Bedding Question - Rem 700 (First timer)

[WNTFW]

My Previous post malfunctioned!

I'm about to bed a Rem 700 SPS Varmint. It is my firt time bedding anything. (Maybe I should rephrase that.) It is my first time Bedding a RIFLE.

I already stiffened the fore end for various reasons. 1 being to make sure the epoxy took to the synthetic stock. The rifle is all factory including the barrel. The barrel is Remingtons 26" heavy-contour barrel (0.820" muzzle O.D.)

My question is how much should I bed in front of the recoil lug? I've seen anywhere from 0" to 3". I assume 0" allows for changing the barrel easier in the future.

 

[Bart B.]

I wouldn't put any bedding in front of the recoil lug. It does nothing for accuracy and usually makes it worse. It will have to be done over if you rebarrel.

And if you will rebarrel once in a while, have the recoil lug pinned to the receiver so it will always stay in the same place. Otherwise, you'll have to rebed the receiver each time you rebarrel.

 

[WNTFW]

Bart B.
Thanks for the reply. I had posted a post earlier & went to work on the final prep. The post didn't make it so I ate up my clock. I had already proceeded before seeing your post. More or less I figured "Free Float" meant free float so not bedding in front of the lug was what I went with.

I'll be soon be seeing If I did a good job, have voids or have a 700 glued together forever as a monument to DIY gunsmithing.

It was a leap of faith to bed a rifle for the first time. Guessing the right amount of bedding material to use is not easy. Not having enough is bad & too much is just more mess. In fact just deciding what materials to use is a big part of the battle.

Once I got to the point I was mixing epoxy & going together with everything it went pretty smoothly.

Now the waiting is a killer. I have the urge to see what the result is but know separating the assembly too early would be worse than letting them sit longer.

I can safely say I appreciate why guys charge what they do to bed rifles.

Thanks,
WNTFW