Questions on bedding

If it shoots good don't mess with it.

Yeah, I wouldn't mess with it if it shoot acceptably. Some actions lend themselves well to bedding and some do not. If you decide to go ahead and try it, be sure to bed the first inch or inch and a half of the barrel so that you have something holding up the front. If you put too much torque on the rear screw, it could put the action out of whack. I only know this because a friend of mine chose to do his and we wound up having to scour the net for info. Honestly, I don't think it helped much, if at all.

Personally, I have never seen a well built rifle shoot worse - out of having floated and bedded dozens of rifles - after a well executed float and bed job. I consider a rifle which “needs a pressure pad” to be screaming of improper machining or stress relief - I’d rather know and send it down the road, rather than own it. Even rack grade bolt rifles shoot as good or better when floated and bedded. Enough accomplished smiths have coached me of the same thing - a barrel should shoot it’s best when floating, else something is wrong with the barrel. So a pressure pad is largely Advil to treat brain cancer.

If memory serves, the JC 50 is just a rebranded Mauser 98, which have certainly been demonstrated to be easily bedded.

hillman23 said:

It seems premature to make alterations to something based on what might happen.

Click to expand...

Do you wear a seatbelt?

Over thirty years ago, when I purchased my M50, I did not pillar bed the thing, and now I wish I had. My bedding has collapsed as the wood under the Acuraglass has compressed. My barrel, like yours, is chrome plated. And my barrel fouled something horrible. I paid a gunsmith to lap the barrel, and that improved things. But, it still fouls. I did find that coating bullets in grease, such as hair gel, vasoline, absolutely prevented bullet fouling. I would be curious to learn if your barrel fouls,

This rifle is not a target rifle, and being very light weight, is twitchy. One of these days I will route out all the old bedding and pillar bed the action. I free floated the thing, and I will re check to make sure the barrel is not touching the forend.







I totally agree with @Varminterror about free floating barrels. I have not floated as many as him, but the difference afterwards can be eye opening.

This is a good example of how the fore end can produce inaccuracy. This is a custom rifle built in the 1950's. The previous owner claimed it was very accurate. It was not accurate as built.












after bedding and free floating the barrel, an improvement. Groups became roundish.



this is what it will do at distance





Not target grade, but it will stay in a pie pan at 300 yards, so it is good to go for deer sized game.

But go shoot the thing first. If by some miracle it is a tack driver, don't mess with it. And check the scope mount base screws. They all work loose in time. I have gotten to the point of epoxying bases to rifles because the screws inevitably loosen.

Clicking my seatbelt doesn’t permanently alter my vehicle.

Click to expand...

Free floating a barrel can easily be reversed too.

I've never seen floating a barrel make anything worse. It may not help, but I'd do it. If the OP wants to go back the barrel can always be full length bedded. There are some successful gunsmiths who prefer that method.

Other than the feeding issue, how does the rifle shoot right now? If it shoots acceptable accuracy for hunting, there would be no reason to free float it. If you are trying to squeeze as much accuracy as you can for longer range, that is a different story.

Here’s one example of before and after relieving the barrel channel on a 223 bolt action

Free floating barrels is an appropriate subject on April Fools Day.

Is it true the thicker the barrel is the less important bedding or floating is?

bluetopper said:

Is it true the thicker the barrel is the less important bedding or floating is?

Click to expand...

I don't believe so. These barrels vibrate, you can't see it with your eyes, but barrels are vibrating as the bullet goes down the tube. If the system does not vibrate consistently, bullets get scattered. The trend has been to create stiffer actions, thicker barrels and to remove things from the barrel, or things that are in contact with the barrel. I know of 22lr shooters who use barrel tuners, weights on the barrel to alter the barrel vibration, and they seem to work. For optimal accuracy tuners have to be adjusted for one lot of ammunition. The next one will be of different average velocity, different in some other characteristic, and the tuner will have to reset.

I thought was interesting, was the bedding philosphy of this Stevens M416, a WW2 trainer in 22lr. One screw, out in the barrel secures the action to the stock. The action is free floating. The upper band is tension adjusted for your favorite load.











If it was worth the bother they would still be doing it.


It is my opinion that differences in ammunition lots is the greatest source of inaccuracy with 22lr match ammunition. I knew one shooter who spent about $600-$800 in match ammunition setting his tuner, and he must have spent $5000-$6,000 in stockpiling the ammunition of that lot.

Muzzle breaks were also used on centerfire rifles and they worked. However, you had to spend a lot of time testing, stick with one load, and they were LOUD!. Being next to one on the firing line was like being next to an atomic bomb each and every shot. I have left my firing point to get away from the things. Muzzle breaks have more or less fizzled, I suspect the accuracy improvement was not worth all the bother.

I've read the whole reasoning behind heavy target bull barrels was to make them stiffer to subdue vibrations thus theoretically making them more accurate. Aside from that you also get the added benefit of more weight and less recoil further enhancing accuracy.

You shouldn’t change oil after the engine blows up. You shouldn’t buy gas after you run out. The list goes on, but on bedding it absolutely irks me when people suggest leaving it alone if it shoots “good”. I cannot imagine anyone promoting leaving scope rings loose since the last group was good.

One range session before hunting season is where I suspect this thinking comes from and I can say as something of a range rat that traffic really picks up in the Fall.

All bedding and floating does is increase a rifles chance to shoot consistently. Have you ever owned a rifle you felt was too accurate?

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” does not apply here. At least not in the sense most people consider.

A barrel that isn’t free floating is “broken.” A barrel that doesn’t shoot its best when it is free floating is “broken.”

Skylerbone said:

All bedding and floating does is increase a rifles chance to shoot consistently

Click to expand...

Only if done correctly. Read almost anything by Nathan Foster at Terminal Ballistics. Bedding and free floating can be done incorrectly. Some rifles have a negative accuracy relationship when the action is fully bedded and need partial bedding or even just bedding around a single recoil lug.

herrwalther said:

Bedding and free floating can be done incorrectly. Some rifles have a negative accuracy relationship when the action is fully bedded and need partial bedding or even just bedding around a single recoil lug.

Click to expand...

Yes but that argument is the equivalent of fueling up your Corvette with diesel to prove that keeping the gas tank empty would have been safer. If bedding is out of someone’s comfort zone there are professionals available.

Skylerbone said:

Yes but that argument is the equivalent of fueling up your Corvette with diesel to prove that keeping the gas tank empty would have been safer. If bedding is out of someone’s comfort zone there are professionals available.

Click to expand...

Cautionary tale at best. I am sure there are people who believe they can free float their own barrels just by taking 90 sand paper to their stock under the barrel.