What's All The Fuss Over Aluminum Bedding?

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What's All The Fuss Over Aluminum Bedding?

What's all the fuss over Aluminum Bedding?
By Don Bitz - Owner - Stocky's Stocks

Is your rifle as good as you are? Is your Remington 700, Winchester 70, Weatherby MkV, Howa 1500, Tikka T3, Mauser 98 or Savage 10/110 having problems holding a zero in all weather? Tired of those odd fliers that open up your groups? Sub-MOA on Saturday and all over the paper on Sunday? Drop it into aluminum and quit wasting money testing load...

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[LDHunter]

I would like to add my 2 cents here. This article is spot on in many ways but I've found that the "one size fits all" is the problem.

Although aluminum bedding blocks DO provide an incredibly reliable stock to action fit they don't always fit all that well and if the mating surfaces aren't very well matched then getting reliably below a 1" group can be an exercise in frustration.

At least for me and my rifles it seems that the real magic occurs when I take a rifle with a stock that has aluminum bedding blocks to a very good gunsmith that is a master at bedding actions in stocks and have a skim bedding job done on top of the aluminum bedding blocks.

VOILA!!! Suddenly a rifle that hovered around MOA accuracy is shooting WELL UNDER a half inch with absolutely NO other modifications.

This has proven true with SEVERAL of my rifles and I'm prone not to believe that this is merely anecdotal evidence of the importance of skim bedding on top of aluminum bedding blocks.

In precision rifles it seems that one size fits all rarely works and custom fitting is often the only reliable solution.

 

[mulie]

Run a small experiment, alum. does move quit a bit take a piece of alum. and calipers measure it at room temperature, then place it in the frig. for an hour then measure again at the same position on the block. Then place it in the sun for one hour, again measure it in the same point on the block again. Determine the percentage of movement, expansion/contraction. That is why correctly bedding over alum. blocks and pillars works as it mitigates some of the effects temperature has on alum. Remember those old single pane aluminum windows in the house. There is another way.

 

[Litehiker]

Yeah, HS Precision invented full aluminum bedding blocks BUT my HS Precision lacks a bit of "Precision" in that the bedding block is not perfectly in line with the stock!!

No worries, I'm selling it and replacing it with a TAC 21 chassis B/C it's a heavy barrel .300 Win mag. target rifle W/ stainless Rem 700 trued action and stainless HS Precision fluted barrel. Just needs a more adjustable and truer stock.

Eric B.

 

[LDHunter]

Yeah, HS Precision invented full aluminum bedding blocks BUT my HS Precision lacks a bit of "Precision" in that the bedding block is not perfectly in line with the stock!!

No worries, I'm selling it and replacing it with a TAC 21 chassis B/C it's a heavy barrel .300 Win mag. target rifle W/ stainless Rem 700 trued action and stainless HS Precision fluted barrel. Just needs a more adjustable and truer stock.

Eric B.

How did you discover that and how much out of line is it?

 

[Litehiker]

LD, I discovered it by noticing the barrel channel of the stock was nit aligned W/ the barrel.It's off by 1/8" at the tip of the fore end (M-24 style stock)

Eric B.

 

[carl1775]

I have an '07 Rem. 700 PSS 300 win. mag. I always thought it looked "off." I chalked it up to my paranoia. It dog legs right to left, or so I think. I'll have to get a laser out now and strip the barreled action to check. You've got me interested in it again>>>

 

[carl1775]

All of that to say, it never shot as well as I thought it should, considering the work that was put into it. Interesting, to say the least...