# Glass bed action & free float barrel???



## newhunter (Dec 6, 2004)

I just bought the Remington 700 CDL 30-06. I'm hearing different things about glass beding the action and free floating the barrel. Do I need to have this done, and what will it do for me?


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## .17remman (Dec 7, 2004)

I would recommend shooting the rifle first. The accuracy of the rifle is probably not going to be improved too much, considering that it is a new rifle and Remington 700 are, for the most part, a very accurate rifle off the shelf. The barrel may already be free floated. To check this, take a dollar bill and slide it between the barrel and the forearm of the stock. It should fit between snugly but still slide for about 4 to 6 inches. Glass bedding is usually used when a rifle is not shooting well and the stock is to blame. This makes the stock true to the barrel. Hope this helped and good luck.


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## northerndave (Dec 6, 2004)

Yeah, like he said. I don't own any rem rifles (not any center fires anyways) so I can't really speak the rem language intelligently but I'll do my best. You said CDL I think? 24" bl? sporter weight bl? Here's the thing, glass bedding isn't going to hurt anything that I can think of but the floating.... Many modern bolt actions like yours have a small rib in the barrel channel of the gun stock at the tip of the fore end. This is a pressure/contact rib. It's there on purpose from the manufacturer. I've removed them on some M70 Winchesters of mine while floating some of my own projects & I've lucked out, done well with it. My barrels liked being free with the receiver securely bedded. Now I've got a friend who is far better schooled on this than I am & he's kind of a remington guy. He prefers to leave that pressure point in the barrel channel of the stock. In fact he knows exactly how much pressure he's got up there. For some reason I'm thinking he was talking about 3 lbs of pressure. Anyways, it's a vibration dampening thing. He digs it, thinks it's the cat's whiskers & all that. He says he has a couple that do well with out it (fully floated) but he has a couple that need it. He's taken it out on some only to find that he has to build it back in with glass (this is how he knows his exact pressure, bed it, hang a weight til the glass is set up, etc.) Anyway, shoot the new gun, play around with different ammo & find what it likes before you hog out that channel. I think they can all benefit from a good bedding job but they don't all like to float.


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## Militant_Tiger (Feb 23, 2004)

The bedding could aid accuracy, or screw it up. It depends on whether you are famaliar with the process most of the time.


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## go4thegusto (Sep 29, 2004)

My experience has been that the addition of pillar blocks and bedding along with a free floated barrel PRESERVES accuracy. Some suggest shooting the gun first and leaving it alone if it shoots....well that is one event. The next time you pull it out and the humidity changed or whatever it may shoot differently. The fact is that wood is not a stable base. If you glass it in, torque it properly into metal pillars and keep the wood off the barrel it should shoot the same, hopefully forever. Do this stuff FIRST, then shoot it. If it does not group at this point then go after the barrel crown, trigger, and most importantly the load. I like a reliable base line on my rifles before I can say "it is a shooter", otherwise it can let you down on a rainy hunt. And hey....once you do all this it becomes a special rifle to you. It is all about fun, right?


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## northerndave (Dec 6, 2004)

I'd like to give that whole pillar thing a try. I've got a new savage 114ce 30-06 walnut/blued. very nice looking savage with a clip, neat gun. the barrel channel is enormous, came that way from the factory. It's floating the barrel by an 8th inch all around. here's the problem though. bedding or lack there of. it doesn't have the dual pillars like other savages, it just has an average sized recoil lug (which is tapered so that's nice for bedding, should release well) I'd like to build some pillars in there though when I get around to bedding it. Right now from the factory it walks to the left side of the barrel channel when you shoot it. can you drop any pointers on me, maybe an instructive link or two?


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## go4thegusto (Sep 29, 2004)

You can buy pillar kits and AccuGlass bedding at Brownells if you want to tackle it yourself. I whimp out and leave this to Curt at the Outdoorsman in Fargo....I am sure Kevin at Custom Gunworks can handle it too. The Savage "pillars" are kind of a joke, they are just thin wall pipes that typically don't even contact the action. I pulled them out on my laminated stock Savage and drilled it out to accept the full size real pillars. They should be radiused to contact the action and floorplate or trigger guard properly....takes some skill.


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## northerndave (Dec 6, 2004)

cool, I'll check out that brownells stuff & see if it's something I'm willing to take on. I used to do some work on the old M40-A1 rifles as an armorer/small arms repairman while I served in the Marine Corps. Mostly bedding upkeep/repair though. 
i'll give it a whirl this winter if I get time.


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