I just bedded my 7mm-08 Savage bolt gun yesterday. It is in a wood stock. It is the first rifle that I have ever had that has been bedded. I will wait a week and then shoot it to see how it responds. What do you all think? Does bedding always benefit a rifles accuracy? Or is there a chance that it can be detrimental to a rifles accuracy? Guess I will know for sure in about a week. Thanks

If it wasnt bedded properly from the factory and you bedded it right accurracy will most likely improve. If you didnt,it will go down the tubes,lol. But bedding a wood stock with fiberglass will almost always help the rifle maintain its same point of impact in rainy and damp conditions.

Well one should determine how it needs to be bedded before he glass beds it...some rifles like to be tight, some 3 point with pressure on the forend, and others free floated..find that out then bed accordingly...or

Start by bedding it tight from tang to froend, try it, if its not satisfactory then scrape out from 2"s in from of chamber to end of forend and place a shim or two of different thicknesses up front and try it...lastly free float it or shoot it without the shims, but be sure its free from 2"s in front of the chamber.

If none of the above work, then you need a new barrel....

I have found most rifles either shoot or they don't and if one gives me fits then I just rebarrel it with a Lother walther barrel and be done with it..I cannot stand a finicky rifle or a rifle that will only shoot a few loads accurately...

IMO glass bedding a boltaction rifle is ALWAYS a good thing to do. NO MATTER WHAT.

I certainly agree with everyone above about bedding. IF it is done properly. I recent;y had a customer bring me a SA Rem in a laminated VS stock. He said it wasn;t shooting well and he had bedded it himself. He had purchased an after market stock and wanted me to pillar bed it for him. When I removed the rifle from his old stock his bedding job was visible. Acra-glas in front of, under, and down both sides of the recoil lug. Nowhere else! He had placed bedding material in the three places where I keep it from going. When I had finished his new stock and he came to pick it up, I asked him about the old bedding job. He then back tracked and blamed it on his brother in law.
My point is, a proper bedding job usually makes for a more accurate rifle but, an improper job may hurt accuracy.

I have bedded a lot of my rifles and it has helped on them all. But I do not do it on one that shoots out of the box.

Bedding is a good idea for many reasons from fixing wooden stocks to making syt ones fit better.

The best luck I have had it to bed the action and the first 3 inchs of the barrel under the chamber then free float the rest. This seems to work out very well.

If it dosen't shoot out of the box It is one of the frist things I do is to free float and bed.

I had a customer complain of poor accuracy on a switch barrel rifle I had barreled for him. He said one barrel shot well, but the other didn't. I told him to send back the .308 barrel that didn't shoot and I would send it back to the manufacturer. They restress relieved it and relapped it a little and sent it back. I sent it back to him and he said it shot worse. I told him to send the rifle to me and I would check his bedding job. When it came in, I loosened off the front guard screw and watched the barrel move away from the forend. No dial indicator needed to see movement. I rebedded it. Took it to the range and it shot 5 shot groups in the .2's to .4's. The best it would do before was a little over an inch. The bedding is just one part of the three B's of rifle accuracy, bedding, barrels and bullets.

Mike

You started on topic about wood, so my comments are towards that only.

I have rifles both ways bedded and free floated.
Roth work on the rifles they are set up for. Personally I like full bedding, and the inside of my wood stocks all sealed up. They are more stable that way. I like they way Ray siggested you go about the free floating. I also haven't ever seen a custom barrel like Ray described. I have none, I have seen stock model 70's need it, never on my custom barrels. I have always glass bed and they are good to go. If I get a fussy shooter I am going to remember the above free float trick. Got to get there first though and so far that hasn't been the case.

just what vapodog said