+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?
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.
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.
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.)
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.....
"As long as there's lead in the air....there's still hope.."
time for an experiment for the article section?
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