Barrel Bedding

[Newtire]

I have been reading a bit on a method some guys use to put some contact on the barrel at the front end of the stock and would like to try it. I am trying to figure out how to put weight on which part or what to get this to happen right. I gather it puts a bit of upwards pressure ont he barrel. Could someone put up a picture or something? I read an article by some guy on the net that seemed to be pretty good but couldn't figure how his putting a 10 lb weight on the stock and supporting it by the barrel did the trick.

I don't know if this is making sense but has anyone heard of anything like this? Sure could use some advice.

Thanks,
Newtire

[Scrounger]

Not very scientific but this is the way I did it. Most of the time I wanted the barrel to be free floating. I would glass-bed the receiver and about 3 inches of the barrel immediately in front of the receiver. After that was 'set' and cleaned up, if I wanted to put some pressure on the barrel tip, I would assemble the rifle with several sheets of paper or thin cardboard between the barrel and the stock about 4 or 5 inches back from the forend. This left a small gap between the forend tip and the barrel, where I placed fiberglass to cure. When it was 'set', I would loosen the screws, remove the paper or cardboard shim, and tighten down the action screws, resulting in upward pressure on the barrel. Clear as mud, right? There is more than one way to create that pressure. I always found barrels shot better if they were free floated and the action correctly bedded. The only time I ever saw upward pressure work was when the gun had other bedding problems which the up pressure offset. My experience was with sporter rifles only, I know nothing of military stocks and barrels.

[GabbyM]

About eight years ago a friend showed up with a tension device installed in his Ruger MK II 77 VT forearm. Those VT's are the beaver forearm Varmint Target. Barrel is only about .625” at muzzle IIRC.
He'd purchased it from a catalog add. Consisted of a spring loaded plunger. Mounted in the forearm of the stock. That placed spring tension pushing upward on the barrel. He said it helped groups. PLUS it was adjustable so you had another gadget to tweek.

That weight you mentioned. I'll assume the idea is to pull down on the stock and up on the barrel while the epoxy sets up so when removed you've ten pound up tension on the barrel. Well I think that's wishful thinking but it's been done fore decades if not centuries. If you're going to use tension on the barrel anchored in the forearm. You'd be well advised to have a very stable forearm.

Like Scrounger I've always found free floated to work best. Takes some doing with some rifles. Flimsy thin forearms (Weatherby) sometimes get steel inlays when I start to Buba them. Works every time but adds a few ounces. Now some of the fancy composit stocks have full length aluminum bedding blocks molded in. Same principle.

[leftiye]

If you've bedded the barrel "free floated", you only need to shim the front of the fore end to test and see if up pressure will improve accuracy (put a layer or two of card paper between the barrel and fore end). Like Gabby said, what your fore end is made of will determine how the up (and side) pressure changes with temp, humidity, etc.. This can all be avoided by a stress relieved barrel, and free floating. Further, a non stress relieved barrel will probly bugger whatever bedding you attempt anyway.

[Willbird]

Freelands used to sell the spring loaded plunger deals, they were used years ago on 22 target rifles.

Bill

[Doc Highwall]

Shimming seams to work best with sporter weight barrels. I even bedded the entire barrel channel on a Remington model 7 that would throw the first shot out of the group 6"-8" at 200 yds and after doing this it stayed under 2" group for 10 shots. This being a hunting rifle where you only get one shot sometimes I had to make shure that you knew with confidence where the shot was going.

[pietro]

My experience has been the same as Doc's - but only for wood stocks.

If pressure is applied between the barrel and the forearm tip of most synthetic stocks, you're wasting your time - as all you're going to accomplish is bending down the forend tip.
The synthetic stock material is too flexible w/o a long aluminum bedding block installed.

.

[Bill*]

There is a device you can install in your stock to allow for adjustable upward pressure on the barrel. It's called a "bughole tuner" Go here: http://www.webspawner.com/users/bugholetuners/ I don't see why something like this wouldn't work on a non-rimfire also!
I use one on a rem 597 and feel it works. Hope this helps......Bill

[Molly]

You can also buy threaded (OD) spring loaded ball detents from any good hardware catalog. They are available with a wide range of spring tensions too. Just drill two holes in the forend at ~45 degrees from one another and glass bed a short length of steel tubing in them. Thread for the detents you've selected, and turn the detents in until they touch the barrel. Then you can adjust the upward pressure on the barrel by how many turns you move the detents past the touch point. Generally considered best form to have them exerting equal tension.

Simple, easy and inexpensive. I haven't seen any requests for it lately, but it used to be a fairly popular alteration around here at one time. Some folks swore by them. If you don't like the results, just screw the detents out and fill the holes with a walnut plug.

Molly

[bobk]

The problem with barrel bedding is that your point of impact will only remain the same with the IDENTICAL rest set up you used to sight in the rifle. Change from a soft bag to a hard rest, and it might shoot to a different place, and you can forget wrapping into a sling! Aagaard wrote up a piece where he tried this, and the differences in POI were enough that it made sighting in for long range impossible.
As others have mentioned, if the action is bedded right, the gun will shoot floated. I bed the first 2 inches of barrel just to get a good consistent drawdown on the front guard screw. I check the bedding with a dial indicator clamped to the barrel, and indicate the forearm. Tightening and loosening the screws alternately, maybe a quarter turn, should show you some movement, but maybe no more that a couple of thousandths. Be sure to bed the trigger guard and floorplate, too, as this can affect how the screws bend the action when tightened.
Bob K

[felix]

Yes, BobK is right on! Lack of recoil control causes all kinds of havoc. Folks not consistent enough with that gun will find that a shorter, stiffer barrel will come in handy (literally), or the load increased to 2100 fps or beyond for the typical 24 inch barrel. Say, 300 fps behind the barrel length as a general rule, like 1800 for a 21 incher, 1500 for a 18 incher, etc. The BR warehouse experiments flat concluded with little doubt that the barrel length must be 21.75 inches for ANY straight taper barrel, when loaded to 3250 fps, no matter the bore size (of those tried). ... felix