I've had them done both ways with clearance always on the bottom, and if done right both methods work, but when bedded tight you have to be extremely careful if you ever remove the barreled action from the stock as you could do damage to the bedding,damage can also happen when putting action back in the stock, that said I like to take mine apart once and a while to clean everything and put a rust preventive on the action so I prefer the clearance method , and the tapered lug seems easier to remove for me!