Bedding the Barrel

I recently replaced the factory tube on my 12 VLP (204 Ruger) with a Shilen replacement barrel. The factory tube was still averaging under 1 MOA but I had the barrel on hand so why not use it.

I went with a Bull profile, basically cause I thought it would look cool, this is not a walkabout gun.
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...d/P1013473.jpg


After some load testing I was pretty happy but was getting a few unaccounted fliers in my groups. Many times I know right as the round goes off that I have ruined a group (before I even see the holes) but occasionally I would shoot a round that I felt I did my part fine but ended up a flier. It caused me to wonder about the action supporting that fat heavy barrel, maybe a target or single shot action with a solid bottom would be stiffer but mine is a repeater so the bottom is open and the feeding port is large enough that theoretically it could flex. It was just a thought I entertained and considered bedding the first few inches of the barrel past the recoil lug. Seeing that this is not a switch barrel rifle it would not pose any problems till this barrels life was over. The action had been bedded previously so I was not to worried about tackling another little project.

I also spoke with a fella at a local gun show who had re-barreled a Savage repeater with a long fat tube and had unaccounted fliers that sounded a lot like my experience. He found that bedding the first few inches of the barrel helped a lot so this was all the encouragement I needed and went ahead with it.

Here you can see the bedding going a few inches past the recoil lug and nut. (The bedding kind of nullifies the cooling slot I cut last spring :-\)
[img width=600 height=450]http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w84/surfclod/Stock/P1013541.jpg[/img]

And the results have been rather good, I still get the odd flier but never an unexpected one. I am still in the process of load development so my last outing was testing different seating depths but my best groups corresponded with rounds I sorted having the least runout.
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...et/245_OAL.jpg


The one flier is my fault, I don't know why but I decided to shoot my second shot using the "free recoil" method. (Maybe cause I started very early to beat wind and fore went the coffee to keep hands steady :D, whatever the reason I should never have changed shooting style mid group.)
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...et/236_OAL.jpg


As long as I did my part I never had a single uncalled flier all day so I think bedding the first few inches of the barrel helped in this case.

Just thought I would share my experiences since it helped not only me but another guy who put a long fat barrel on a repeater action.

+1
I always bed the first few inches of my barrel along with the action. Some people dont but I figure if Im bedding ther action to releive stress, how much stress is hanging a 7lb 30" tube from the front of the action going to create?

Not enough to worry about.....

time for an experiment for the article section?