My Model 70 Supergrade came in yesterday and I'm very happy with it....except: the forend can be moved up & down by hand toward and away from the barrel. It travels a significant amount with little effort. I haven't shot it (or even scoped it) yet but I'm sure such inconsistency won't exactly help the accuracy. Is this a common problem with the model? Most of my other rifles wear Mcmillan stocks (or are pressure-bedded remingtons) so I haven't encountered this problem before. Is full-length bedding the answer? I don't want to start a debate about the pros & cons of free-floating vs. partial or full-length bedding, but in THIS case where free floating could only be done by strengthing the forend (I assume) what would you do? Thanks for the help- I'm taking the rifle to Africa in August so I need to get hopping.

WoodHits,

Some of the factory composite stocks are pretty flimsy for sure. The folks around here who wish to use these stocks will generally float these to the point that you would have to strain yourself to make contact between the stock and the barrel. If you are prone to having your stuff float anyway, then remove enough material to avoid contact with the barrel when shooting off a rest, or while using a sling.

Good luck,

Malm

P.S. Unless you are willing to add rebar to the forend to make it solid, then you are probably better off floating a flimsy forend rather than full length bedding it.

[ 03-29-2003, 02:45: Message edited by: G.Malmborg ]

Woodhits, shoot it first to see if you actually do have a problem. There are two things you can try if you do not want to full length bed. One is to cut the free float more so that the barrel channel does not contact or to rout out a channel and glass in a piece of redibolt as a reinforcement. Try the first one first if you do have a problem.