Full length Aluminum bedding block experiences

[parkergunshop]

Anyone with experience in using full length aluminum bedding blocks what's your take on them are they worth the extra expense?

After glass bedding barrelled actions into stocks for 30 plus years, I tried one of the new full length aluminum bedding block stocks.

A 338/06 on  VZ24 Mauser Action with a medium heavy Shaw barrel in a Hogue Stock with a full length Aluminum bedding block not glass bedded.

This rifle  shoots  in the .6 of an inch range at 100 Yds for 3 shots.  So I don't see the need to glass bed if you use a full length machined aluminum bedding block.  The fit and the rididity on the one I used seemed to preclude the need for glass bedding.   

The average grouping for all the rifles I put together using Shaw, Douglas and Hart barrels in glass bedded stocks over the past thirty years is in the .5 to .6 tenth of an inch range so I believe that the rifle above is close enough.
Glass bedding to increase the rigidity is the main reason for doing so in the synthetic stocks in use now from my viewpoint since  they don't absorb moisture and warp like wood tocks.

Anyone else tried not glass bedding stocks with the full length aluminum bedding block in place?  If so what were the results from an accuracy standpoint?

[roper]

I use the H&S/B&C stocks with blocks.  This just me I like my barrels free floated so I'll have them bedded from the rear of recoil lug forward  and under the the chamber and I have that done on all my stocks.  I just got one of these stocks http://www.accurateinnovations.com/ and now Hart is making one also
http://www.stockysstocks.com*NEW!*-Bobby-Hart-AccuBlock/Detail
 
Most synthetic I have that don't have the block there pillar bedded and I forget how much my gunsmith charges but their worth it.  I know some that fill the holes with bedding and redrill action screw holes and that works.

Over the years been alot of tales about the bedding blocks etc myself I've never had a problem.  I like the H&S and B&C and the extra I pay for bedding is a big concern to me when I look at the total cost of having a rifle build.

[diggler1833]

Skim bedding an aluminum block chassis stock never hurts, it adds to consistiency IMO.  I always did it to mine.

[Dinny]

Skim bedding an aluminum block chassis stock never hurts, it adds to consistiency IMO.  I always did it to mine.

+1 I recently had a rifle accurized by Hill Country Rifles. They glass and pillar bed hundreds if not thousands of rifles a year. When I toured their facility in 2008, I asked about the bedding blocked stocks. They recommended skim bedding due to the fact that every rifle will vary somewhat. Bedding makes them all fit their stocks to exacting tolerances.

Thanks, Dinny

[Catfish]

What is the gun for? bench rest shooting or hunting? Any .338 cal. rifle shooting in the 6`s is not worth the trouble to improve the accuracy. Yes it would probly help just a little to skim bed it, but how much more game are you going to kill with a rifle that shoots in the 5`s than you are with one that shoots in the 6`s?

[Hooker]

Anything that decreases the margin of error is IMO worth the trouble.
I have a deer rifle in 308  that shoots 1/4 MOA yet I'm still tweaking on it.
Do I need a 1/4 MOA rifle to take whitetails? No I don't, but when you factor in real world conditions like atmospheric conditions, miss judged ranges, shooter error...
Small seemingly insignificant increases in accuracy can make all the difference in the world.

Skim bedding over aluminum  pillar or chassis bedding ashores the positioning of the rifle in the stock is always the same.
Aluminum bedding makes accurate torquing of the action screws obtainable. It does not always give you repeatable positioning of the action within the stock.   

Pat

[parkergunshop]

Catfish,   The rifle is for rough weather hunting, parkerized finish, on action, barrel, scope base and rings.   The rifle is for deer hunting in NC and probably a trip to Canada later.   I was satisfied with the .6 tenth inch grouping and did not glas bed it, just wanted to know what other folks had experienced.  I did float the barrel as usual.    I don't plan on building another rifle using a full length aluminum  bedding block, have been trying to retire from my gunsmithing work in addition to my full time job which I left in 2005.

Hooker,  I just finished glas bedding a pillar bedded Hogue stock and a Bell and Carson stock for a 30-06 and a .308 Winchester for use as  rough weather rifles.  IF I was building a varmint rifle I would have glas bedded the full length aluminum block stock just to be sure of the best accuracy possible.