Last fall I purchased a CZ 550 American in .416 Rigby. I seem to have got a decent one. It's accurate, feeds fine, and has a beautifully figured stock.
I'm having a stockmaker glassbed it so that it won't crack. He said that he would also add a second recoil lug out front of the magazine.
But after talking with him I have two questions that I hope you more experienced guys can help with:
1. If the stock is bedded does it need to be cross-bolted as well? It has no cross bolts from the factory.
2. Do I want the barrel free-floated or glass bedded?
Thanks.
Dave

I bedded mine from tip to tang with three internal crossbolts. It still shoots under an inch at 100 for 3 shots. I would go all out and put in 2 cross bolts and bed the entire barrel. Then you never ever half to worry about it cracking. Just shoot it and have fun.

I've got my first one in 416Rigby coming later this month or early April. I was planning on tearing it apart for a 500ASquare build, but am now considering using it as a 416Riby for awhile. I'm planning on two crossbolts and bedded just like I had my 458Lott done. I figure once you've touched them, it voids the warranty, so why risk it? The cost of bedding and crossbolts is cheaper than a replacement stock. Besides ... I know I'm going to reload and push the case to its limits before backing off to its traditional 2400fps working load.
Cheers...
Con

If your CZ doesn't have it, add the 2 crossbolts when your smith beds it. The new ones come with the 2 crossbolts as well as a stay bedded in the stock to mate with the barrel lug.

I had the 2nd crossbolt added and glass bedded to mine.

Thanks for the advice.
Crossbolts it is.
Is there any reason not to free float the barrel on a big-bore rifle? Are they always bedded all the way down?

.....You can float them fwd of the 2nd recoil lug But I don,t think it necessary....I bedded both recoil lugs on both of my CZ,s with JB Weld anr nothing has broke yet......

You could bed it all the way to the end. If you were unhappy w/ how it shot, then you could easily float it back to just before the foreward lug. Many do not like the barrel floated at all on a heavy barreled big bore hunting rifle that has a barrel lug. They do not like to have a gap that will collect grass, weeds and sticks.

GVA

dz86

Cross bolts can serve two functions.

On actions with small recoil lugs (Howa, older Sakos etc) the cross bolt serves to increase the area of the action recoil lug.

The other function is to stop the stock splitting when it balloons out under recoil. M70s havea very big recoil action recoil lug but that will not stop the stock from ballooning out from recoil.

Some rifles such as Weatherby have the cross bolt but the ends are not exposed.