stock bedding

[billy]

Does bedding and floating always make a rifle shoot better?

[bigdaddytacp]

Does bedding and floating always make a rifle shoot better?

...........Not always...BUT that is the way to BET.....if your gun is fitted properly at the factory or a semi custom with hand fitting then bedding might not help........if your barrel is so light and thin then it may prefer the full support of the forearm and/or a pressure point to make it shoot its best and consistantly........but in my experience they are a minority.......same for a bad barrel and chamber...if the barrel is warped or has manufactoring stresses that weren't releived and the bolt is not square then bedding and floating might help some but won't make the other problems go away.........and if you bedd the action and float the barrel properly then that gives you one less thing to look for in a poorly performing gun/scope/load combo........but without the consistant performance of the gun from a bedded action and floated or pressure point barrel you can't determine if the load tweaking you are trying is causing the inconsistancy or the moving -changing pressure from the lack of good bedding and consistant pressure of the stock aganist the action.........sort of like good tires on a car....horsepower and supension has a hard time making up for lack of traction and consistant tread -pavement footprints......HTH..good luck and good shooting from the other end of Tennessee!!

[gunnut69]

There are too many variables in a firearm to make such flat statements.  A properly bedded action is needed for any rifle to do it's best.  I disagree though with bigdaddytacp.  I believe most barrels will shoot their best with pressure on the barrel..  The pressure point in a barrel serves to limit the barrels vibration at the time of firing.  This usually improves the group size(smaller).  Such a barrel has it's own draw backs but Remington has been putting pressure points in all it's rifles for years and they have a reputation for accuracy..  Free floating a barrel allows the entire barrel to vibrate as it wishes.  This does provide a barrel with less external input into it's ability to shoot small groups but the vibration patterns is such a barrel will but the nature of physics be larger..  That said I usually bed a rifle with the barrel free floated.  If the rifle is accurate enough for it's intended purpose I leave well enough alone..  Only if I need to get better accuravy do I resort to adding a pressure point..