question about glass bedding..

[semi]

forgive me for being stupid, but i have read about people "glass bedding" stocks and free floating barrels. this is new to me. Can someone explain what these two procedures are? How do you know if your gun needs it? What does it do?

I have a model 70 Synthetic and a Savage 10gxp in walnut..

Glass bedding just assures a more positive fit with your action and your stock. I highly recommend it with wood stocks. I prefer pillar bedding with synthetics. It also keeps the vibrations when a shot fired very consistent. Basically you don't want to glass bed the entire barrel channel, just the front part of the action where it fits in the stock. The job consists of the epoxy, and a release agent. It does'n't or shouldn't take much epoxy. I do it as standard operation on any new gun. I don't do the pillar bedding, but have a gunsmith do it with synthetics. Some guns are already fitted from factory, like the browning Medallion, but its usually a poor but adequate job. As far as free floated, you just want to make sure you can slide a business card easily down the barrel and stock. All that job consists of is cutting out the inlet and revarnishing the inlet.

[cwhitenton]

Hey bigcountry, I inletted a stock from boyd's and they suggest that I glass bed it to keep the moisture out. Could I have gotten away with just applying varnish to the raw wood surface?

Yes, you can, but with most stocks I have seen from Boyds, they are rarely "drop In" replacements and need to be modified a tad by opening the inlet and possible removing some material, then glass bedded.

I have a good friend however that opens the inlet a whopping 1/8" or more on both side of the barrel then puts epoxy down, with the release agent, then presses the barreled action in to form. He puts an extra amount of pressure on the barrel to give the barrel room to "freefloat". It looks like a very nice job but takes an enormous amount of epoxy. He claims he gets the feel of wood without worrying about warping. He claims all the epoxy will keep the wood from soaking in water also. I have a feeling however, that the epoxy is not strong enough alone to keep the wood from shifting if it feel like it. but he only uses top notch walnut.

[semi]

big country, i have a model 70 that you can't run a business card down the barrel. The barrel is tight to the stock (synthetic stock). can this be right?

Semi, the Mod 70 is probably pressure bedded like a 700BDL SS is. They put like 7lbs of upward pressure on the forearm of the stock. Sometimes this works, but most of the time they do it so poorly, that it may hinder your performance. Melvin Forbes, from NULA pressure beds his guns, but it is done with great care and uniformity, where it helps lower down the vibrations when a shot is fired. How does it shoot? If its not acceptable with various ammo, I would look forward and take it to a gunsmith to have pillar bedded, and barrel free floated. You usually want a trigger job at that point too. Bad thing is probably set you back 150+.

As standard operation, with a 700BDL SS, I would take to the gunsmith and have the work done. I have always seen it help performance greatly. Only one instance can I remember that pressure point at the end of the forarm helping me.

Another option is a stock like an H-S precision with aluminum blocks already installed. It will raise the wieght a tad however.

[semi]

Well, i had some issues with different brands of ammo. It shot Winchester 150 XP2's relitively well. But the core lokts were all over the place. I got a better bench rest and plan to make sure it wasn't me that caused this. I am trying again in a few weeks. I picked up about 6 boxes of core-lokts just to make sure it's the gun.

I have only had one gun that will group coreloks well, (less than 1" at 100 yards). That was a tactical FN with a monster bull barrel on it.