To Bed or Not Bed the Recoil Lug in New McMillian Edge Stock

[Bwht4x4]

I just purchased a new Rem 700 CDL SF in 30-06. I'm going through the motions of upgrading some of the components of the rifle. To date it's been a new Jewell trigger and a McMillian Edge stock (came with pillars). I have the Talley rings and now waiting for the Leupold scope. I have not shot it yet.

I'm considering whether or not skim bed the action or just bed the recoil lug. To be honest I'm not sure what I would skim bed because below the action as there's really nothing there and what is there is so low that no part of the action is resting on it. It appears like the only spots the action touches the stock is around the recoil lug/front bolt hole and at the rear tang/bolt hole. The rear tang is such a small spot and wouldn't take much bedding. Right now I'm leaning toward just bedding the recoil lug with Devcon epoxy and nothing else. I am thinking I wanted to give it a solid area to push against.

The other issue is the barrel is not centered in the barrel inletting. Can this be re-centered if I bed the lug?

So...

Should I bed just the recoil lug before I shoot it or shoot it first?

Should I skim bed all of it before I shoot it?

If I skim bed all of it what do I bed....the recoil lug area and the small rear tang area? There isn't much else to bed.

Thanks

[Shane Lindsey]

Greetings,
For the amount of money you paid for that stock, I would send it back to Mcmillan and have them fix the barrel channel first.

Once you get it back, it has the pillars, mount it up and shoot it first. Then look to bed it if isn't grouping to your standards. I once bedded a Sendero around the lug and tang only. Very pleased with what that did.

I have been looking at these for a 270 that I want to make a mountain/lite weight.

Hope you get it to shoot.

Shane

[Joel Russo]

I would do a complete bedding job, then properly free float the barrel.

You will never realize the accuracy potential of the barreled action if you do not properly bed it.

If you are not comfortable doing it yourself, send it to a reputable smith or stock maker.

[Hunter2678]

Originally Posted by joel russo

i would do a complete bedding job, then properly free float the barrel.

You will never realize the accuracy potential of the barreled action if you do not properly bed it.

If you are not comfortable doing it yourself, send it to a reputable smith or stock maker.

+1,000,000.

I'll always bed my rifles, takes one less variable & weakness out of the equation.

[MontanaRifleman]

Joel, what advantage if any is the full bed vs the 2 point bed (recoil lug and tang)?

[Bwht4x4]

Thanks guys for the replies. As I mentioned and as the picture shows the only parts of the stock that can be bedded are the rear tang and the area around the recoil lug. The other areas of the stock under the receiver are either too low or just nothing there. Because of this there is no way to fully bed the receiver without adding additional material underneath it.

My biggest issue is the fact that it's not centered. It's not a big deal and is still floated, but if I squeeze the barrel and stock together at the closest spot they will touch. Without the screws in place I can mess with the receiver and get the barrel to be centered, but as soon as you put that rear screw in it goes off to one side.

If I decide to bed it what's the technique for centering the barrel. I know about the electrical tape on the barrel inside of the inlet to center it. What I don't know is once the bedding is in place and the barrel is centered and all of it is held tight in the stock to cure, what happens afterwards. Will bedding and centering of the barrel throw the stock screw holes off and/or cause the receiver screw holes to be off center from the stock holes?

[Swamplord]

Last summer I had my 300 Rum LSS converted to a 338 Edge, I did the sane thing by going with a Jewell trigger and a Hollands recoil lug... I also got me a new McMillan HTG stock that had a similar problem you describe, the barrel was off center when the stock was snugly attached..

I ended up using a dremel tool and "Miles Gilbert Bedrock Glass Bedding Kit" to fix that up...

I had already opened up the recoil lug recess for the Hollands recoil lug anyway and continued to remove a bit more material and making several cuts and angled holes drilled away from each other as anchor points to hold the bedding material...

I had a gunsmith skim bed the rifle on the factory LSS stock a few years ago and all his crap came up and peeled away as it was a thin surface layer with no hold onto the stock

in order to center the barrel in the channel and get it at the correct height to bed I used a roll of electricians tape and kept adding tape onto the barrel at the fore end of the stock for the desired effect ......

just follow the directions that come with the kit and you will be okay... it comes in black also but my local supplier only had the brown available.....

My 338 Edge shoots fandamntastic after the bedding job without any kind of action accurizing or truing/blueprinting etc...

After seeing how well it shoots I decided not to mess with it anymore and canceled the action tuning,
I don't know the current quality of Rem 700's but the one I have was fine,
matter of fact the 300 RUM factory chambering shot the 200 gr Swift A-Frames and Accubonds very well also but having two 300 Rums I figured I "needed" a 338 Edge just so I could be cool like all these other guys on LRH... (like my kids would say, lolz dude !)