AusVarmint

Just wondering what peoples thoughts are on bedding the reinforce of the barrel.

Yes or No ?
1",2" or length of the reinforce ?

I have run lots of tests on bedding rifle barrels and found that you can bed NO MORE THAN 10mm in front of the receiver as if it's a fully floated barrel the heat from repeated firing makes your poi change. And on my precision service rifle in 308 win with it's stiller tac 30 action only the action is bedded and I am getting 1/2 MOA all the time and I fired 75 rounds in an hour last match where the barrel got so hot in one stage that the heat mirage off my barrel was so bad that it was hard to see the target. But !!!!!!!! There was no poi change.

Oh I forgot rimfire rifles are more forgiving only because they don't get as hot. But each rifle has its own habbits. My old Winchester M14 semi auto military rifle when we could own them was steel bracket /plate/gas system held at the front end and it worked perfectly and didn't change it's poi when hot. But again it's barrel was fully floating from the receiver ring forward to the front of the gas system.
Another experiment I tried was bedding the barrel forward of the receiver ring up to 100 mm or for inches and although the accuracy was great for about 5 shots the POI would then shoot low with open sights or high with a scope, now you think about the mechanics here.
with open sights the barrel heats up and pushes against the bedding and the front may raise up to 1 or 2mm , I know this for a fact as I had a lee enfield in 308 with a target sight on the receiver and during a match at 200m had to wind up about 6 1/2 moa clicks to keep the POI on the center of the target , I then measured the 6 clicks on my sight using a vernier caliper and it was close to 1.4mm. Although military bedding runs 25mm forward of the receiver ring, But the front of the barrel is resting on the stock, so reduces the effect.
With a scope as there is no front sight to move ,but the barrel is still climbing so the rifle shoots high, why do you think people float their barrels at the for-end tip on most factory rifles ? to stop the POI change, but why is there upward pressure at the for-end tip ??? to dampen the barrel vibrations ,thus shoot better. anyway I have gone well beyond what was asked, but thought I better explain my test results so you all know where I am coming from.

Thanks mate great decription and explanation of why.

I will go for a drive to wagga to tomorrow and report more in the PM.