To bed or not to bed.....

I'm not talking abut the hot neighbor...

I get some decent groups out of the savage, but I could use all the help I can get and have been thinking of ways to get some improvements and began thinking of a trigger job and bedding the action. I'm just not sure if I will see any benefits of bedding. Has anyone bedded their BSEV and if so, any noticeable changes? If you see changes is it across the board at all ranges or is it more specific? I'm open to other thoughts on improving the rifle.

Just looking for some feedback. Thanks in Advance.


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Some guys have bedded their's. The biggest downside of these actions IMO is the overly aggressive inletting of the stocks and poor bedding. I'm actually considering doing a barrel block setup to hopefully remedy the inconsistencies. If I don't I will be taking the approach this member has as it appears to be the best setup I've seen so far.

http://www.savageshooters.com/showth...Laminate-Stock

Are the factory stocks really that bad on these? With the barrels already floated, I got nice groups @ 100 yards **** near out the box. Would the factory stock even benefit from bedding?

Winchester 70, Remington 700, Ruger 77, Sako Forrester, Tikka, Steyr Mannlicher, Savage Bolts, and more all do things to make one of us love them for what they are and do.

The bolts in free floating with or without pillar bedding along with the glass beds and such I can make a remark about.

1. It doesn't matter whether hammer forged or button rifled a barrel with care taken to make it will outshoot the best match rifle in the hands of two claiming to be better shooters.
2. Free float is for the most part the hardest to perfect for any rifle. If you free float be prepared for disappointment.
3. Forward Remington 700 BDL or ADL woodstock pressure ahead of the rear sights never did any harm to any 700 Rem I owned and reloaded for. There is no such thing as an inaccurate Remington 700. Save the Safety Story for the ones who had problems with Remington safeties opposed to Winchester or Ruger or any. To me the Rem 700 Safety operated fine from 1974 to present. I have the new 700s in Rem as well with the new trigger recall but I did not send a single one of them back to postage and some scare. They work fine all of them.
4. Glass Bedding: I have it in my M1-A Supermatch 7.62 N.A.T.O. 147gr FMJ Winchester White Box ammunition to last me the rest of my life. It is perfect in the M-14 type like this with a GLASS BED. However, in the past I have had many glass beds making me feel they are a waste of time unless you just bed the main instock areas like the recoil lug and whatever else to make sure the barrel doesn't rotate in the stock (Rem 700s can).
5. Rifling. I used to think the bore was the heart of a rifle and if I saw a ding in it I felt it was violated from shooting straight. Wrong.

I have a .32-20 W.C.F. (made in 1890) 1873 Winchester that shoots to date straighter and harder than any .22 rimfire rifle in .22 Short to LR and also .22 WMR:

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(very top lever = made in 1890, Winchester 1873 32-20 W.C.F) with essentially perfect bore)
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Since the 1873 Winchester in .32-32 WCF is more accurate than my lever action .22 rimfires and magnum rimfires I figure I can admit a lever like this is about all the accuracy I'd want.
The rest is temperature, heartbeat, altitude, wind, elevation, etc that has to be figured no matter what you use.

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This is a Classic 93R .17 HMR at 100 yards with the boxed ammunition responsible for the groups next to the group. No glass bedding. A slotted dovetail bolt in the receiver and barrel assembly to drift the barrel right or left in the event the free floating hits the forend stock one way or the other. I've watched the gap between barrel and stock since 2007 and once I had it centered then I never had to drift the barrel and receiver again. The stock stock by Savage free floating for this number works well enough for me.
It occurred to me that my accuracy standards might be below or underneath sub moa but I don't believe sub moa until I see it for myself or I shoot it myself with 5 shots.

I agree with Maztech on the inletting, IMO it takes away strength from the stock. I have a BTVLSS that shoots great just like it came from the factory. I've considered bedding it but am afraid it may hurt the accuracy. I have considered buying a take off stock to experiment on, that way if the accuracy goes away I still have the original to go back to.

I recommend installing an Apachee trigger kit, it's well worth the money IMO.

Glass bedding can be done to minimum or extreme such as just in the stock recoil lug and receiver all the way to complete glass bedding even around the rifle barrel.
I used to use Micro Bed and if I can get some more of that epoxy for bedding I would. But I have no problems with what came down the factory line with minimal pain and ache to readjust in the Savage Rifle center and rimfire. I love the .204 with the Vortex 30mm and the .250 and the .17 HMR 93.

My wife is native American Indian and she favors the Indian Head Rifles we have not just because they show a head dress but because they are classy. They compete with the rest of the world's firearm manufacturers.

I believe in Savage yesteryear and today. I believe they are worthy of top line scopes. Most in the USA know already a Savage rifle barrel is extremely accurate. Why say more?

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I have Winchester and Remington and Ruger. Others. I bought 3 Savages over a span of 8 years and never sold them. I've resold Winchesters, Berettas (shotguns and pistols), Springfields, Anschutz, Weatherby Mark Vs from Germany and Japan, etc.

And the three Savages I own from rimfire to centerfire are my best rifles in accuracy.

I agree with you "sav250", hard to beat the accuracy of a Savage.

An out of the box Savage 93 22WMR fluted bull barrel green tupperware stock bought from Dick's with Hornady 30 gr vmax @. 100 yards. Some people say Savages are no good and 22WMR is not accurate. I will let you be the judge. I have several people wanting to buy this gun from me. This is a 5 shot group.
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I have a Savage MKII FV .22 fitted (glass bedded and pillar bedded) to an after market Boyd's Barracuda stock. It's not identical to your rifle, but very close. Bedding the rifle, installing the Apachee trigger kit, purchasing a decent front rest, buying better ammo, etc. all made small but measurable improvements in precision. I use a computer program to score most of my shots and I study them in Excel spread sheets in an effort to understand what works and what doesn't.

For example, I have been unable to detect any changes in precision using various action screw torque values although some people claim a change in a few inch pounds on one screw or the other makes HUGE differences in POI. I find that hard to believe, assuming the rifle is properly bedded. I've tried torque settings from barely snug to 70 inch pounds, including wild differences from front to rear and vice versa. I couldn't detect any change at all.

Anyhow, the single largest improvement in precision was the addition of a Lowey barrel tuner. Simply hanging the tuner on the barrel made a significant reduction of group size, mostly as a result of greatly reducing the frequency and size of flyers using moderately priced ammo. After spending a short time experimenting with various tuner settings, I can say with confidence that my 5 shot group size immediately decreased by 48% after installing and preliminarily adjusting the tuner. I was stuck at about 1.5 MOA average precision before the tuner (with sub-MOA groups happening only about 15 or 20 percent of the time) and now I almost never shoot a group exceeding 1 MOA with the tuner.

I'm continuing to experiment with various ammo and I'm tweaking the tuner settings in search for the ultimate sweet spot and the the smallest possible group size.

A check of my most recent groups, consisting of 246 rounds, shows an average group size of .415 inches at 50 yards.

I have no idea how this tuner might change the precision of a non bedded action, but it immediately improved my rifle. Since bedding is so cheap and easy, I would certainly advise you to bed your action for sure, and then think about a tuner.

If it's pillar bedded solid I don't see how changing the action screw torque could change it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by justinp61

If it's pillar bedded solid I don't see how changing the action screw torque could change it.

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Agreed.