Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing "Pressure Point" for Rem 700

I broke the original stock (it cracked) on my Rem 700 and bought a B&C Medalist. Nice stock! It converted it from ADL to BDL. I shot it yesterday and found it to be at best 2" group at 100 yards. Not good enough. Having nothing else handy, I slid a few pieces of card board (from an ammo box) under the free floated barrel and wedged them in snug. POI came up 3" but group size shrunk considerably! 2 of the 3 shots were touching and the 3rd just 1/2 off to the side! Sporter barrels are just flimsy.

So I want to add a premanent pressure point under the barrel. Question is how to best do that?

I decided to take a look at the fit between action and aluminum block. Upon inspection (and after shooting it) it was obviously not perfect. Multiple high and low spots visible on the aluminum surface. So I have already glass bedded the action and tang area. For the pressure point I thought I would add some glass under the barrel about 2" from the end of the stock, reassemble, and let cure. Then just add a 2 to 5 mil shim.

I've done glass bedding before. But never a pressure point.
Will that work? Is there a better way?

Be sure the action is bedded correctly & that the barrel is full floated as the 1st step.

Add the pressure pad area of glass as you have suggested near the end of the forearm of the stock, but do not tighten the action in at this point.

Just put the action in, push firmly into place, & if necessary, wrap a rubber band around the action & stock to keep it in place.

Let it dry, take apart, trim up the pad into a nice square, put the action back in & tighten down.

This usually yields a more or less neutral pressure point.

If you want more pressure then, use shims under the barrel while drying so the barrel is resting on the shims..........when finished, you'll have more pressure than described above when applying a neutral pressure point.

Neutral usually works for me.

In the end, if you're not happy, you can sand it out & start over.

MM

add the shim under barrel before you glass bed it and you will have the up pressure you need.

Ed

Thanks all. Looks like I'm on the right path here.

Stocks are flimsy, not barrels.

Have to disagree. Sporter barrels are flimsy when compared to bull barrells. Sporters do tend to be "whippier" and sometimes require pressure points. Yes? Never heard of a bull barreled target rifle haviny my current problem.

Stocks are, of course, flimsier than steel barrles of any configuration.

If I do wind up needing a shim or two, what would be wrong with aluminum foil? Don't have any brass shim stock handy, but can get it if needed. Thoughts?

Gun Geezer: The sides of aluminum beverage cans work well and they are free. Just use a felt pen on the edges to match the stock. This works for scope bases too. Thicker than aluminum foil but stronger. Have fun, Mel

Milk jug plastic would be good, it will not corrode. When you find how thick you want it, make two stacks, epoxy bedding between them, when dry remove the plastic, now you have a bedded pressure point.

Improvement by way of shims only highlights a bedding problem. Shims do not fix the problem, only hide it.

I have yet to see a shimmed rifle that did not turn out to be finicky. Flimsy stock, poorly bedded will give you issues with where and how you rest the rifle.

I have found a whippy barrel bedded full-length will be far better than any scab in the channel.

How do you know how much pressure you need? Or did you mean after one experiements to find best thickness of shim?

Only way I know is trial and error, which means one beds the action first with free-float, shoot, then start adding pressure (and shooting) until one finds what doesn't work, and what does work, and bed pressure point to that. Bed- not shim. Use the shim to bed to only the pressure point part, not the receive.

Just finished 2, 700's - a .22-250 ( pressure pointed , but needed free-float), and my own .243, which for years (and many head of game) shot 2+ MOA. with original pressure point factory barrel, and also with my own built stock (free-float). Last fall, just for the heck of it, I folded up a grocery receipt to 4 thicknesses , stuck it under the free-float barrel and got .75 MOA., with two out of 3 factory loads. Pure blind luck! It is also the only rifle I have that wants pressure-point, rather than shooting best with free-float.

Then I screwed up and started playing with the receiver bedding - which wasn't quite right from the git-go, but I could have continued to live with the 30-year old bedding job for that kind of accuracy. Wasn't thinking, and needed something to do anyway.... Got that where it looked/worked right, but I was back to 2.5 MOA free-float.

Hung 5 lbs weight on it to pressure point bed the forend tip, shrank it groups to 1.5 MOA. I had proven it could do better! Took that out and started all over dealing with the pressure point bedding, leaving the receiver part alone. Shot the rifle with various thicknesses of note paper, and wound up bedding to a much lighter pressure point (2 thicknesses of note paper - maybe a pound or two -) which has it down to 1 MOA - close enough!

This is the same procedure I used on the .22-250, when it wasn't shooting well with the factory pressure-point, which was going about 4MOA. Free-floated it is now well under MOA, as it should be. With each successive addition of pressure, the groups consistently got bigger.

Incidently- that third non-shooting factory load for my .243 is still non-shooting! about 3 MOA). Remington 95 gr. Accutip. Doesn't mean they won't shoot well in other rifles.

And, in my opinion, those who say a rifle needs X amount of pressure point don't know what the hell they are talking about- every rifle is different, but in my experience, nearly all will shoot best without pressure point at all. But not all, obviously.

Incidently, again- often the load will make a difference. My .243 likes 100 grs in Fed Power Shock and Hornady Whitetail, and Federal (maybe Winchester - I forget which) 80 grain.. It doesn't like Remington 95 gr, Accutip, nor Barnes 80 Vor-TX.

My .260 (Rem 725 with a 700 barrel) doesn't like anything but most any 140 grain bullets -that I have found to date- all factory loads. It likes 140's very well indeed!

Barnes 120 Vor-TX gave me the worst groups of the 3 Brands of 120's I tried.

A sample of 2 doesn't prove much, but so far, Barnes TX loads haven't exactly captured my heart......

All that screwing around when a simple stress-free bedding, full length would have likely done you better!

It didn't.... tetchy gun I guess. Has twice before however. What I try first if free-float doesn't work. Pressure point bedding is a major PITA!

I skipped mentioning the flb, which is what I did when I rebedded it the first time. Didn't work, so I free-floated the barrel again. Didn't work, then I went to the 5 lb, etc.

And sure like that full length bed I put on the on the heavy barreled Mauser! I've never had a rifle that shot better.

Had the same experience with a 22-250 Rem 700 Varmint. Best it would do with my handloads was around 1 1/2" @ 100 no matter what I tried- including bedding the action, free floating the barrel, full length bedding the barrel/action, etc.. all in my custom thumbhole stock in a varmint forearm configuration. One day, out of frustration, I started to stack business cards under the barrel at the tip of the forearm from a tip I had read years earlier. After about 2 cards it started getting better, at 3 it went to around ..25" at 100. To this day, I haven't removed the business cards as I'm afraid I'll change something and never get it back..... get some pretty funny looks when out shooting with my buddies until they see how it shoots. Funny, they start asking for business cards while we are shooting?

Bob

I'm back out tormoorow to see if pressure point with cards will help. Fingers crossed!

Any luck?

After bedding it and without "business card shims" it shot exactly the same as before bedding. Two 3-shot groups and still had 1+ inch group at 50 yards. Guess that B&C Medalist Stock is as good as bedding! So bedding at the lug, in front of the lug a full 2", and at the tang did squat.

I then added business card shims (.042" thick total) by sliding them under the barrel and wedging them in good and snug. Grouping did improve 50%, but POI was about 4" higher. Maybe to much shim or too tight?

Sliding in business cards and wedging them in "snug" is hardly and exact technique, so I'm thinking I'll go ahead and glass bed in a pressure point. I'm thinking of using about 5 to 7 lbs suspended from the front sling stud so there is a little pressure. That way I can shoot it, disassemble and add a shim, or disassembly and buff the pressure point down a tad. Play around with it till I'm happy with it. I'll be happy with a 1/2" group at 50 yards. Most people could shoot half my group size with the same or any rifle, so that'd be like 1/4" for most of you guys!

I've some work to do. But the fun is in the journey. For a while at least. My wife thinks I'm nuts.

I've had good results with 5 pounds on Rem. 700 plastic stocks but I'm far from an expert on the subject. I laid out electrical tape on the stock at a convenient spot to make a pad that goes from the top of the inlet to top on the other side, 3/4 inch wide (one tape-width, convenient to lay out). When the epoxy set up to rubbery I trimmed along the tape edge to make it look like I meant to do that.

In my modest experience changing the amount of upward force, plus or minus a bit, didn't make a noticeable difference. Didn't didn't do anything except maybe change the point of impact. But you never know...

GG- the shift in POI is normal. It will adjust out on the scope.... . If you are happy with the group, use the cards that gave it to you. Just put your epoxy pressure point back an inch from the tip, and use the cards at the tip as your control. Worked on my 700. I cut a shallow groove back there as an anchor point and used a dab of J & B Weld.

Nighthawk- I'd read this was the way to go, and did exactly that - 5 lbs. of cranberry Juice hanging from the swivel stud, after full length bed and free-float did not work. It reduced the group from 2.5 to 1.6 or so, and I knew from previous shimming that it could get better. So I just wasted that much effort. Better to pre-find a shim point and bed to that proven shim point than going in blind. IMO.

las,

Serious target shooters used to use devices that would allow them to change pressure on the barrel by turning screws in the fore-end. I've only seen them in books. So I suppose it could make a difference if you're trying to eke out the best accuracy. But then we have better barrels - well, better everything - so I suspect we don't have all the gremlins they were trying to tame.

In my case it was tweaking accuracy for friends rifles and they were happy with sub-MOA so we stopped there. Interestingly we started with epoxy bedding and free-floating. Accuracy was about 1.5 MOA. Restored the pressure point and got 3/4 or so MOA. In all the Rem. 700 rifles I tinkered with, which was just a very few.

There's a Gordian Knot of vibrations going on in a barrel. And there are shot-to-shot variations, such is Nature. FWIW my theory is that a pressure point damps the vibrations and proportionally the variations. At least some of this could be helped by load development but it's a can of worms or we'd all be putting bullets through the same hole. (And if I really knew I'd be a famous competition rifle builder. )

I added a pressure point with 10 lb hanging from the front stud, and tightened both action bolts to 40 in-lbs. I used 10 lb because the stock has an aluminum frame skelleton (b&c medalist) and thought it would need that much. Took it to the range today. Shot terrible. First shot was high and then the next 3 each came down and inch each. Odd.

Think I have too much pressure. I'll re-do the pressure point with 5 lbs and see how that works.

Few notions guaranteed to waste more time, money, powder, and bullets than a pressure-point cluster-[bleep].

You may be right. In a few months and $150 from now I'll know!

Hey- you are talking about my 700 there, ART!!! .

I likely should have just left it at its 2+ MOA and gone on killing chit with it as i have since '75.

Do I really need to repeat the point???

Maybe I missed it but how did the gun shoot in the original stock?

No, but that's never stopped you before.
I doubt it will this time either.

You did'nt miss it.

Have to admit that I have had this rifle since I was 14 years old. I never paid any attention to how it shot as long as it hit the deer. Which is did most of the time since all my hunting was in pretty close. Maybe 20 years ago the stock cracked when I really messed up my first bedding job. I stuck the barreled action into a freebie tupperware stock, in which it never did better than 2" at 100 yards.

Not really. I'm have a great time playing with it and will likely keep on doing just that. I do appreciate all the advice and conversation.

The destination is nice, but the journey is a blast!

Good luck, GG. I've been down your path and it's challenging but edjumacayshunal. Aluminum shims, mouse pads, silicone, duct tape, inner tubes...it was fascinatingly frustrating.

I'll throw a flyer out there and "bet" that you'll probably end up with the action bedded, floated barrel, and will work up a specific load that barrel really likes.

Don't forget the cut up credit cards.

Yep. You guys are probably right. But I never did try silicone.

I've now ground the pressure point back off to flush with the rest of the channel. So, once again totally free floated barrel with bedded action.

I'm loading up some "pet load" recommendations as follows and will try them 1st chance I get:
- 165 gr Siera Game Kings
- 56 and 57 gr of IMR-4350
- Whatever primer I have in the cabinet.
- Will vary the COL from .020, .035, and .050 off max for that chamber.
- I'll check em for concentricty with my spiff new Hornday Lock-n-Load Concentricit Checker (Happy B-day to me and thank you Mrs. Geezer!)
- Shoot em off of my new Caldwell Rock whaterver rest (Happy B-day to me and thank you Mrs. Geezer!)

Planning to load 5 of each length and powder weight combo. We'll see how it goes.

What you mor than likely have done Is dampin barrel harmonics some with the shim.....I have never seen a presure end barrel out shoot a floated one.....it just doesn't happen unless it's a 22 rf......bedding first....scope rings second...lots of 700 need a rear shim under the base....

Under the scope base?

Yes ..if it needs it that is...lots of 700 rem need a rear shim...that's why brownells sells a whole kit of dif thicknesses...
It's kinda Tricky to get the right shim.....I do it with a 1 piece typ base and feeler gauge...tighten the front screws ,out of the stock...and use a lapping.bar....keep in mind, if you shim it and bolt it to an action without proper bedding you introduce stress back to the scope....they need to both be stress free...I actually prefer bending the rear scope base..

In '74, the height of the rear receiver bridge was raised by .017" and the receiver side rails were raised by .050 to allow for the anti-bind feature

Judging from my 700......+. . I probably should have sold the bitch 30 years and a couple dozen head of game ago.

Like GG said- it's a blast. Not like it is favorite hunting rifle- I have Rugers, and a Mauser 98 for that! OK- I'll throw in the 725...

Minute of moose is no miracle of either accuracy or making meat...

That was my wife, at about 75 yards. I took my first two rams with it. @ 20 and 100 yards, respectively.

Sometimes good enough is good enough... especially if one is close enough.