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.
Your smith sounds like he knows what he's doing. He was exactly right. Something we all need to remember is every rifle is different. Even when you have 2 that look exactly the same...
