Groundhoghunter,
First off welcome to LRH.
Witha factory rifle, the forend pressure point generally stabilizes the barrel. This up pressure on a factory barrel will often result in tighter groups but this is because the receiver and barrel are fitted poorly in most instances and the vibration pattern is not consistant from shot to shot resulting in fliers and poor consistancy.
The Pressure by the forend dampens this vibration slightly to help control and make the vibration petterns more consistant which results in tighter groups.
This is really a bandaid for the real problem which is poor machining.
Now for your situation. I have seen some factory rifles that had been floated that shot very poorly after the proceedure. STill others have benefitted, it is really a crap shoot sorry to say.
The good thing is that if removed, one can put a pressure point back in the forend quite easily using quality badding compound and what I much prefer is to use a V system which not only stabilized the barrel with upward pressure, it also supports it horizontally as well which is even more stabilizing to the barrel.
If you float the barrel and groups get larger this process will generally get the rifle shoot at least as well as it was before the floating.
As far as Pillar bedding. The main benefit of pillar bedding is that it gives a metal to metal to metal contact between the action screw head to the pillar and the pillar to the receiver. This allows the receiver screws to be torqued to the proper setting everytime and they will stay that way over time with no change.
In a wook stock you can tighten the action screws down but over time the wood will compress and the tension pulling the receiver down into the stock will lessen and group shifting will occur over time.
It also greatly lessens the effect of straight wood expansion and contraction when exposed to moisture and heat or cold.
There are great benefits to pillar bedding. At shorter ranges on a hunting rifle these benefits may not seem so dramatic but they are still there. It is just a matter of increasing stability in your rifle system.
The stiffer the better for accuracy and consistancy.
When you tighten the receiver screws down in a pillar bedded action there is a positive stop when the screws bottom out. With a wood stock there is a spoungy, slow stop which is the wood actually compressing under the load of the screw.
Before you do anything, shoot your rifle so you know what it will do as is. Then you will be able to track the progress or degrading accuracy as you go. Also, do one thing at a time. Float the barrel first and then shoot the rifle to see if it improved accuracy or made the groups larger. Then move on to the bedding.
If you do more then one proceedure at a time and groups get larger, you will not know which is causing the problems and then all will need to be remedied.
Go slow and track your rifles performance as you go. Will save alot of money and headaches down the road.
Good Shooting!!
Kirby Allen(50)
