of pressure, use of non swivel head bi-pods I see it a lot (not so much on a bench , but when shifting the rifle around sideways), actions bedded only and no bedding forward 3 or 4 inches into the barrel channel.  That just shortens up the overall length the forend has to move and makes it stiffer.

I know guy's are going to cringe when I say this the more barrel channel gap when free floating the better  within reason.  More air gap for cooling, less chance of stock movement and touching when you get a little agressive with the stock.  IMO 1/32 isn't enough, 1/16 may not be adaquate with certain stocks.  I've taken them to 1/8"  but only on rifles with enough stock to play with and not look ugly.  Although I wouldn't do that on any fine grade rifle and expect it to look the same .  

If you are going to take the time to bed a rifle just do it right.  Use a bedding compound that has very little give.  Pillar bed the action screws if the stock is questionable for crushing which means most wood stocks and crappy plastics.  Pillar bedding is nothing new it's been done for a hundred years + on wooden stocked military bolt actions.  

[zonie]

Troy :  First time is always the hardest .  Correct me if I'm wrong the accumark stock already had a bedding block in there so pillar bedding isn't necessary. Unless the block is out of square to your action I wouldn't mess with that part of it.  I would go up at least 3 to 4 inches ahead of the receiver and block it off.   You may want to color match the compound as close as possible, some you can't they are a specific color.  Agraglas is the old standby and works pretty good .  Devcon 10110  plastic steel putty is very good but it's black in color.   Get on the net and find out everrything you can about glass bedding.  read up on centering the barrel and if you decide to bed the recoil lug any extra clearance you may need.  I normally put a piece of electrical tape on the botton and one side front or back of  the recoil lug so it's not bottoming out and gives a little room in there.    It's not hard to do, and make sure you have enough release agent and tape any exterior places you don't want that stuff oozing out.   A word on release agents liquids for the first time guys doing a large area are the most forgiving, spray on's are pretty good, but if you want it perfect , turtle wax, kiwi neutral shoe polish, paste wax will give the cleanest most precise reverse image of the action and I wouldn't recommend it for a first timer,  especially large areas like the whole action  you may end up sticking one in if you aren't careful.   Small areas like the barrel channel you will be alright just make sure you put that release agent everywhere even in places you wouldn't think the compound won't go.  especially in the action screws,   better to be safe. 

[ballistic]

Ron: I was planning on having my smith bed it, just wasnt sure which way is best. I'll get some advice from him and see if I should bed it or try it first. Maybe I shouldnt even bed it until after I shoot it. I havent done a bedding job yet but have thought about trying it. Watched a video on it, didnt look to difficult, but Id still be a little nervous doing it for the first time. I checked out that Devcon before, sounds like some pretty good stuff, think thats what I would try. I have some bedded rifles I could always look at as a guide. Maybe I have a buddy that needs a rifle bedded first 

[zonie]

There you go where's Mikey when you need him.   I agree shoot it first

[Eagle Rider]

done it both ways, free floated and pressure bedded light barrels.  I have seen no fifference in accuracy.  Zero, zip, none.  If its a shooter and it ain;t broke why fix it??

[Crocidileman]

I took out all the upward pressure points of my Weatherby Mark V 's and they shot like a shotgun the number one and number two contour barrel need upward pressure on up towards the tip some say as much as 25 inch pounds. On the German stocks they used very little pressure points on each side left and right of the barrel channel on the Japanese they used two pressure points one up at the tip and one a couple of inches back and a lot of pressure. My experience is Weatherby thin rifle barrels will not shoot free floated. Weatherby claims they have experimented with tip pressure and they have found it necessary on there number 1 and number 2 Contour barrels.

[Crocidileman]

These were wood stocks I have a fiber Mark 340 Weatherby that does have the pressure points left and right on the barrel Channel but very little pressure this is also a number two conquer barrel.

[224KING]

340's all have #3 barrels

[Nealm66]

It seems odd that a rifle would need 10 minutes between shots. I’ve never seen one that bad. I’ve seen the first couple shots be off after cleaning but then it’s back. Should at least be able to get two shots before things start to wonder in my experience. I’d definitely shoot a factory 257 before I made any changes.