Pros & Cons: bedding the first inch of barrel

[s1rk1118]

Savage PTA w/30" heavy palma contour going in a laminate stock. Will be inletting for a V block. The first inch of that barrel is straight before the contour starts. My options are: contour the first inch of the laminate so it supports, bed the first inch with Devcon, or free float the whole thing. Which?

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

JMO, but the PRO is that it's easier to put it there and take it out than to leave it out and later put it in. The CON is that it seldom if ever helps with a barrel of that weight, and is a potential area for problems. --Mike Ezell

 

[Larryh128]

Strickly target rifle, you don't need it or probably want it. On hunting rifles , I bed the chamber as well for an additional support.

 

[Preacher]

I would never bed any part of the barrel, and have never seen it cause a problem to any of my straight 1.350's....... or any of my sporter barrels either.......

 

[lurcher]

My gunsmith bedded at least two of my rifles an inch in front of the lug. What problems if any is this likely to cause? I can see that if you ever set the barrel back there would be an issue are there other potential problems?

 

[TTF]

I never bed past the recoil lug, this should start to mess with harmonics and you do not want to dampen one side of the barrel. I always bed on the action side of the recoil lug, but then the front side of the recoil lug is free (touches air).

 

[NorCalMikie]

No bedding needed if it's going on a V block. That's what the block is for. Some add thin bedding between the block and action.

 

[GSSP]

My gunsmith bedded at least two of my rifles an inch in front of the lug. What problems if any is this likely to cause? I can see that if you ever set the barrel back there would be an issue are there other potential problems?

In a hunting weight barrel, as your barrel heats up, it could increase group size. I recently proved this to my self by firing three 5-shot groups from a cold barrel for each shot; 3 minutes between shots. A warm barrel with 1 minute between shots. And a hot barrel; running each shot as fast as I could run the bolt, reacquire the target and press the trigger.

Each temp increase increased group size any where from .1" to .6". The barrel has about 1" bedded under the chamber area. Ambient temps were about 65 deg F. Barrel was a 24.5" #3 Broughton in 6.5x47 in a Pierce SA.

Alan

 

[Alex Wheeler]

Once an action is torqued to a barrel it is essentially one piece. I don't see how the lug is some magical divider. Vibration goes through the whole works. I don't see how the gun knows if you bed an inch up or not, remember half the chamber is still inside the action. Done it both ways. ???

 

[zeke06]

So GSSP how bout you remove that bedding ahead of the lug and do your test again to see if it really makes that big of a difference as the barrel heats up