Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting What are the advantages of full length bedding vs. free floating the barrel?

I know on the #1 contour barrels, Melvin Forbes and others full length bed the barrel to improve accuracy.

What are the advantages of full length bedding vs. free floating the barrel for a heavy-barreled rifle?

I'll be using a varmint contour barrel, and a B&C M40 stock, which is both heavy and stiff.

I personally think a full float is more accurate. Although...I think if a light barrel is too long, it can become whippy. That being said, how long is a forearm? 10" or so? You're still only bedding half the barrel, and its the thickest part of the barrel. Not really sure the science behind the theory.

I’ve had two nationally recognized gunsmiths (Bill Wiseman and Gordy Gritters) bed my barrel the entire length of the fore end because the barrel was long and heavy. They bedded the barrel because they were afraid that long heavy barrel would cause the action and/or the stock to flex.

In recent years am totally floating the barrel with no difference seen from older method of bedding first few inches of barrel shank. Advantage is when it is time to rebarrel. No need to rebed the action/barrel.

just got done with another hunting rifle that I bedded the action front and back plus 2-3 inches of the back of barrel for support of action the rest has been floated and stock channel under barrel sealed with tru-oil. I also totally agree with a full stock bedding on bench guns, but a light barrel I and many others prefer just a few inches in back bedded works fine on stock guns but maybe a custom barrel may be full bedding is better ? I still on my custom barrels just bed the back 2-3 inches accuracy is good.

Was the old practice to full length bed everything? 40 years ago when I was just a young boy,I joined a gun club with several older men. All those older guys had their hunting and target rifles(blued steel-walnut) full length bedded. If there was such a thing as free floating a barrel,none of them ever mentioned it. I was very interested in such things and had several talks with them and watched one of them bed one of his rifles.

I've got a custom, tang safety Ruger with a Pac-Nor #1 contour, 24 inch barrel. Originally, it was free floated all the way back to the barrel shoulder. Later, after a rifle maker turned the shoulder down as one of his weight reduction tricks, he glass bedded the barrel all the way out the barrel channel. I can't say it's any more accurate. It may, if anything be less accurate than it was before. One thing it did change was loads that shot the best before, no longer do. But other, new loads did do well. My concern was that using a shooting sling would change the bullet's point of impact. Didn't happen. McMillian Ruger Stock with added graphite. So, just based on this, I don't see why I'd want to do it. My other rifles are all free floated ahead of the barrel shoulder. They work fine. E

Thin barrel may require a larger free float that would be pleasing to average eyes.
The reason we bed an action is to stress relieve the lock up between the multi layers of floor plate, bottom stock action to recoil mortise, which are crunched together by 2 or 3 screws. Some shooters go to the trouble of bedding Knox Forme and scope rings to mate bearing surfaced as perfectly as possible.

Other hunters never saw a bedding job and just shoot animals.

Bedding as well as bedding compounds are personal or can be. I used to bed everything I got my hands on with over 50 bedding jobs a year recorded but these days, I spend more time shooting the plain rifle to see if it really has a problem performing before going there. if there is a problem, I float the barrel first, especially with synthetic stocks as that is sometimes enough to make a difference.........
John

David, My response is for a rifle, that will be used in a hunting situation, for clinically sanitary conditions, my answer would be.....use what works best for that particular rifle.

For a hunting rifle,I want full-length bedding. As I may hunt in nearly any environment.....I do not want to get anything ( water turning into ice,or any other form of debris) finding it’s way into the barrel channel. A new contact point, on a rifle for which all load work and zeroing was done with a free-floated barrel, may change poi or grouping!

My hunting rifle is fully bedded, and shoots equal to or better than my expectations of a rifle, of it’s caliber and weight! Though it’s capabilities may fall short of expectations for a “true” long range shooter.....I think it will work for the medium- long (600 to 800 yard capable) hunter! memtb

I do the same now also. I used to bed the barrel shank but now just free float everything forward of the recoil lug, I seem to get better consistency that way. I personally want all my barrels floated, I don't trust rifles that need to have barrel bedding or a pressure point to shoot correctly, I think it makes them more susceptible to external factors like heat/humidity or the stock touching something hard.

McMillan recommends free floating also.

This is under the FAQ's on McMillan's website:

13. Do you recommend barrel bedding or pressure points?
No, after installing thousands of stocks we have observed that 98% of the rifles are most accurate when free floated.

does that apply to tupperware stocks?