That' s just too funny 1 Shot..........

Building a front pillar shim like you describe is EXACTLY what I was thinking about doing. I' m planning on stripping & refinishing the stock soon and that is probably exactly what I' m gonna do. Until then, I did add a washer between the stock and the screw lug and took a slight bit of wood off of those final 3" of stock - that gave me just enough space to slip a piece of paper between the stock & barrel. I don' t have to mess with taking out any wood along the rest of the way toward the action, as there is already a lot of play between the slide & the wood.

In your work, did you try just lifting up the pillar some without bedding the stock forend? I was thinking that just free-floating it a little might be all that was required.

Have you noticed any problem with the rear recoil lug (that screws against the stock behind the action) working loose against the wood?? That was my problem yesterday - the receiver was not being held tight against that lug and it was moving up and down as much as 1/16th of an inch!! I added 2 washer shims between the stock and the lug and reassembled everything and the receiver feels nice & snug now.

Now I' ll have to hit the range Friday morning (weather permitting) to see if works well this way. I do exact to see much better groups than I have in recent times.