I have a Acraglass kit that's been sitting around for a few years and now have a bit of time to play with it. Specifically, I want to bed an old remington 700 with it. The process seems pretty staightforward, but I wonder if anyone has bedded barrels?

I know the conventional wisdom is to try to freefloat a barrel, but a hammer forged barrel is going to have all kinds of stresses built into it already, and prestressing the barrel with upward pressure on the end of the stock helps with accuracy. I've experimented n this with several rifles, and it seems that 5 to 10 lbs of upward pressure helps.

What I wonder about is ifits worthwhile to bed the entire barrel. I've read that NULA rifles have a fully bedded barrel, as the gunmaker feels that dampening along the barrel makes for a much more accurate rifle that isn't quite as finicky about loads. I would imagine that the builder uses far better barrels than remington though.

Another thought I had was putting a layer of glass in the barrel channel with hopes of stiffening up the stock so that the pressure on the front of the barrel changes less with changes in humidity, Though I'm not sure how thick the glass would need to be to get any real stiffening.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

When i was building stocks and doing a LOT of bedding, i tried about everything. My experience has been that very FEW rifles shoot better with the bbl bedded full length. None of mine are that way, and personally i wouldn't bother with it.

It is true, that some bbls like a bit of pressure on the bottom, at the forend tip. And, some heavier bbls like the first 2" of the bbl bedded on the action end (mostly on the bottom) with the rest of the bbl free floated. Most just plain shoot best free floated full length.

Drilling Man

Thanks!
I think I'll just do the reoil lug recess, the receiver ring and tang. What really suprises me (and scares me) is that there isn't any kind of recoil support in the Remington stock such as a recoil crossbolt.

The rifle is an ADL also, and I'm going to try to reinforce the wood at the bottom of the magazine- its only about 1/8" thick, which to me seems very fragile.

Recoil lug and the entire barrel shank(approx 3") should be bedded ..let the barrel end rest on the pressure point.

In my opinion, Remington 700 actions are one of the easiest actions to bed and get "right". I've never had stock cracking problems on that model. Unless it's going on a very heavy recoiling bbl action, it doesn't need a cross bolt in the stock.

You must be carefull to have clearance on the bottom, the sides, and front side of the recoil lug. Also when you assemble a 700 into the stock, sitting with the muzzle up, tighten the top screw first, then then bottom one, and the center one last, and that one only gets snugged up. The top screw is the one you have fairly tight.

Maybe 700's have changed of late, but when i was working with them, NOTHING in it's class would out shoot a "tuned up" 700 Rem...

Winchesters, Rugers, Mausers, Wby's didn't stand a chance on the range!!! And if you looked at a list of the "winners" at a major bench rest shoot, seldom would there be anything but a custom action, or a Rem. action on that list.

Perhaps things have changed now???

Drilling Man

I have a good freind with his 260 glassbedded all the way up the barrel channel. He did a outstanding job. But the success of it was unexpected. Bascially the gun started out being a benchrest gun with a 1" OD Barrel. The stock was milled out to fit that barrel. He made this stock himself and figured he would use it on his new project of a 260 heavy sporter Shilen barrel. So he filled the gap with 3/16" to 1/4" of glass. So now he has the feel of wood, with the stiffness of glass and bedded very uniform. I liked the idea. Don't have to worry about swelling of the channel in the rain. The gun is a sub 1/2MOA gun.

Just a side note:

"If" the stock decides to move, glassing the bbl chanell will NOT stop the stock from moveing!!! It will seal the rain ect. out, but it will not keep the internal stress' of the stock from moveing the wood. Of course, not all stocks move around "all the time", so really your takeing a gamble if you glass it full length.

Drilling Man

Absolutely true..I have seen gunsmiths install fiberglass rods to steel rods inletted into foreends to keep them from moving. Its still wood and cellular so if it gets moisture anywhere else its going to move.l NULA has an advantage in that their stock is one of the stiffest stocks out there and it is synthetic.