Bedding
 

Not sure if this belongs here or not because I'm talking about fiberglass but.....Has anyone bedded the barrel channel of their sidelock? If so did it improve the accuracy of the rifle. I'm asking because I'm considering doing this. But I'm just wondering if the barrel stiffness of an octagon barrel would make this unnecessary. If it doesn't belong, I would request a moderator move it to the regular BP forum.

I remember, quite a few years ago when I was heavy into BP, a few guys that tried it. Most saw little to no difference but a couple did experience a positive result in improved consistency. I think it had more to do with the stock cuts than it did with the barrels. They were all shooting Oct barrels. I'd have to say it would be a 50-50 chance of it improving or not. If you do it properly it wouldn't hurt anything so there is no real downside other than a waste of time and a few bucks for materials if it didn't improve anything.

The best thing you can do is bed the tang section of the barrel as well as over the wedge key and nose cap areas of the stock.

Never done it. Never saw the need. I am a close range shooter so squeaking out an extra 1/4 inch accuracy never really made that big of difference. Especially with open sights. I have considered bedding an inline just to see how much of a difference it makes. But then, if the rifle had a weak spot, wouldn't bedding make a difference?

Accuracy is one thing, but its mainly to keep the tang and trigger plate SOLID. On my 58 I kept having to retighten my tang screw after only 3 shots or else accuracy would fall off greatly. Once I learned where to bed, that metal stopped pulling into the wood. Now I only have to check a couple times per year to see if my tang screw loosened up.

I have not bedded any of my sidelocks. But I've often thought of doing so because I have experienced POI shift after removing the barrel from the stock for cleaning. Sometimes, not every time but sometimes, I need to make sight adjustments after restoring the barrel to the stock. I suspect the type of two point bedding MountainDevil shows above would fix that.

I also wonder whether a good bedding job would fix my "1 in 5" flyer problem. :D

I believe only lasik surgery will fix that old boy.
I think I am going to try bedding one and see how it works. Going to send a PM to MD to see if he removed some wood from those areas prior the applying the bedding material.

No need to remove wood, It just takes a thin application of JB Weld ( what I use) and drop the part into place after waxing it with a release agent and then install barrel and LIGHTLY screw the tang screws into place.

Bronko, it's OK here so long as you are not bedding a stainless barrel. :s2:

SS barrels are fine.