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To Float or Not to Float…..

On the NULAs, Melvin Forbes used to say that his proprietary carbon fiber stocks were actually stiffer than the thin barrels. So fully bedding the barrels improved accuracy (same went for the Forbes rifles and Barrett Fieldcraft).

I took from this that pencil thin barrels can potentially benefit from full length bedding, depending on the quality of the stock. I would not expect the same results with a weaker plastic stock.

I do own a Forbes (it was rebarreled by Melvin so I consider it a half-NULA) and a Fieldcraft, so can attest to the excellent accuracy from light, thin barrels bedded in stiff stocks.
 
jebel said:
On the NULAs, Melvin Forbes used to say that his proprietary carbon fiber stocks were actually stiffer than the thin barrels. So fully bedding the barrels improved accuracy (same went for the Forbes rifles and Barrett Fieldcraft).

I took from this that pencil thin barrels can potentially benefit from full length bedding, depending on the quality of the stock. I would not expect the same results with a weaker plastic stock.

I do own a Forbes (it was rebarreled by Melvin so I consider it a half-NULA) and a Fieldcraft, so can attest to the excellent accuracy from light, thin barrels bedded in stiff stocks.
Click to expand...
Yes. My fieldcraft is the best factory gun I own by a mile.
 
I bought a new Winchester 70 Featherweight years ago and it shot little over MOA out of the box. Didn't like that. So I took it to my gunsmith (an older guy who was a trained gunsmith and machinist) He put a recessed target crown on it and full length Acraglassed the rifle. Then he told me this: And this is the precious part.
"Shoot it and see how it does. If you aren't satisfied, remove the stock and grind off an inch of the Acraglass. Put the stock back on and shoot again. Repeat and keep grinding until it shoots like you want it to. Then stop grinding." I did as directed and when I got a 0.72" group at 200 Yards I stopped grinding. Must have ground off about 6 inches of the bedding in total.

It has been shooting around 0.72" at 200 every year since then. The deer in my avatar photo was killed with that Winchester Featherweight. No bull, true story and still true today, so Acraglass must be really durable. It has been through a lot of weather changes.
 
Here's a target at 200 with that rifle. I've got better, more representative targets from that rifle but I just happen to have this one on my phone. In any case it usually shoots a quarter sized group at 200.
 

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Laguna Freak said:
If I'm not mistaken, all NULA rifles are full length bedded. They are built to exact alignment and to deliver 1 shot on target. 2 at most. The idea being the skinny barrel never gets hot enough to deflect off the stock. Personally, I like my barrels to float fore of an inch forward from the recoil lug.
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Forbes used a 1.5 contour barrel.
The weight savings is in the action and stock.

@memtb,

I did own a NULA 24B in 280 Rem.
As mentioned above, Melvin Forbes did indeed full length bed the rifle.
In a phone call with Melvin, his belief was that the stock had to be super stiff to have full length bedding be of any benefit.
 
Jon Bischof said:
I bought a new Winchester 70 Featherweight years ago and it shot little over MOA out of the box. Didn't like that. So I took it to my gunsmith (an older guy who was a trained gunsmith and machinist) He put a recessed target crown on it and full length Acraglassed the rifle. Then he told me this: And this is the precious part.
"Shoot it and see how it does. If you aren't satisfied, remove the stock and grind off an inch of the Acraglass. Put the stock back on and shoot again. Repeat and keep grinding until it shoots like you want it to. Then stop grinding." I did as directed and when I got a 0.72" group at 200 Yards I stopped grinding. Must have ground off about 6 inches of the bedding in total.

It has been shooting around 0.72" at 200 every year since then. The deer in my avatar photo was killed with that Winchester Featherweight. No bull, true story and still true today, so Acraglass must be really durable. It has been through a lot of weather changes.
Click to expand...
Love my 22 year old Featherweight. 1st year run 300 WSM. Also 👍👍 Though she does sport a 26" Brux #3 these days and benefitted from a very slight truing of the action face. She has the smoothest Model 70 action, maybe ever. And I tuned/stoned the trigger to a smooth crisp 2.25 lbs that will not release with a hard slam of the butt on the floor.
 
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My involvement with barrel bedding evolved over time(6 decades), along with the desire for increased precision and accuracy. My only full barrel length bedded rifle was decades ago when I decided to have the well worn stock on my Model 70 Supergrade Sporter/30-06 refinished by Griffin and Howe. Those rifles had full contact of the barrel with the stock WITH a lug arrangement about halfway up the barrel where the barrel screwed to the stock. The entire action and channel was bedded and the mid-barrel screw attachment maintained/torqued to spec. Now, decades later, that rifle has held its zero, and still delivers subMOA accuracy regardless of the various conditions it's been used…generally for mid-range hunting.
Since then, having increased demands for accuracy/precision for LRH and completion I do pay a lot of attention to the bedding and prefer fully floated barrels. At the very least, stocks are bedded at the tang and lug area of the stock….At the most, I may add "metal posts" and the actions contact areas with the stock get bedded as well as the first two inches of the barrel forward of the recoil lug. This applies to wood/synthetic/conventional sticks. Chassis's with fully floated barrels, depending on fit, they may get a skim coat of bedding at the actions contact points.
My 1957 Model 70 Supergrade
IMG_0488.jpeg
 
Laguna Freak said:
That's great. I was being deliberately conservative. Did Melvin build it with the Shaw? What barrel contour?
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Mitch Kendall built it. It's a featherweight barrel. Probably why it was full length bedded. Here's a pic with its latest freezer contribution! Not the greatest pic of the rifle (in 65CM).
 

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memtb said:
Another thing that I thought about at length……yes I have an "idle mind"!

In a hunting rifle, I thought that another potential advantage of "full length" bedding may be……no possibility of debris getting into the barrel channel, possibly creating a change in barrel harmonics.

Even getting water into the channel, then freezing and swelling against the barrel …..changing the harmonics!

Maybe paranoia….or a real possibility! memtb
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Actually..... paranoia is A REAL POSSIBILITY here!
 

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