There are as many different ways to do this as there are people doing it, one or two might work correctly...
Most people 'AssUMe' and that's the mother of all mistakes!
(And you know how to break up the word 'AssUme', makes an *** of 'U' & 'Me')
Assume nothing, check everything.
I'm with HiBC, but I do things slightly different.
I jig, or at least use a fine wire from muzzle to back of receiver to check the rail screw holes were drilled centered, a bunch are not...
I'm a fan of bedding the rail to the receiver, but I don't remove finish as suggested.
No sense in screwing up finish, the idea of bedding is to get the rail perfectly fitting the receiver curve.
Once it hardens that job is done, rails are cheaper than refinishing the receiver, and since you are using screws to secure (not glueing it down) there is no point in scuffing the finish on the receiver.
You are only gap filling with bedding...
I'm not above silver soldering the rings to the rail. No screws or clamps to come loose.
And honestly, once a rail & rings are installed, how often do you actually remove them?)
Again, rings/rail cheaper than refinishing the action/receiver.
I lap (using lapping bar & lapping compound) to ensure the ring bores are true with each other.
Two tips here, as written before, witness mark your caps!
A punch or file mark on the side, one mark front, two marks rear, both cap & saddle.
This get the caps back on it's matching saddle, and gets the correct side of that cap so the lapped set match every time.
I use a file mark, simply because a stright up & down line lines the correct cap on the correct saddle, and turned the correct way.
The second is a torque wrench. 10 or 15 INCH Pounds means 10 or 15 INCH pounds, not a screwdriver or Allen wrench "Snugged" up which can EASILY FLATTEN OR OVAL THE TUBE.
I'll say that again, you CAN oval (crush) the tube with just finger pressure.
If you *Think* you can accurately determine finger pressure, then use your fingers and try to hold a scale perfectly still at any given weight...
Muscle force is the WORST possible way to have repeatable results.
Torque screwdrivers are cheap for this very purpose...
Just one more tip,
Two or more screws per side of caps. Single screw caps are failure waiting to happen...
When you install a screw, you are STRETCHING the shank of the screw, over torque will ruin the clamping power of the screw, while under torque will result in loose caps.
TWO screws each side share the load, and provide redundancy.
If it's worth doing correctly, no point it screwing up with single screw caps.
Everyone has a different way of doing this, but this is 40+ years of experience from a gunsmith, so take it for what you paid for it.