🚀 go-pugleaf

X-Sub-Entity:  Fort Collins Facility
X-Hp-Mailing-Address:  Mail Stop 55, Building 2-Upper, Fort Collins Facility
X-Hp-Telnet: 1-229-3376  BELL: (303)-229-3376
X-Usenet: hplabs!hplb29a!clarke or hplabs!hpfcla!hpstob!srm2!hpihmaj!mic
X-Mailer: Elm [version 1.4]

I recently purchased a Remington Model 700 ADL in .308 calibre.  I took
the gun in to my favorite gunsmith and asked that the gun be fiberglass
bedded and the barrel free floated.  I verified that the barrel was
indeed free floating before I left the shop.  The action was bedded
well, with no bubbles or cracks visible in the fiberglass.  The stock
remained free floating for about a week, and then I found that the stock
was firmly contacting the barrel.  I returned the gun to my gunsmith,
who repeated the bedding process.  Once again, I verified that the
barrel was free floating before I left the shop.  This time the stock
remained free floating for about 2 weeks before coming into solid
contact with the barrel.

Again, I returned the gun to my gunsmith.  He again repeated the bedding
process.  He made sure that he sealed the entire inside of the stock
with polyurethane.  Suspicious, he put the stock in his refrigerator.
After several hours, the stock had warped back into contact with the
barrel.  He hogged out the contact space, resealed the stock, allowed it
to dry, and put the stock back in the refrigerator.  The stock once
again warped into contact with the stock.  He repeated the re-bed/cool
cycle four times.  He finally hogged out the stock so that there is now
a fairly wide gap between the barrel and the stock.

I have somehow gotten the impression that wood stocks are perhaps not
terribly stable, even when completely sealed with polyurethane.  I am
interested in a stock which will not expand and contract with moisture
or temperature changes.  I have seen a number of different fiberglass
stocks advertised in gun magazines.

Could someone with first hand experience please suggest a good
fiberglass stock?  Can anyone tell me whether the HS Precision
fiberglass stock with the aluminium bedding block cast into the stock
will shoot as well as a bedded stock from the same manufacturer?  HS
Precision claims that you do not need to bed the action if you purchase
their stock with the specially milled bedding block.  I do not know
whether or not to believe them.

Marc Clarke, Loveland, Colorado
Sat Feb 28 15:39:45 MST 1987