I have a 700 ADL Remington in 270 that shoots a flier occasionally and is prone to drift down about 6 inches as the barrel warms up. I have always heard bedding the action and floating the barrel would help, I asked a local gunsmith and he said you float a heavy barrel and bed a light one and recommended bedding this ADL with a light barrel and synthetic stock all the way to the end. I have never heard of bedding a barrel all the way out. Is this a plausible remedy?
Thanks

I have always gotten best results with Bedding the action from tang to ring and the first 2-3 inches of the barrel with the balance floated. I often use pillars for positive stops when torquing.

Thanks, That is what i have always heard and read too.

I have been full length glass bedding my sporter weight barreled rifles since 1980. My experience is that it always settles my groups.
In addition, IMHO, it is a better bedding system for wetter hunting areas, such as here in Louisiana, but I learned this lesson the hard way on a wet hunt in British Columbia. I do not reload so my experience is always with factory ammo. I currently have 9 rifles full length glass bedded. It works for me.

I've been bedding rifles since 1968. The theory with light barrels is pretty good. However, some barrels are a rule unto themselves. I started bedding light barrels full-lenth in wood stocks to ensure no moisture got in that way and caused forend warping. If the gun did not shoot, I then would remove just enough bedding to free-float the barrel and see if that helped. Doing this, if I get down to bare wood, I use polyurethane sprayed in to seal the wood. Go ahead and have it bedded full-length, you can always free-float later.

You have 3 choices of bedding basically..
1. fully bedded from tang to end of forend,If this does not work then go to #2

2. Three point bedding, that is tang, recoil lug and 2" of barrel with pressure on the forend about an inch behind the end of the forend. If this does not work go to #3

3. tang, recoil lug, 2"s of barrel and free float the barrel all the way out, but do not leave a big ugly gap on each side of the barrel, it should not show..If this does not work buy a new barrel.

I would do it in that order and when it shot well, I would stop...I do it in that order as you can take material out but you cannot put it back, actually you can put it back "if glassing" but its a lot more trouble if you take that route.

Every gun has its preference based mostly on barrel harmonics IMO.

quote:

I have never heard of bedding a barrel all the way out. Is this a plausible remedy?

Yes, it is. But it is NOT the first thing I would try. Bed the action first, and about the first two-three inches of the barrel in front of the receiver ring. Just insure the action is supported everywhere in ther stock, so that the receiver will not flex or bend when the guard screws are tightened. Then, with the barrled action installed and tightended down, use a dollar bill in the barrel channel to see if/where any high spots are allowing the stock forend to put pressure on the barrel A slight upward pressure (10-20#) close to the very tip of the forend is OK at this juncture. If there are other pressure spots, sand them out. Next, with any upward pressure in the tip undisturbed, fire a group and see if it is still drifting down. If it is, the next step is to remove any stock material in the barrel channel that is touching the barrel forward of the bedding material you put in front of the receiver ring, and then shoot another group. If the bullets still start drifing downward now, the last thing you can try is to glass-bed the barrel in its channel all the way from the reeiver ring to the endof the forend to see if the problem is resolved.

Do this last, because having to remove all this bedding if it didn't work is a real PITA!!

ONE of the above "solutions" will more often than not solve your problem. Some shoot best free-floated, others (generally the light-barreled sporters) have to have a pressure point or two up front to dampen vibration, and some will need to be bedded all the way, such as your gunsmith suggested.

quote:

Originally posted by Arky:
I have a 700 ADL Remington in 270 that shoots a flier occasionally and is prone to drift down about 6 inches as the barrel warms up. I have always heard bedding the action and floating the barrel would help, I asked a local gunsmith and he said you float a heavy barrel and bed a light one and recommended bedding this ADL with a light barrel and synthetic stock all the way to the end. I have never heard of bedding a barrel all the way out. Is this a plausible remedy?
Thanks

The barrel on your ADL isnt exactly a light barrel, without going in the basement and measuring, I think its something like .652", OK, I measured it at .657. At any rate, a 6" drop as the barrel warms up sounds fishy, bullets usually drift up and not 6" up or down when the barrel gets warm, sounds like a scope or the way your holding the rifle on the bags, Im sure youre not resting the barrel on them, seen that just a month or so ago from an experienced shooter at the range, so thats why I mentioned it.
FWIW, I float all my sporter barrels, 2 being remington and one Winnie. They all shoot pretty decent. Im sure you have the same remington sythetic stock I (had) on my S/S 708, pure junk if ya ask me, ordered a HS Precision for it, changed the powder i was using and the thing shoots outstanding now, before I was getting fairly big(1.5"), round groups, never had a flier up or down it. That being said, scope or the way your resting the rifle on the bags is my guess is to why its "flying". Jay