Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Full length barrel bedding question

When you full length bed a barrel channel, do you leave the pressure absolutely neutral or do you apply a bit of upward pressure? How does Melvin of NULA do it?

If upward pressure, exactly how much weight do you apply? I'm thinking about 4 pounds but figured I'd ask the experts.

Reason for asking is I have a Cabela's Mountain Guide with the Remington mountain rifle contour (22" long, .550" at muzzle) and had a smith replace the forend speed bumps with a solid pad - very small, about 1/2" long but all the way under the circumference of the barrel. It was supposed to be neutral pressure, but after a week or two the barrel would bounce on the pad. Not a great testimony to the B&C Ti stock, but oh well.

The lug and tang are already bedded, so I was going to full length bed the barrel from recoil lug to very tip and wondered how you would recommend doing it. If upward pressure is appropriate I was going to turn the freshly assembed stock/action upside down, hang a water jug off the end of the barrel to pull it down, filled to whatever weight you guys recommend and then tighten the action screws tight. That way, after the bedding cures, the barrel will push back on the stock with that amount of weight.

Any hints, tips or gotchas you can think of to advise would be appreciated as well. This is the first time I've worked with glass bedding (got the Miles Gilbert Bedrock kit) but MD's book plus VAnimrod's recent adventure have convinced me to give this a go. This bedrock kit has microballoons to get the consistency to that of peanut butter so I don't foresee the compound dripping out of the upside down stock.

Actually, this is the second time I've attempted to work with glass bedding. The first time was over 30 years ago and resulted in sawing a Brown Precision stock off of a Model 700 action, bending the action screws severely in the process.

Cannot help you with how to F/L bed but when doing the bedding work, use Hornady One Shot case lube as your release agent. It works awesome and is easy to clean up. You will not have to saw off the stock.

RH

I've messed with full bedding on the barrel and the many iterations that go along with it. I've had some bedded neutral that shoot well that way. When I first went to it, it was on a wimpy factory M70 barrel in 300 WM. The guy practically gave me the gun because it wouldn't shoot. I floated it and it was just as bad or worse. I full bedded it neutral with some improvement. Then I added pieces of business cards to the fore end and just kept adding until it shot. I have no idea what the up pressure was but I measured the business cards, left them in there and added bedding to the channel so that it remained with the same up pressure, and it worked. A son-in-law has that rifle today set up exactly as it was and it's near .5 MOA still. Had another similar experience to yours with a Model Seven in 7-08, a friend's who wanted it full floated. Removed the bumps in the forend, bedded it and floated the barrel and what had been an inch rifle turned to about a 3" one. Full bedding then adding the business cards, turned it into a tack driver. He claims he's shot a .41" group with it. Incidentally, that one was a flimsy Tupperware stock, so it pays to experiment and all it costs is time and a bit of bedding compound. Another I have was bedded neutral by the builder, has a light barrel in 338 Jamison, and it too is very accurate. I have a couple of others also neutral that are accurate.

Bottom line, there's no telling. I've had more barrels shoot well bedded neutral than any other way, particularly with the lighter barrels in mountain rifles, yet a few have done better with up pressure, which you can add easily at the range while experimenting.

I have to ask. Why you are considering full length bedding as a first option?

How does it shoot with just the action bedded?

Bobski's approach of using business cards is a great way to find out what it will do before permanently FL bedding it. I'd try it as is and use a business card, or two, on top of the pad to see how it shoots before FL bedding it with a pressure pad. If it likes that configuration it would be easy enough to just use shims on either side of the pressure pad that provide the same amount of upwards force and then bed only the pad. OR, do as Boski did on the the Model 7.

FWIW, to add pressure to the forend of the stock the weight should be hung from the stock and not the barrel. Barrels don't flex under only four pounds of weight. The stock will.

I remember hearing that 7 pounds was the proper perfect upward pressure with a wood stock.

No idea if it's true or not though. I think I'd mess around with shims first to see if the barrel will settle down.

I use shim material to get it to shoot,if rifle shows improvement
with up pressure. I tried to use specific weight of up pressure, by hanging water jug off of front sling with epoxy for
barrel pad.
Had repeatable results with shim stock, under forend then epoxy to duplicate up pressure.

Ive used body filler once fill up the barrel channel then put 2 layers of wax paper in the channel screw the action in and it worked great been that way for 19 years now

Full-length bedding one this weekend.

Neutral, and the reason for the FL bed is that it's a Mannlicher-stocked CZ550FS.

Can't see any reason not to FL bed this one, and many reasons to do so.

Otherwise, if it won't shoot action bedded and barrel floated, it goes down the road or gets rebarreled.

IME with hunting weight barrels, bedding the action and the first 4" of the barrel has given me the best results. Bedding the first 4" of the barrel has made an improvement over a free floated barrel enough times to be a go-to option for me.

I have added pressure to the barrel and only noticed a change in the POI, not so much in the ability of the rifle to group.

I talked to Melvin Forbes at an NRA convention some years back and he stated he full length neutral bedded his rifles. I also read an interview with him in Precision Shooting magazine where he stated his reasons for his use of full length neutral bedding.

What usually helps if you glue your screws in during bedding, is to put a soldering iron on the screw head and the heat will free it.

The NULA stocks are very stiff, one reason they shoot so well with FL bedding. The barrel and forend essentially work like one unit.

FL bedding doesn't work so well on forends that aren't very stiff--but, for that matter, neither does free-floating, unless it's REALLY floated. Tip-bedding can work, but only if the forend does get even wimpier with time.

One way to make a forend stiffer is to shorten it. This works with both wood and synthetic stocks.

Jim - your adventure 30 years ago sounds similar to my one time when I thought to fl bed a ruger M77 I had, with a B&C stock on it. I glass bedded it and had hogged the barrel channel out severely to float it and it looked pretty bad (shot good, though)(rule #1 - if it shoots good, resist the temptation to mess with it). The glass bedding had gone well, tho. So, I had the bright idea to wrap the barrel in 2 layers of electrical tape and then full length bed it. After curing, I would peel off the tape and have a nice, even gap the entire length, free floated.

So, I mixed up some body filler compound (didn't need glass to fill in the channel and I thought it would take paint better) and carefully filled the channel and installed the rifle. I cleaned off most of the ooze out and put it aside to cure.

The next day, I go to remove the stock. Can't get it off. Tried the freezer method - no go. Apparently I created a mechanical lock with the filler and the barrel, or maybe the filler just really bonded to the tape, I don't really know. I would have just left it and shot it some, except I had cleverly removed the magazine box, spring, etc, and the trigger.

I'll never forget my 5 year old son's comment as he watched me carefully place the rifle upside down on a carpeted step and apply some pressure to try and free the barreled action, and snapping the stock at the wrist - "you broke it!"...

Next stop was the garage and some carefully cutting with a cut off wheel on my die grinder, and reinstalling the original wood factory stock.

So, if it shoots good, I'd leave it alone, or in any event, don't ask me to help....

I've full length bedded a couple of rifles. It works pretty well for first-round shots. And mine shot good groups as well.

I've never thought much about it, but I don't see how you can bed except neutral pressure. Once you bed the length, doesn't that kinda settle the pressure issue?

Thats good to know, since I do all my sizing with One Shot. Makes sense since it turns into a dry film.

Thanks for the tip and sorry to get off topic.

Bill

First rifle I ever glass bedded was a Mark X 7X57 barreled action into a [bleep] full length stock. It is bedded from the tang to the stock endcap with no pressure anywhere. It shot very well 25 years ago when I finished it and it shot about 0.75" this afternoon when I checked the scope in preparation for this year's deer season.

Yea, neutral bedding in full length stocks works!

I've only fired a few loads out of my Kimber 84 .243 woodie but all indications are that it'll keep the full length bed.

Neutral.

I have only done it with a couple of rifles, ones I couldn't get to shoot with frre floating or tip pressure. In both cases it worked. I just don't shoot them with a tight sling.