Bedding: Aluminum vs Glass

[hmbleservant]

What is better...

Full Aluminum Bedded....Example: Bell and Carlson Medalist

or

Glass Bedded....Example: you dont need one

What is the best for accuracy? If you choose glass please elaberate because I don't know much about it. I would like to just purchase a Bell and Carlson Medalist and bolt it on to acheive same accuracy potential as glass bedding, but is that possible or not?

Is there a better way not listed above?

 

[Dr. Vette]

I glass bed (i.e. Devcon bed) my full aluminum bedded Bell & Carlson stocks.

How's that for you?

Seriously, the "full aluminum" is nice but they still need to be bedded if you want full accuracy. You might get lucky without bedding one but you probably won't reach full potential.

I wish I could show you the B&C I'm prepping now for a build and how much the action gets tweaked by tightening the action bolts. Floorplate won't close then either. All of that will go away once it's properly bedded.

 

[Tikkamike]

My experience with aluminum bedding blocks is limited as I only have on which is a greybull precision on my custom 338 lapua (noadditional bedding) which shoots one hole groups at 200 yards.. I have had glass and devcon bedding and I believe its very effective but not always a cure all, so dont assume that just because you bedded it all the sudden you will have a straight shooting Rifle. I have to agree though devcon in an aluminum bedding block does seem ideal.

 

[Hntbambi]

I too have Devcon bedded all of my HS Precision stocks that have aluminum bedding blocks. It makes them more repeatable. It did not change the accuracy any (group size is still same) but the POI does not shift around like it did.

 

[Tikkamike]

I forgot to add that every time I take my rifle out of the stock and put it back its never has the same POI as it did before so It has to be sighted in again, I assume with devcon bedding it would make that a lot more repeatable... maybe not exact but a lot closer.

 

[Hntbambi]

You got it. Bedding makes a negative image of the receiver so once it's torqued properly, it will return to zero.

 

[Eaglet]

Gents, a properly done glass bedding will almost always make it shoot better. By removing stress from the action. If the bedding is not done right, you'll know it when you shoot it! Do a glass bedding job on a Savage (not talking about the newer action since I don't know them) and don't free float the tang and you'll know something is wrong!

The two reasons I glass bed my weapons are because they shoot better, (maybe the shooter is not good enough to make it show, but that doesn't mean that the great qualities of a well done glass bedding job are not there), (maybe the barrel is not up to the task of allowing you to see it... and there are other things that we need to look into), and the second reason is the repeatability when taking the action off and back on... Usually my point of impact is very close; again by giving it a specific torque before zeroing in and giving the same torque when putting the action back in the stock does beautiful things for you. Remember this, when glass bedding, if you use some paste or whatever it may be that leaves a thicker coat than ideal will allow the fit not to be as "precise" as we would like it and when taking the action off and then back on you'll notice greater differences in point of impact. Jmho.

Good shooting!