Briman, you can go to Google and search "bedding rifles" and find all kinds of reading. I have bedded a bunch of 700 rifles over the years, and here's what I try first and this usually gets good results. Take a barrel rasp and free float the barrel by hogging out all contact in the barrel channel. Next, bed the receiver from the tang all the way to the back of the recoil lug, with no contact on the sides, bottom, or front of the lug. Only the back of the lug is in contact with the bedding compound. To get this relief, put two layers of masking tape on those surfaces. Use plenty of release agent and a good hard epoxy. I have used regular old two ton devcon, and devcon aluminum putty. I like the putty because its easier to control. I have also seen remington actions shoot very well with the recoil lug bedded all the way around though. Those are hard to get out of the stock. I think the main thing is to get even contact under the reciever so that nothing is binding when you tighten the screws. The round bottom remington actions are the easiest to do this on. If you decide to use pillars, that will preclude compressing the stock and having the bed change on you over time. The pillars dont have to be metal, you can build them out of epoxy if you like. Metal ones are just a little easier to put in. Make sure the action bolts dont touch anything but the guard and the threads in the bottom of the action. Good luck, I hope some of my babbling makes sense to you.