I have a Rem 700 rebuilt as a 6/284 w/ a 30"x 1.25 stainless Lilja barrel. I was planning on skim-bedding this rifle and had heard from a friend of mind that I should bed the action and th chamber section of the barrel to alleviate stess to the action caused by the long heavy barrel. Would you guys advise this? I hogged out the barrel channel for the beefier barrel and the gun will shoot 3/4"@ 200 yards right now with first fired neck-downed 284 brass. Would bedding the chamber be advisable and would hit help accuracy? Thanks

carverelli
I've read of people doing this.
On my first 25-06 on a Mark X action with a wonderful walnut stock from Richard's Microfit I glassed the intire barrel channel with 1/4 wide by 1/8 inch deep grooves off center on each side to hold more epoxy. That stock is now the load testing/bench rest stock for the same action as a 375 Whelen. I had to route out all the barrel channel epoxy for the medium target weight 375 barrel.
A shooting and B.S.ing buddy of mine recently took a Reminton 40X scrapped out the action area, to give a bit more room and remove any oil soaked wood, from his stock. He built two dams/supports in the barrel channel to support the barrel and to keep epoxy out of the chamber area of the stock, while he glassed the action area. I believe these were about the thickness of two buiseness cards. After the action area was glassed he then glassed the area around the chamber area of the barrel. Maybe 3 inches long in the barrel channel.
Jim

I just bedded a 34" barrel for 8 inches in front of the receiver ring. Haven't had a chance to shoot it since I am still working on the other parts.

[ 04-08-2003, 19:29: Message edited by: Roger Rothschild ]

I personally bed all remington 700's with heavy barrels (#5 and up) with the following procedure: Tape the recoil lug on the front side Facing the barrel, the sides and bottom of the lug. relieve the tang area of the stock and foreward of the front lug about 2 inches. Glassbed these areas. The barrel will be sitting on a 2 inch long section of bedding when done. -Rob

Rob, so what your saying is the only part of the recoil lug that should touch any bedding is the rear(side that's closest to the action). Also, would several more inches of support say 4 inches in front of the recoil lug hurt anything?

Carverelli
I have a 40x 6-284 with a 30" Hart Straight Cylinder, I have approx 6" of the barrel bedded. It shoots 68gr Bergers at over 4200 in the 2's-3's . A barrel bedding block may? be the best way to go with these big buggers.

carverelli,
I glass bed all my rifles this way. I've gotten excellent results with the action and barrel chamber area bedded. This is my starting point. Very seldom it has been necessary to also bed the foreend of the stock. Good luck.

I'd reefloat it, it doesn't need the support, might not hurt, but it might too.

My brothers 338/378wby is hanging a 32" barrel on his and it shoots beautifully. Most aren't bedded under the chamber unless they are over 32" from what I've gathered. When the chamber heats up and changes the pressure on the gaurd screw it sets up different harmonics, this is where you have the problems with bedding the barrel shank, IMHO.

That said, I'm putting a barrel block on a 1.35" straight tube 30/338 Lapua Imp I'm building so the bedding lasts beyond the life of the rifle, not just a fraction of the barrels life. The 700 doesn't have the bedding surface that most custom actions have, the mag well makes this worse too, so you may be doing the bedding again later. My brothers is in an aluminum bedded block so he doesn't have that to worry about. Good luck.

Thanks for the replies. I'll be preparing the action this week for bedding. I already have some Brownells Acraglas on hand. I bought the kit several months in case I needed it. But I'll have to check if it has the release agent in it. I'll keep you'all posted how it turns out. So far the best 200 yard groups were right at 3/4" w/ the 107 MK's moly coated. When I get the action bedded and velocity deviation down around 20 fps, I'll test at 500 yards. I'm hpoing for groups aroung 1.5"... Thanks again for your help.