I have a remington 700 bdl in 6mm, a gift from my father a long time ago. Im having trouble with the stock. I went from the original walnut stock to a bell & carlson syn stock and accuracy has went drastically down hill from there. B&C stock was bedded and floated and it simply will not shoot good groups, Im talking 5 or 6" groups. Put it back in a walnut stock, un-floated, and the accuracy comes back closer, maybe 1.5" groups. Is there some reason why this particular rifle doesn't like to have its barrel floated???

I was thinking about a Boyd's laminate stock but don't know whether to try a floated stock or not??

Any thoughts??? Thanks in advance

First welcome to the forum. Rules are simple, be nice and join in.

Before you try another stock stack enough old credit cards at the front of the forearm on your B&C stock to put some pressure between the stock and the end of the barrel and shoot it.

Some rifles simply shoot better with about seven pounds of pressure between the barrel and forearm.

This may or may not help. Just loosen the action screws on your floated stock til you can slide in some old credit/library cards between the barrel and the forearm ahead of the front sling swivel mounting point and tighten the barreled action back into the stock.

Thanks for the info.

I thought about trying that but to be honest the B&C stock is flimsy enough at the fore end I didn't think I could do this and get repeatable results. I am really disappointed with this stock. Nothing against B&C, this stock is pretty old, about 15 years or so. Im sure they have better ones now days. Not to mention that the bedding was done by a not so reputable "gun mechanic" and never has been right since. Just for the info my rifle is about a '65 model in standard contour, one peice leupold base and rings, and an older weaver micro-trac 3-9x AO scope (Love the scope)

In a more general question, why do some guns like to be floated and some do not. I know sometimes it a mixture of several variables. Does every gun have the ablity to shoot floated if everything else with the gun is correct?? It just seems to me that floated is the way to go......of course I may be wrong......and usually am!! LOL

It may be awhile before i try anything. Its back in a walnut stock shooting decent 1 1/2" groups, good enough for deer season that starts tommorrow. After deer season the gun's going back to "surgery". I'd like to have a better understanding about the things I can try when the time comes because Id really like this gun to be a shooter

Thank you for the welcome

Long thin barrels are more likely to shoot better with some forend pressure, compared to short truck axle barrels. Pete Brown, resident gunwriter for Sports Afield back in the 1950s, used an "Electric Bedder". This was two screw-in, click adjustable steel posts in the forend. They touched the barrel at points 90° apart, each 45° from the bottom. The posts were backed off until they didn't touch the barrel. A voltmeter was connected to the barrel and a post. The post was screwed in until the voltmeter indicated it was touching, and the clicks noted. Then he did the other post. He added pressure until the barrel shot it's best. If the stock wrapped, he'd find the new contact points, and click up to the original sweet spot.

Bye
Jack

Thanks for the info.

I thought about trying that but to be honest the B&C stock is flimsy enough at the fore end I didn't think I could do this and get repeatable results. I am really disappointed with this stock. Nothing against B&C, this stock is pretty old, about 15 years or so. Im sure they have better ones now days. Not to mention that the bedding was done by a not so reputable "gun mechanic" and never has been right since. Just for the info my rifle is about a '65 model in standard contour, one peice leupold base and rings, and an older weaver micro-trac 3-9x AO scope (Love the scope)

In a more general question, why do some guns like to be floated and some do not. I know sometimes it a mixture of several variables. Does every gun have the ablity to shoot floated if everything else with the gun is correct?? It just seems to me that floated is the way to go......of course I may be wrong......and usually am!! LOL

It may be awhile before i try anything. Its back in a walnut stock shooting decent 1 1/2" groups, good enough for deer season that starts tomorrow. After deer season the gun's going back to "surgery". I'd like to have a better understanding about the things I can try when the time comes because Id really like this gun to be a shooter

Thank you for the welcome

Sometimes it doesn't have a rhyme or reason. I've found that Jack's assessment is accurate. Years ago I did some work for Speer bullets helping put some one of their reloading manuals together. They did some bedding tests on several of their rifles they used for bullet testing and found that it didn't make any accuracy difference if you bedded the barrel in solid with glassbed or free floated it for barrels that weighed under four pounds.

It did make a difference if the rifle was glass bedded. This was in wood stocks. If the forend is simply to whippy to allow a bedding point there are several things you an do to make it stiffer. Folks I know with those kind of stocks take several pieces of fishing pole and glass them into the forend. That will provide some rigidity to it.

Frankly I simply don't use the plastic stocks anymore and much prefer a laminated wood stock over the plastic ones. I understand H&R stocks are very good and have shot a friends that groups excellent, but I know for sure that the laminated stocks are very very stiff.

I also know that with the proper glass bed job a wood stock will work very well in any weather. I have a friend with 375 H&H mag I did back in the late 70's who was an Alaska fish and game officer from 1976 to 2000. It spent 300 days a year in inclement weather without a problem and without loosing zero.

If you plan on doing a glassbed job on your existing stock I'd be glad to give you some tips on doing that. I spent 27 years with a part time gunsmith business and bedded several hundred rifles during that time.

This is my 700 VLS in Remington's laminated stock. Very accurate and very stiff.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q172/faucettb/Preditor%20masters/700vls.jpg

Here's my 700 ML in one of Remingtons plastic stocks. You could squeeze the stock against the barrel anywhere from a few inches in front of the trigger guard to the end of the forearm. I ended up trading this gun off for a shotgun when Idaho changed the muzzle loader regs so it wasn't legal anymore. It would have been restocked in wood or wood laminate before the next hunting season if I had kept it. I see Remington is selling thier plastic stocks in Cabela's from $89.00 bucks and up. Their simply not what I'd put on a rifle.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q172/faucettb/Preditor%20masters/700ml-1.jpg

Anyway drop me a PM and I'll give you some ideas about glass bedding. If your getting 1.5 inch groups from your wood stock I think with a good bedding job you might be able to improve that. If the stock needs refinished to look like new it would be a good time to do that also.

Thanks for all the advice guys.

I cannot do anything to the walnut stock that the gun is in now as it is a loner from my father that I borrowed just to check for accuracy differences. I have however decided that a nice laminated stock is the route I would like to go. Now its just choosing one.

These two caught my eye:

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=86160743

and this one:

http://www.stockysstocks.com/servlet/the-169/Remington-700-Laminated-Classic/Detail?sfs=cda154fe

Would any of you have better recomendations?? Would like to spend less that $150, but anything is possible if I like it enough.....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v69/GuideGun/NewStock2.jpg

I went through Stocky's and bought this Boyds Thumbhole Target/Varminter for my Rem 700. FWIW - I replaced the B&C synthetic model POS. Before I changed it out I did what Bob suggested, stuff some business cards at the front end of the forearm. Not the best solution but it allowed me to shoot the gun with some confidence during load development until I got the "real" replacement. I like what I have. The price on the Stocky's Stock on the link you posted is very good.

I should add you will do a little sanding and fitment to get things just right. When I finished fitting mine it did not need bedding but it is only a 221 Fireball so I'm not stressing things much when I pull the trigger.