An integral rail of the Savage AccuRail system extends forward to stiffen and reinforce the forearm of the stock.

It would be interesting to know at what point in time American rifle builders, gunsmiths, and riflemen began to understand the importance of precise action-to-stock fit in the accuracy equation. When the action bolts of a rifle suffering from an uneven fit between its receiver and stock are tightened, the strain and stress on the receiver can cause accuracy to go to pot. A shoddy bedding job also encourages movement of the receiver inside the stock, and if it does not return to the same position between shots, group size will increase.

The importance of stock fit might have been discovered during the era of single-shot rifles, back when Harry M. Pope was making some of the world's most accurate barrels for competitive shooting. Or it may have started a bit later when, during the early 1900s, military-surplus Krag-Jorgensen rifles first became available to civilian target shooters who replaced their barrels with match-grade barrels made by J. Stevens Arms and Tool Co. of Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts.

In July of 1903, American shooters armed with Krag rifles wearing Stevens barrels beat the British team in 800-, 900-, and 1,000-yard competition at Bisley, England. My guess is the barreled actions of the rifles they used had been carefully bedded into their stocks.

Pillar bedding consists of aluminum pillars that are installed in the stock to support the receiver at the front and back.

Professional stockmakers who really know their stuff are capable of using simple hand tools to perfectly mate the stock of a rifle with its barreled action, and they have been doing so for a very long time. I have a 1903 Springfield sporter in 7x57mm Mauser that was built during the 1920s by R. F. Sedgley, and it is capable of shooting groups inside minute of angle all day long.

It is not uncommon to see a mass-produced rifle perform in the same manner. During the early 1960s, I used a Winchester Model 70 in .225 Winchester to shoot my very first sub-half-inch group. There have been others since, but there have also been rifles with bedding problems.

Stock Bedding Advancements
One of the biggest advancements in riflestock bedding came with the development of epoxy resins. They are easy to apply, they are inexpensive, they are durable, and most important of all, their shrinkage during the curing process ranges from slight to undetectable. Armorers who accurized M1 Garand rifles for various U.S. military rifle teams may have been first to use it, but it did not take long for commercial rifle manufacturers to begin using it in their riflestocks.

At first, the new material was difficult to come by, but then came Acraglas from Brownells, and the practice of glass-bedding barreled actions spread like wildfire among professional gunsmiths and shade-tree hobbyists alike. Other products, such as Microbed, Bisonite, Duro, and Devcon, have been and still are used, but Acraglas is the one that started the wheels rolling. Where it had once taken a gunsmith many long hours to arrive at a near-perfect fit between barreled action and stock, it could now be done in a matter of minutes.