Remington 700 - Bedding?

[160andup]

I have a 700 BDL in .270 that has never shot overly well. Not approaching MOA. It's not free floating, Remington intentionally has a significant amount of contact on the front end of the stock. Anyone bed these to help improve accuracy? Could there be something else causing this? Figured I would try bedding it to see if that helped... Open to any opinions from folks that know more than me...

 

[LaHunter]

You can use sandpaper and a wooden dowel to remove that contact area from the barrel channel of your stock easily to 'free float' your barrel. After doing that you can test to see if the groups improve. If you have the factory plastic / 'tupperware' stocks, I would not waste my time or money bedding that stock. I prefer HS Precision stocks, but there are many options for good aftermarket stocks that can be bedded. If you have the original wood stock, I would just replace it with an aftermarket stock rather than modifying it, but that's just my opinion.

 

[Castle Rock]

Remingtons generally shoot very well, bedding them is easy and helps consistency.
They are much maligned here, but unless you make a habit of burying your rifle in the snow I can’t think of a long action rifle I like better and the 270 is a giant killer

 

[Tmac]

I have a 700 BDL in .270 that has never shot overly well. Not approaching MOA. It's not free floating, Remington intentionally has a significant amount of contact on the front end of the stock. Anyone bed these to help improve accuracy? Could there be something else causing this? Figured I would try bedding it to see if that helped... Open to any opinions from folks that know more than me...

You might be able to test if removing the front pressure point helps with small nylon washers or pierces of a credit card like material. Put them between the stock and action screws. That way if it makes it worse you still can go back to the pressure point easily. But if it is shooting real bad with the pressure point no sense in keeping it there.

I had a couple Rem700 that free floating did not help, but full length bedding did help. I took out enough stock material to fully free float then epoxy bedded the full length of the action/lug/barrel. Both were 22” thin taper barrels, mountain rifle thin but in ADL style with plastic stock.

I’ve had good luck with HS Precision stocks in factory 700’s with their sporter type taper barrels too.

 

[sierracharlie338]

I would remove the contact point in the stock and free float it then shoot it. If still not happy bed it. More times than not I have not needed to bed the action once free floating the barrel but sometimes it was still needed.

 

[Huntingfarandwide]

I have had success with pillar bedding synthetic stocks. Used to be able to buy a kit from Brownells.

Whatever you do...think it through and take your time. Mistakes can be costly.

 

[N2TRKYS]

Free floating the barrel helps with accuracy way more than bedding ever has for me. It is very, very rare that I bed a stock. It’s just not needed.

 

[TaperPin]

A shim under the front of the action cut from cereal box will raise the barrel slightly and let you test if freefloating will make a difference. Sometimes a Remington stock will have a flat spot and the receiver can’t settle into the wood. A cereal shim will also snug up contact on the sides of the action. Sometimes it does help. Maybe one in 5 rifles shoot better with the shim. On rifles that shot better with the shim, none were improved above what the shim provided when fully glass bedded. It’s been a reliable method of testing the bedding since I was a kid in the 1970s.

I’m a big Remington fan, but of the 20 or so factory model 700s, none have regularly shot MOA 5-shot groups. There are many guys, often with varmint cartridges, who have sub MOA groups one after the other after the other, but I’ve not been that lucky, and assume a custom barrel is needed.

 

[SloppyJ]

I'd hog out the barrel channel to free float it and bed it. Not that hard to do either. I prefer marine tex epoxy, lots of tape, silly putty, and clear shoe polish.

Good luck!