Most of Remingtons 700's barrels are not free floated, they feature a pressure point near the tip of the fore-end of the stock. I am not very well educated on this matter but is Remington saying that they will group better than a free floated barrel?
Remington 700's
- Thread starter GEORGE7mm
- Start date
I've always free-floated my 700s with good results, but now I'm playing with a 700 TI in 260 and I'm wondering if full-bedding that pencil-thin barrel would provide a bit more support ?
Has anyone played with one of these with respect to bedding ?
Has anyone played with one of these with respect to bedding ?
I think that Remington uses this pressure point to hide the fact that the action is not bedded in any way shape or form. Remove this pressure point and the barrel quite often does not float but creates an new pressure point at the forend tip. That tells me that nothing near the action was anchored correctly. Most hunting model remingtons need work and then they shoot O.K.
manbearpig
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Somewhere in the Third World
Remingtons can be finicky - my friend had his older 700 CDL disassembled one day and saw this dark lump of wood pressing up against the barrel. so he sanded it off 
. when he went out to the range, accuracy has noticeably decreased -- he was freaking out.
i remember reading an article a long time ago about some Remington tech recommending that if this happens, to 'restore' the pressure point by clamping the action upside down, hanging a weight (i forget how much, do a google search and youll find it somewhere, i think 5-7 lbs?) from the barrel, putting some bedding material in the forend where the pressure point was, installing the stock and letting it cure. this should exert an 5-7lb forend pressure on the barrel, according to them.
i was pretty skeptical of the whole pressure point juju though, so i just de-greased his stock (the thing was saturated with gun oil) and relieved his entire barrel channel a *touch* with a dowel and sandpaper. i glass bedded the action with aluminum pillars, then sealed just the raw barrel channel with tung oil to help keep moisture out.
it shoots MOA now, better than it did even before he took out the pressure point. the stock is walnut, however, so with humidity changes the stock may warp a little and will touch the barrel somewhere.
so no, the pressure point doesnt shoot better than a properly bedded, free-floated rifle. but the old unbedded rifle did shoot noticeably better with the pressure point than without.
honestly though if you want to mess around with bedding and removing pressure points for accuracy, get a synthetic or laminate stock. many of these older hunting guns have had owners that apply the gun oil very liberally and just degreasing the stock is a chore in itself. if you are really concerned about accuracy and willing to put the time in to bed it properly then set the walnut stock aside and start with something more stable.
. when he went out to the range, accuracy has noticeably decreased -- he was freaking out. i remember reading an article a long time ago about some Remington tech recommending that if this happens, to 'restore' the pressure point by clamping the action upside down, hanging a weight (i forget how much, do a google search and youll find it somewhere, i think 5-7 lbs?) from the barrel, putting some bedding material in the forend where the pressure point was, installing the stock and letting it cure. this should exert an 5-7lb forend pressure on the barrel, according to them.
i was pretty skeptical of the whole pressure point juju though, so i just de-greased his stock (the thing was saturated with gun oil) and relieved his entire barrel channel a *touch* with a dowel and sandpaper. i glass bedded the action with aluminum pillars, then sealed just the raw barrel channel with tung oil to help keep moisture out.
it shoots MOA now, better than it did even before he took out the pressure point. the stock is walnut, however, so with humidity changes the stock may warp a little and will touch the barrel somewhere.
so no, the pressure point doesnt shoot better than a properly bedded, free-floated rifle. but the old unbedded rifle did shoot noticeably better with the pressure point than without.
honestly though if you want to mess around with bedding and removing pressure points for accuracy, get a synthetic or laminate stock. many of these older hunting guns have had owners that apply the gun oil very liberally and just degreasing the stock is a chore in itself. if you are really concerned about accuracy and willing to put the time in to bed it properly then set the walnut stock aside and start with something more stable.
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- Location
- The Conservative part of Ontario
and that doesn't matter a damn bit if you are a hunter concerned with minute of deer accuracy out to 200 yards or so.
Sorry, I'm old school I guess, I like wood. It's never let me down. But then, I hunt with predominately two piece stocks, so warpage isn't as much an issue.
I've free floated all my hunting rifles that are of the one piece design, and done similar things to my two piece stocks. It works for me. and yes, my stocks get VERY wet.
Tell that to a friend of mine that missed a nice whitetail buck at about 200 yards.His 25-06 was sighted in 3" high at 100 yards and he shot over the deer at 200 yards.He figured that it was just him,so he continued hunting,only to shoot over another deer at about 200 yards.At this point we decided to test his rifle and set up a target.The point of impact was now 9" high at 100 yards.This was the last day of the season,so he decided to use his other rifle instead of adjusting the scope,since he had left most of his ammo back at the room.When we arrived home the gun went back into the gun cabinet for a week and we were at the range the next weekend.Guess what,the point of impact was now 3" high at 100 yards again.The moisture had actually resulted in a change of impact of 6" at 100 yards.This rifle was not in any way modified,so no doubt bedding it and floating the barrel would have helped,but the point is,having a wooden stock did cost him a nice buck.The rifle now wears a synthetic stock,and the point of impact remains very consistent.
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Thats bull, this years opening whitetail season my brother and I hunted the weekend and we are both good shots hunting almost 2 decades and are both using Rem. 700 BDL, my brother missed 3 different deer at about 100 yards away which agrivated us both and trying to think what went wrong with the sighting of the scope. 5 days later we went to the range to sight in the scope again and the gun was hitting bullseyes without making any adjustments whatsoever.
I am now convinced that the wood swelled up and changed the shot and when the swelling went down everything went back to place. I will not use a wood stock again for hunting after seeing this with my own eyes and I am now in the market for another rifle.
In the past we had no choice but now with the technology of the stocks we have today I dont want to miss out on a buck after making all those expenses and dedicated time cause of a swollen stock.
The first thing i did when i bought my 700BDL was go and class bed it just to find out that it was already done. It turns out it was a custum shop gun that was ordered paid for and then the guy dropped dead so it couldnt be sold in the box. Shoots like a dream and wears walnut.
- Location
- Vancouver Island BC
I usually remove the pressure point from the tip of my Remington's,I then seal the wood up and epoxy bed the chamber portion of the barrel channel. The rear half of the lug gets done and about 2 inches in front of lug under the chamber.The 300 mag and the 7x57 I bedded shoot under an inch. I have done the same procedure with the last bunch of Remington's I have owned and the accuracy improved with all of them.
bedding
I hope more people read this most don't beleive this will happen, but your story is dead ON 10+
I hope more people read this most don't beleive this will happen, but your story is dead ON 10+
