OK, this is one place I plead complete ignorance. I've seen and heard a lot about barrel bedding and I'm considering it. I have a Ruger M77R (1977 model, Weaver WideView 2.5-7X optics) that's already REAL accurate, I can't see what would make it MORE accurate than it already is. Can't say that I've shot at anything over 250yds with it (a feral dog, I got it) but I'm on the verge of buying a Remington .30-06 (700BDL) and I might have the bedding done to it also. A friend of mine back in Missouri used AcraGlass and said it worked pretty well, but I have have NO idea how the gun shot before he did it. Is bedding best only if you're cranking out a bunch of rounds at a bench or at a competition, or is it essentially a waste of time and money for a chiefly hunting rifle that I'll put 20 rounds through at the range to make sure it's sighted in, and maybe only shoot it 1-2 times while hunting? Any comments or recommendations are GREATLY apprecaited.

A. You do not bed the barrel. You bed the action.

B. Think of the barrel as tuning fork. When the bullet travels down the tube it creates vibrations or harmonics. Bedding the barrel interupts these harmonics. Thus the import of "free floated barrels".

Go to googledotcom or snipershide and read about bedding.

Thanks, SIX.

Actually you DO bed the barrel, especially the recoil lug and and some distance in front of it depending on the weight of your barrel.  Check out this link for more than you ever wanted to know about bedding...

And some shooters prefer to relieve the action instead of bedding it with the action supported only by steel pillars surrounding the action screws.

riflestocks.tripod.com/bedding.html

Almost all bolt actions rifles are bedded at least around and forward of the recoil lug.  Unless you really muck it up, a bedding job can't make your rifle shoot any worse.

Quoted: Actually you DO bed the barrel, especially the recoil lug and and some distance in front of it depending on the weight of your barrel.

Having done this professionally I can tell you that the Remington 700-series rifles do NOT need bedding forward of the recoil lug. (The Ruker 77 needs the barrel support though.)

Making sure the barrel is free floated and that the bedding material has 100% contact with the action is critical.

For added support you can also pillar bed the action, but if doing so make sure that there's beding material inbetween the action and the pillars as these two pieces of metal have different expansion rates as rifle heats up.

When it comes to what bedding material to use there's Accra-Glas, Accra-Gel, and (my favorite) MarineTex (for boat repairs).

If you have a wood stock I would suggest using Accra-Glas or Accra-Gel. For synthetic stock I always use MarineTex.

If you dare to do this on your own make DAMN sure you wax all metal parts REAL good, or you will have a miserable time getting the bedded action out of the stock, or worse.

Once again, thanks 1,000,000 guys!