Bed and float 700adl

I've owned 7 Remington 700's, some with synthetic stocks and some with wood. Every one of the wooden stocks benefitted greatly from free floating the barrel. They shot much tighter groups consistently.

The heavy barrel rifles with higher end stocks shot great right out of the box and needed nothing. These were free floated barrels from the factory. I owned 2 of these.

My last 700 was an SPS with the cheap plastic stock. When I first got it I saw groups of 3/4" to 1" with an occasional flyer. I quickly replaced the stock with a B&C Medalist. Groups became 1/2" or better. I new trigger cut it down even further.

What I'm saying is I have never seen a 700 that didn't shoot better with a floated barrel. Why Remington doesn't produce the 700 with a floated barrel is beyond me.
 
joed, it's also beyond Remington and many other rifle makers to free float their barrels.

BoogieMan, many dealers know some rifles' receivers are not fit all that well to the stock so sometimes, a pressure pad under the barrel at the fore end tip will help. Many times, that pad adds more upward pressure to the barrel than the fore end alone; enough to help somewhat more.
 
Every rifle I own, (except Mosin) is freefloated and pillarbedded, and my remington also has recoil lug bedded in JBWeld. It shoots three different bullets with no suprises...
 
As someone else already said, it is fairly easy to bed a Remington. Bed and float first, then shoot it. If it does not shoot to your satisfaction, you can replace the pressure point by placing a small spot of bedding compound at the fore end tip, placing the end of the barrel on a support, and hanging a weight (a few pounds) on the front sling swivel.

When it cures, you will have the same amount of upward pressure as the weight you used.

But before I did that I would shoot it several times. If you intend to just hunt with it, and the cold bore shot is repeatable, I wouldn't do anything with it. If you intend to make a target rifle out of it, then you will need to do more than bed and float it. But, Remingtons are easy to bed.

If you ever try to bed a Ruger action, with all of the opportunities to get it locked, and the angled screw, you will appreciate how easy Remingtons are.
 
Every CF rifle I own, except the Tikka T3 Lite, is bedded and free-floated; most being pillar and action bedded.
 
For a hunting rifle, as long as it puts 3 shots into an acceptable group, there is really no reason to care if the barrel is floated or not. If a wood stock is swelling enough to make a difference in how the rifle shoots due to weather you have a stock issue and need to seal it. I've hunted in all types of weather with a lot of different people using wood stocks and the only time I ever saw one fail was because the hunter did not check his zero and his stock had warped.

BoogieMan I think you're doing the right thing to shoot the rifle first and I think you'll find it shoots just fine for big game hunting situations. If on the other hand you plan on target shooting with the rifle you may be better off floating and bedding the rifle. I did this to my sons 700 ADL and it did shrink the group size by 1/2".
 
I guess I may be an exception. I have an ADL Varmint in 308. With my handloads this rifle shoots sub 1/2" groups at 100yds and around .6" at 200yds. This is with the injection molded stock. The only thing I have done this rifle is have the barrel cut from 26" to20". The for end cdoes not flex and the pressure buttons are tight up against the barrel. I let a guy at the range shoot it. He was shooting a very nice rifle built by GAP. He was impressed with how my rifle shot.
 
For a hunting rifle, as long as it puts 3 shots into an acceptable group, there is really no reason to care if the barrel is floated or not.
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What is "acceptable" to some is not to others

What is "acceptable" to me in the rifles I keep is the smallest groups I can get, and in all the years I've been shooting, the smallest groups have come from free floated barrels, even if the actions weren't perfectly bedded
 
Hooligan, a few of my rifles are pillar bedded. Most are aluminum block bedded. I greatly prefer aluminum block to pillar.
Having said that, I did put pillars in a stock today. I was in a hurry.;)
 
Reynolds, do you put those bedding blocks in your stocks yourself or do the stocks come new with those? I dont have any tool more capable than a cheap ole drillpress, most of the time I hand drill pillar holes, which is far from perfect but the effect is good.
 
I've hunted in all types of weather with a lot of different people using wood stocks and the only time I ever saw one fail was because the hunter did not check his zero and his stock had warped.
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Had the rifle a totally free floating barrel, the stock would not have warped enough to bend the barrel from its contact with it.

That's why free floating barrels shoot to point of aim even when the wood fore end bends a lot. Ample clearance is the solution. You don't need to check where the rifle shoots. Zeros don't change when the only part of the barreled action that touches the wood stock is the receiver.
 
I am doing a little work to the rifle while waiting for my reloading supplies to arrive. I plan to restock it in the future when I rebarrel and do some action work. In the mean time I have the remington walnut stock that has little resale value so I am going to float and pillar bed the action.
I see some conflicting info on weather of not to bed the chamber section of the barrel or stop at the recoil lug.
Should I get a block and mill the stock or stick with a couple alum pillars?
 
If you have some 1/16" diameter trimmer string, it can make a great tool to check your free-floating barrel. (Mine came from a Black and Decker electric trimmer, which I no longer use.) Unlike folded paper, it more easily pinpoints the spots with less clearance. The most critical area is closer to the forend tip.

If clearance is less than 1/16", sporter weight barrels may hit the barrel channel when vibrating, especially when a sling pulls the forend, or when a wood stock warps.
 
I see some conflicting info on weather of not to bed the chamber section of the barrel or stop at the recoil lug.
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Well, that's part of the barrel. If bedding there touches the barrel, the barrel ain't free floating.

30" long, very heavy barrels in match rifles with some clearance all around them to the fore end shoot the smallest groups and maintian zeros the best. Even on Win. 70 receivers, the stress on its barrel tenon threads pose no problems whatsoever. But a lot of folks think they do believing there must be some support there. Doesn't matter that there's a lot more stress from peak pressure when the round fires. Has anyone ever wanted to pad and support a barrel because of peak pressure?
 
Hooligan you can usually find a block pre-made that will work. They are not the best alternative for a very slim profile stock.
 
Okay, everyone may know that I'm a free-floating advocate, however there are reasons to have pressure points on some rifles.

First, when some hunters buy rifles, they don't pay as much attention to group size as POI. Some rifles with floating barrels show considerable differences in POI when shooting various factory brands and bullet weights. Some rifles that have had very flexible actions and questionable bedding, like older Ruger 77s, Winchester 88s, etc.; often shoot more consistent groups and smaller vertical dispersion with varied loads when there's a GOOD pressure point, one with adequate and well-centered position.

My Ruger 10-22 bull-barrel in a wood stock, and other rimfires with only one stock screw, must have a pressure point to keep the rear of the action in firm contact with the bedding. Mine has shot 10 consecutive 5-round groups that averaged .32" on a "Prove-It" target (but group locations varied a bit).

However, for most applications, I prefer a slightly larger group size with a floating barrel than a wandering zero from warpage and forend rest variations.
 
None of several few-shot groups will have their centers at the same point relative to the aiming point. That's why five 5-shot groups make a 25-shot composite larger than the biggest single 5-shot group.

Cow Towner, you're right. The way one holds and/or supports the fore end changes its force to the barrel through a pressure point.
 
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