On Remington rifles, common practice was to bed only the rear of the lug and, for the most part, this worked out fine; especially on BR rifle chambered for light cartridges. In Hunter class, back when most Hunter rifles were chambered for the 308, or a shortened version, and shot bullets of 150 to 168 grains, the occasional flyer would show up. About this time (not in the fifties and sixties, by the way), glue-ins had become the default system for Varmint class rifles. Glue-ins were not legal for Hunter, but some shooters and gunsmiths did the next best thing by first bedding the rifle as usual, then bedding it tightly, with a skim coat and release agent and never disassembling it. Essentially the rifle was "almost" glued in, but it could be disassembled, so it fit within the rules. This worked out very well.
In the sixties and seventies, many high power shooters were convinced the Winchester actions were better for this purpose due to the flat bottom preventing movement due to torque when the rifle was fired. The round bottomed Remington was viewed as inferior because it would rotate in the bedding, due to the torque force generated by the rifling spinning the bullet. In deed, some Remington based rifle would show signs of the screws contacting on the right side of the hole; this was taken as evidence of the effects of torque. To combat this, I started tapering the sides of the recoil lugs slightly, then bedding them to contact on the sides. I still provided clearance on the bottom and the front. This worked out fine but I can't claim it was a real cure because of the lack of real testing. The guys for whom I did this were convinced it made a difference.
As far as bedding the bottom of the lug was concerned, I usually preferred not to. The exception was, as noted, when the screw went into the lug, AND there was no bedding surface ahead of the lug. So, for a Sako action, or a Sportco 44, I bedded the bottom of the lug. For a Mauser, Enfield, or a Ruger 77, I didn't mind clearance under the lug since there was a significant amount of bedding surface ahead of the lug.
Ultimately, I had my favoured techniques and was reasonably successful with them. Nonetheless, I would occasionally get soundly beaten by someone who was (according to me) doing everything wrong. This has made it difficult to proclaim any method to be the only "right" way. I tend to bed one way or the other, according to whim, as much as anything. I glue BR rifles and some of my "F" class guns. I usually provide clearance on the front, sides, and bottom of lugs; except for when I don't! GD
Last edited by greydog; 03/27/23.
