Free float or glass bed barrel

[Mongoose67]

I picked up preowned HS Precision stock for my Winchester 70 off Gunbroker. Looking for some advise. Do I want to free float the barrel or glass bed it? The reason I ask is the prior owner placed epoxy or similar in two points of the stock channel. Wondering if I should leave it, remove and re-bed or simply remove it. As always. Thanks!

 

[Trigger Monkey]

To remove all doubt I would remove the existing bedding and have it skim bedded with the barrel free floated, then see how it shoots. That way you're starting from a known position, you know the stock is bedded to your action and the barrel if free floated so it rules out anything the previous owner did.

 

[Jackalope]

I’ve done a few m70s and they seem to do well with the lug and tang bedded, barrel free floated.

 

[cschastain2]

Good advice there!

I’ve always been a free float advocate. However, I ran into a strange scenario with a real lightweight Barrett 6.5 CM Fieldcraft Rifle, I wanted to put a McMillan stock on...I found out they bed the barrel into the original stock on that particular rifle due to its featherweight design. I free floated it in the McMillan Game Warden and have yet to test it before I go to the next step of filling it (Re-bed it with glass), if it doesn’t group well. Sort of the same step Trigger Monkey’s wise advice is offering in a little different sequence.

 

[Mongoose67]

I’ve done a few m70s and they seem to do well with the lug and tang bedded, barrel free floated.

Thanks. I will probably grind it out and start over.

 

[Mongoose67]

Turned out to be two pieces of plastic that someone glued in. I was able to pop them out with a chisel. The barrel is now fully free floated. Can I assume the aluminum action block is sufficient on the H-S or do I need to bed that?

 

[Baron23]

Turned out to be two pieces of plastic that someone glued in. I was able to pop them out with a chisel. The barrel is now fully free floated. Can I assume the aluminum action block is sufficient on the H-S or do I need to bed that?

I have a Rem 700 5R SS that came in a nice HS stock.

when we pulled the action off, it was clear that it only made contact w the aluminum bedding block in two small areas around the action screws. So I had it skim bedded and I have no regrets. Tightened the gun up very nicely.

YMMV

 

[rhsc]

Shoot it as-is and see how it performs. If the accuracy isn't up to your expectations, you can skim bed the action into the block with a good epoxy (Marine Tex, J-B Weld MarineWeld, etc.) and check the accuracy again.

 

[Mongoose67]

Shoot it as-is and see how it performs. If the accuracy isn't up to your expectations, you can skim bed the action into the block with a good epoxy (Marine Tex, J-B Weld MarineWeld, etc.) and check the accuracy again.

I assume in the action area. Did you do anything with the recoil lug? Love to see if a picture if you have one.

 

[rhsc]

Yes, just the action area and bed only the rear face of the recoil lug, not the sides, front or bottom of the lug. Sorry, no photos of my work but here's a pretty good tutorial with some images you might want to check out.

 

[Mongoose67]

I assume in the action area. Did you do anything with the recoil lug? Love to see if a picture if you have one.

This is why I love this forum. Thanks!