Is there any reason to bed a rifle that is shooting well enough?

[mpayne]

I say leave it alone, if you do bed it and it shoots worse that's on you and you will be buying your wife a new $400 dollar stock! Then you'll ask yourself why couldn't I leave well enough alone!

 

[tripdad]

Leave ut alone if you are satisfied with it. Remember also savage actions are sensitive about the torque of the actoin screw so if it ever starts shooting worse check them, they like it just right, doesnt hurt to play with them and find out the one it likes best so you know.

 

[foul bore]

Big, I think the Savage Is the most difficult to bed. If you've never bedded an action, leave it alone cause it shoots very accurately. Perhaps protect that new barrel with a quality bore guide.

Have you ever done a 77 Ruger, that is hard

 

[Darren Russett]

I re-barreled a tang safety Ruger m77 about 19 years ago...removed the shot out .280 barrel and replaced with a Shilen 26" .264 blank then chambered it for 6.5-06.
Got 3/4" groups right off the bat with the 139 gr Hornady at 100 yards! After playing with the loads a little they dropped to around 1/2" or less and I've been shooting the same load every since then. I had the same quandary about bedding, but it shot so good I left it alone and it has never even had a scope adjustment in all that time!
I say leave it until you have issues!!!

 

[Deleted member 107796]

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies almost all the time in my opinion.

 

[therifleman556]

Hardest thing about Savage is the barrel nut. A little modeling clay is your friend. Smooth nut Savage is pretty easy. Try bedding an SMLE, that's a pain...

 

[tailbon3]

If it ain't broke, fix it until it is!!!

 

[freddiej]

shooting sub 1/2" groups without bedding will be more than sufficient to shoot deer at 400 yards. I have had these kinds of guns come into my shop and they wanted them bedded. I told them they might not see much more accuracy out of the rifle. they asked me to proceed anyway. I did an action only bed. I left the barrel and barrel nut unbeded. I would do a action only bedding job on your rifle if you can't leave it alone. that means bed the recoil lug, the front of the action where the action screw is, and the back action screw. that will make sure 90% of your action stays stable and without stress. bed the gun without the scope in the scope rings to insure a better bedding job, them lap the rings when you are done.

 

[spindrift307]

Just my opinion, but I'd bed the rifle no matter if it's shooting or not. This is good common practice and just eliminates any room for error when moving forward. Can't hurt and may make the gun shoot even better than it already is.

A little J.B. weld epoxy and Johnson floor wax will get it done much cheaper than having it sent off.

 

[FURMAN]

Man has it been a crazy time with my wife's Savage Lady hunter rifle. This rifle started life out as a 7mm08 true 3 MOA rifle lol (not to be confused with .3 MOA). It was so bad I sent it in to savage. They were able to get one 1.75inch 3 shot group which they deemed was acceptable and would not rebarrel the rifle. I never got a 1.75MOA group myself but that would not have been acceptable to me any way. Of course I would not sell this rifle to anyone else just to pass on the pain so I decided to go semi-custom build route. First i replaced the budget scope rings with better ones and checked with multiple scopes. Same bad groupings. Next I replaced all plastic parts (bottom metal and such) with real metal parts as some people claimed this could help with accuracy on the savage forums. This cost me 120$. There was no improvement, accept the magazine and bottom metal now looks and feels better but the rifle is also slightly heavier now. Next I inletted the barrel channel just a touch more as I thought maybe the barrel was getting pinched a little and not a true free float. This did not help. I tried numerous re-loads. This did not help. So finally all that remained was bedding and/or barrel swap. Ive never bedded a rifle and savage seems a bit complicated for bedding but barrel swaps are easy and ive actually done that twice with other savage rifles. it does have pillars though which is good. So I ultimately decided on putting an aftermarket barrel on first. Ordered the barrel. I got a magnum sporter profile 23inch 6.5cm barrel for about 400$ shipped. First day out after installing it, I purchased 2 types of factory loads. Did the barrel break in procedure which was single shots for 5 shots with cleaning in between each shot. Then the procedure called for two to five 3 shot groups (until the barrel was not fouling as bad) with cleaning in between. The barrel was already not fouling hardly at all so I don't think it really needed this but I still followed the directions. On the first 3 shot group I got a clover leaf with all 3 shots touching. The second 3 shot group was very close with only one hole just barely not touching the other 2. The 3rd 3 shot group was a bug hole (my first bug hole ever). The first 5 shot group I did was an honest .4 inch group. Needless to say, me and my wife are both ecstatic with the new barrel. The question is, do we even bother with bedding this rifle? This rifle is a deer rifle which will only go out to 400 yards max so im thinking it is not worth it, especially since the only gunsmith near me who sounds like they would do a good job and knows what they are doing is wanting 250$ for devcon bedding job. thoughts? thanks!

I bed every rifle I own period. Having said that I truly believe for your needs it is unnecessary. You will not be shooting far enough to worry and it seems to be shooting under half minute. If you start to see point of impact changes I would bed it for sure.

 

[Dosh]

Have you ever done a 77 Ruger, that is hard

Yes I've bedded about a dozen. They look difficult with pillars being the hardest, but not as tough as the Savage.

 

[Deleted member 110544]

If you start to see accuracy go away bed it. Otherwise let er rip

 

[Bigeclipse]

I recommend you take the rifle to a decent Smith and have them bed it. You've already put a bunch of money to the rifle and a pro bedding job doesnt cost that much. Do it yourself is a hit and miss and there are some techniques with Savage rifles that will save you a lot of pain in the future. I also noted in a later comment that you swapped the barrel out. Did you set the headspace with go/no go gages? Not using them can cause some serious headspace issues.

Yes I always use go and no go gauges. Savage rebarrels are very easy in my opinion. This was not my first and wont be my last

 

[Alibiiv]

Have you ever done a 77 Ruger, that is hard

I do Ruger 77 tang safety rifles all the time. Every time I do one it is better than the last one. My next challenge is to pillar bed the stock, both front and rear screws. I've bought the pillars from Brownells, now have to make a fixture to drill the clearance holes for the pillars.

As for the OP I have mixed feelings on whether to bed or not to bed it?? I've never had one shoot worse after it was bedded and the barrel floated; but.....I've never owned a Savage either. I also liked the reply about torquing all the action screws properly and also playing with the torque settings to get better groups. The Rugers are really touchy when it comes to torque and action screws. Tighten up the screw on the Recoil lug to 95 inch pounds and pretty much hand tight on the trigger guard screws; and....this does work.