Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 1/2 MOA Rifle, But...

Yep!

One my my favorite hunting rifles is a custom on a 700 action that had a fully-bedded lug--and an "over-sized" one, which isn't uncommon on such rifles.
It was a major PITA to take the stock off--and one of the things I prefer doing on hunts where I fly somewhere is taking the stock off the barreled action, so they'll fit in a "take-down" case.

I eventually ended up doing an experiment: After working up very accurate handloads with the fully-bedded lug, I filed all the lug-surfaces inside the stock until the only bedding surface was the rear of the lug. I then shot the rifle with the same loads, and there was no significant difference in the average group size. That was with 5-shot groups, not the these-days typical (but statistically far less valid) 3-shot groups....