Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing What Part of the Action Gets Bedded?

I am about to have a gunsmith glass bed a Rem 700 SA (243 win). If he says he only beds the lug area, is that sufficient for a solid foundation? or should I ask him to put some bedding material in other places? How do you gunsmiths do it?
Thanks for any suggestions.

I usually bed the lug and rear tang, at a minimum, preferably with pillars. You can bed the entire action, but at least get it around both screw areas to avoid any stock compression, etc.

Others may be different....

ColdBore +1

I usually bed the bottom............

In all seriousness, at a minimum the front receiver ring, recoil lug, and rear tang should be bedded.

Thanks men. I greatly appreciate the advice.

If its a wood stock I would ask about pillar bedding or bedding the bottom metal as well.

I bed the recoil lug area and one or two inches of barrel under the chamber, along with the tang on some rifles...

You can bed the rifle from tang to forend also. A full bedding job..I do this mostly on big bore rifles.

You can bed the tang, recoil lug area, and the tip of the forend. That is 3 point bedding. It seems to work best with light barrels.

You cannot just say always do it a certain way..You want to do it the way the rifle itself wants to be bedded and to say otherwise is inexperience..I usually bed the wood by hand and find out what the rifle likes then bed it in that manner.

If you cannot bed by hand then the best route is to bed the rifle tight all the way from tang to forend..shoot it, if it does not shoot then freeflot the barrel from under the chamber to the forend, shoot it that way, if that does not work then put shims under the forend in increasing amounts until it shoots...THIS PROCESS IS GOOD BECAUSE YOU CAN FIND OUT WHERE IT SHOOTS WITHOUT BEDDING IT AS MANY AS 3 TIMES. You can remove material with a scraper easier than you can put it back...

This is the proper way to search out maximum accuracy with any rilfe... If the above does not work, then you need a new barrel..I require one inch at 100 yards.

Thanks again - I dropped it off at the smiths yesterday and told him to install pillars, then bed about 1 1/2 to 2" of the barrel back to all the wood behind the lug area, and the sides as well. I'll free float the barrel and seal the remaining wood when he returns the rifle. This particular gun shot almost MOA as is, but I think it can do better, thus the bedding.

Thanks again - always great info found on this site.

can doing all this to a rifle ever make it not shot as good as it did,im thinking on doing the same to a rifle i have,but it already shots moa,will it help or could it mess it up?
the rifle is a mod70 lightweight carbine 270 with a 20 in tube.

The Remington 700 is an action which has, in years past, been used by numerous accuracy rifle builders and the methodology ofr bedding is well established. Nonetheless , there are variations on the teme with each gunsmith having his own pet theory as to how to get the best out of the 700.
Most will bed the receiver ring and lug and the tag area. The recoil lug will contact only at the rear with the sides, bottom, and front being clear of the bedding. Hear is where we might see the first of the variables. Some gunsmiths like to bed the sides of the lug to resist reactive twisting of the action in the stock.
The tang area is simplicity itself since it is a simple curved plane.
Bedding of the sides of the receiver is optional. Some do it to seal the action mortise. Generally speaking, it does no harm.
I don't like the use of aluminum pillars in a wood stock. In fact, I'm not a real fan of aluminum pillars at all. A pillars cast in the stock with Acraglas works just as well and will never loosen as aluminum pillars occasionally do. When a glass pillar is formed, the bottom metal is bedded at the same time.
No matter what technique is employed, the finished product should be a level, stress-free bed. The screws will come up solid and stop and there will be absolutely no movement of the barreled action in the stock as the screws are alternately loosened and tightened.
The barrel will NOT be bedded under the chamber. To do so will cause vertical fliers. If one wants forend tip pressure, he can put a pad in the forend to provide some upward pressure (five to eight pounds, tops) but I would never do so. GD

Trophytaker 308,
A properly bedded rifle will not shoot worse and will be more consistent. The Model 70 is a bit more complex to work with than the Remington 700 but the basis requirements are the same; a level, stress free bed.
The Model 70 lug will also be cleared on the bottom and front with side clearance optional. The tang will be bedded the same way but with care taken to provide clearance behind the tang. The only rear-facing surface which should ever contact is the back of the recoil lug.
It is possible to bed the M70 at the center screw as well by casting a glass pillar at this point. I won't go into a detailed description because it is pretty self evident.
If your stock is a plastic one, all bets are off! Those things are just as well used as-is since bedding materials usually won't stick to them anyway. GD

I bedded my first rifle over forty years ago. I think it was a Herter's glass kit. At that time and several times since then I bedded the front lug all the way around and several times I've bedded the entire area under the chamber. Some also got full floated or partial floated and forend bedded also.

I don't have any argument with success if not bedding these areas is preferred by you gents. I do wonder why a person would not want to bed those areas though? I've never encountered a problem with it.

Probably the main reason for providing clearnce ahead of, and under, the lug is so the lug doesn't bind up in the recess when being replaced into the stock. Also it doesn't shave any material which ends up in the bottom of the recess and holds the action up.
As I sais, bedding under the chamber portion of the barrel has given me vertical fliers in many cases so I don't do it unless there is some reason to do so. This was on match rifles where a 3/4 moa flier was a potential lost point.
There are actions which have the front screw threading into the lug and no surface ahead of the lug (Sako, Winchester 54). On actions like these I will bed the bottom of the lug and /or a short section (usually 3/4 inch or less) of barrel. Generally, on any rifle in which the front screw goes into the recoil lug, I will bed the bottom of the lug and may bed it all around. Again, the reason for not bedding all around is to make the barreled action easier to remove and replace.
I'm not saying that a rifle on which the lug is bedded all around will not shoot well but Remington 700s seem to work better without it. GD