Gary : Good question....That rifle came bedded from Brown. Looked like a nice job but it did not shoot,which was perplexing.
I took it to my smith, Larry, a match shooter who knows M70's.
He said some M70's would shoot with no barrel pad forward of receiver and some would not. Mine was completely floated so Larry suggested a barrel pad forward of receiver, and some reinforced bedding to the left of the tang,since the bolt stop/ejector cut outs made the M70 a bit less rigid in that area.
Whatever he did, it worked as groups improved substantially after he rebedded the rifle.
