Horsemany,
Just checked this topic and saw the amount of replies.....holy crap.
Your smith may have worked one of the McMillans that had a light fill in the actions area, That is sometimes ordered from them and used only in stocks that are going on a very light recoiling rifle. That type of fill is not very dense and can be ground out very easily. Usuallay McMillian uses a medium fill on their stocks which is basically resin, heavy chopped glass and light glass beads, although you can order the stock with a heavy fill as well.
They will also do custom fills of their stocks if you ask them, some people like heavy fill in the action area and then a light fill in fore-end and buttstock, there are a number of combinations.
The pillars are to be installed by whomever installs the stock on the rifle (as said in prior posts) so they do not offer them with the stock as a standard option. There are too many hardware combinations to account for and is best left to the individual who is doing the install.
From what I have expeirienced, HS stock are kind of a pain when prepping the stock for bedding cause of the aluminum block, it takes a lot more effort to rough it up as opposed to removing some glass fill to allow for the bedding & making up some pillars and installing them. By bedding one of the various stocks that do have a V Blocks molded in, one can really see the amount of contact the receiver makes with the aluminum as the aluminum will be exposed through the bedding material, a visible aluminum strip is seen along both sides of the inside of the stock.
The amount of actual contact it very small because you have a flat surface mating against a radius along the length of the action.
As a note about the Kevlar, McMillan only makes one stock with kevlar in it.
It is the KS stock manufactured solely for Remington and is not offered to the public, They apply a strip of kevlar about 1.5" wide by about 6" long on either side of the receiver area when laying up the mat & cloth in the mold.
This is so remington can advertise their rifles as coming with a kevlar stock........it's a marketing thing.
John