Which is better?

[NSP64]

Which is the better way to bed a barrel? If the barrel has a sporter taper should it be pillar or full length bedded?

[leftiye]

I've always done all weights of barrels free floated with the front and rear reciever bolt areas glassed as well as about 3" of the barrel in front of the reciever. Pillar or block bedding can be added to this.

[quack1]

Leftiye has it. That method has worked for every rifle I've bedded for the last 40 years.
Now and then a barrel will need a little of up pressure near the tip to shoot its best. Just use narrow layers of business card, matchbook covers, cereal box cardboard, etc. to get the amount of pressure the barrel needs to shoot well. Then, just add a little bit of bedding compound in the barrel channel next to the strips of cardboard. After it cures, remove the cardboard strips and your pressure point is now permanent and weather proof.

[KCSO]

If your wood is stable and very little of it is now days, and if you have the cojones to do it right, there is nothing that shows more class than a proper full length bedding job. That said the last job like this I did I had the wood in my shop for 2 years, I have all the proper tools and If I remember right I spent 30 or more hours bedding the barrel on a tapered octogon german sporting rifle. Every time I do a job like this i swaer Never Again, but... If you just want a shooting gun and don't care about the classic touches free floated or pillar is OK.