rem. 722 bedding

[little bill]

a guy asked me to clean a really nice rem.722 in .222rem. for him. on inspection I noticed that the bbl. wasn't free floating .It has a point of contact about 3 in. from the front of the forearm. Is this the way the factory beds a wooden stocked rifle? would it be wise to open this portion of the stock to remove bbl. contact? I ran into this same thing on a win. 70 sporter in 25/06 years ago.

[Nobade]

Yes, the factories usually set them up with pressure on the forend. In a rifle that is not been epoxy bedded you have a better chance of it shooting with some pressure. However, many of the factory stocks carry this to an extreme. Current Winchesters and Remingtons with wood stocks have a huge amount of pressure, and if the barrel channel is opened up until the action touches its inletting and the barrel is floated the centerline of the barrel is way below the top line of the stock. Normally they are setting them up so that when the barrel touches the action is 1/16" or so away from its inletting. So when you tighten the guard screws you bend the barrel that much and pre-stress the whole assembly.

[gunnut69]

I wouldn't alter the bedding without contact with the owner. Many M700/721/722 rifles shoot really well with the factory bedding and some object strenuously to free floating. Most will shoot fine floated but I have have to put pressure back more than one time to get a rifle shooting again. My current coyote rifle is a nearly unaltered M722 in 244 Rem(6mm Rem) and with 75 grain Sierra flat base hollow points it'll nearly always touch shots.  This rifle is obscenely deadly and I would look badly on any changes..