When Free-floating Isn't Enough
But in perhaps less than five to 10 percent of the rifles, I run into one that will not shoot well after my initial accurization work. At that point I look at the possibility that this rifle may need some pressure on the barrel. In these cases a pressure point in the stock may help to stabilize or dampen erratic or nonsymmetric barrel movement.

Reid uses Bedrock glass bedding for building pressure pads, and he says to be sure to place enough glass bedding in the barrel channel to ensure contact with the barrel.

This can be tested easily with nothing more than a bit more shooting at the range and a few business cards! Just loosen the guard screws so that the barreled action can be lifted up a bit from the stock. Then take two or three standard business cards and place them under the barrel about an inch in from the tip of the forend and tighten the guard screws. Another shooting session is required, and at that point more often than not I see some improvement in performance. Those business cards are a cheap, quick, and easy way of determining if upward pressure on the barrel is appropriate for a rifle.

By the way, it is extremely important when tuning a bolt-action rifle that the guard screws always be tightened with consistent pressure. The best way to do this is to use a torque wrench. While there is no hard and fast rule about how tight guard screws should be, generally about 50 inch pounds will work well. If you don't have a torque wrench, then do your best to be consistent in tightening those screws.

But we don't want to leave our rifle with a stack of business cards under the barrel, so we need to pull the barreled action from the stock. I then take a marker and draw a 3/4-inch square centered in the bottom of the barrel channel about one inch from the tip of the forend. Once I am satisfied with that, I take my trusty Dremel tool with a small round cutter and cut down about 1/16 to 1/8 inch inside this square. That gives me fresh wood to bond with the bedding compound.

With the rifle upside down in a padded vise, the water bucket is hung from the barrel ahead of the forearm tip and the trigger guard screws are tightened.

You can use virtually any brand of bedding compound, but I like the Miles Gilbert Bedrock glass bedding kit. It costs less than $16 and is available from MidwayUSA, Dept. ST, 5875 W. Van Horn Tavern Rd., Columbia, MO 65203; 800-243-3220; www.midwayusa.com. This kit provides enough material to fully bed several rifles or make up goodness knows how many pressure pads in a forearm. It is especially handy for this type of work because you can make it quite thick so it will not run when you use it.

I mix the bedding compound and place a small amount in my relief cut. I want to make sure there is enough so that when the barrel is back in place it will always contact the bedding. I also make sure there is plenty of release agent on my barrel!

The barreled action is placed back in the stock, and the guard screws are partially tightened. The rifle is then clamped upside down in the padded jaws of my vise. The vise is only on the stock, and the vise jaws do not contact the barrel.