Hi All, I have just rebarreled my Remington 600 with a new #1 contour barrel and I was wondering if it is worth bedding the whole barrel as it is so thin.Could some of you experts tell me the pros and cons of this.Thanks

It won't hurt anything...If you want it free floted then put two layers of paper tape on the barrel...It won't make it much stronger but it is a good seal....or just bed it tight, you can always scrape it to free if need be....

Hi, 7mm Man

I would suggest to shoot the rifle free-floated first. If it's not as accurate as you expect after testing loads and all, try bed the tip of the forend. If it's still not accurate, bed the whole barrel channel. If you have bedded the whole barrel channel at first, but found out it's not accurate, you will now have to remove the very hard bedding compound.

Even in a full-length barrel bedding job, one has to start by freeing up the barrel channel---if the wood is touching/bending the barrel then the bedding is only going to freeze the barrel in a stressed state.

I use Acraglas Gel(note "GEL"), the compound is sticky enough to stand, I would lay the rifle horizontally so the barrel can express its natural droop. The sticky compound will not flow out from the end of barrel channel. After the compound hardens, the bedding applies no pressure to the barrel, only supports it.

The down side of total and partial free-floating is that things can fall into the gap of the channel without you knowing it, your rifle is barrelled in a contour 1 so I assume it's a hunting gun. In a hunt, things can fall in, rain water can accumulate so all wood surface has to be weather-proofed.

I THINK(theorize...more like it) the down side of full barrel bedding is it is sensitive to heat expansion. Except bull barrels, all barrels have taper, when the barrel is hot it lengthens, expands more than the bedding compound, this cause a relative movement---the barrel steel moves forward of its original position and the slope of taper will push it up. this can cause shift in zero. In a hunt you don't fire so many shots to make it hot, so one only has to make a note when testing handloads---you want a "cold zero" not a "hot zero". Maybe this expansion problem can be lessened by adding metal powder in your bedding compound to make its expansion ratio closer to steel? I don't know but I do know some people add steel powder in their bedding resins.

Hope this helps