Although it shoots much better than it did before bedding, the test rifle still looks the same.

Like many rifle nuts, I fall into Colonel Townsend Whelen’s “only-accurate-rifles-are-interesting” camp. Sure, an inch-and-a-half rifle is plenty accurate for big-game hunting, but sub-MOA accuracy is a must for me. Rifles that don’t meet my demanding accuracy standard are usually relegated to trade fodder. However, some rifles shoot well enough that a bit of tweaking will get them shooting under an inch. Such is the case with a pretty, little .308 I bought two years ago.

That little Model 700’s clean, classic lines and pretty wood caught my eye as soon as I opened the box. Its classic stock fit me like a glove and handled like a dream. It was love at first sight. Sadly, it didn’t shoot quite as well as it looked. But it was close, so rather than trading it off or selling it, I decided to see if I could do something to make it shoot well enough to earn the little rifle a place in my gun safe.

Although bad barrels and defective scopes can lead to poor accuracy, this rifle shot well enough that I didn’t think either was the cause of its accuracy woes. Rather than spending a bunch of money rebarreling it, I decided to see if bedding the rifle would shrink my groups.

The purpose of bedding is to achieve a perfect stock-to-metal fit that ensures there is no harmonic influence on a free-floating barrel. Perfect bedding means the receiver has to be bedded in perfect alignment with the floorplate, the magazine box must have room to float between the receiver and the floorplate, and nothing should come into contact with the stock that is not intended to touch it. In short, perfect bedding eliminates a lot of variables and greatly ups the odds of a rifle delivering tack-driving accuracy.

Although I’d never done it before, I decided to do the bedding on this rifle myself. As I usually do when I start a do-it-yourself project, I opened the Brownells catalog and perused the selection of bedding compounds and tools. A quick phone call to Brownells answered all my questions and got some of the Acraglas bedding compound headed my way.

Next, a call to a gunsmith friend got me the use of his shop and tools for long enough for me to stumble my way through the bedding process. So, with my rifle and a big box of bedding supplies in hand, I headed to his shop and dove right in to bedding my rifle.

Under the watchful eye of my buddy, I removed enough stock material from the inletted areas to make room for the bedding compound. Next, I attached two aluminum pillars to the barreled action with some oversized action screws. It is crucial that the screws are centered in the pillars and that a liberal coating of release agent is applied to the inside of the pillars. Do not get release agent on the outside of the pillars as you want them to remain firmly embedded in the stock once the bedding compound dries.

You do not have to pillar bed a rifle. In fact, many people use just bedding compound. But pillars do a better job of supporting the action and, in the case of wood-stocked rifles like my Model 700, make the whole platform more stable. Since my rifle has a wood stock and because I had access to the right tools, I chose to pillar bed my Model 700.

100-Yard Accuracy Results
Load	Before (in.)	After (in.)	Best Group (in.)
	.308 Win. Remington Model 700
Federal 150-gr. Ballistoc Tip	2.06	1.30	1.10
Federal 165-gr. Fusion	1.10	0.51	0.42
	2.09	1.44	1.20
Hornady 165-gr. BTSP	1.27	1.37	1.20
NOTES:	Before and After groups are the average of five, three-shot groups with each load before and after bedding. Best Group refers to the smallest group fired with each load after bedding.