If it's barrel bedding you're talking about, there are two schools of thought; bedding and free-floating.
Bedding is filling the barrel channel in the stock with epoxy or some similar compound, coating the barrel with mold release or something similar, and assembling (this word should have been a-s-s-emble) the rifle, allowing the epoxy to cure. The theory is that there is uniform support for the barrel and it should lead to tighter groups.
Free-floating is removing enough material in the barrel channel to insure that the barrel doesn't touch the stock forward of the reciever, so that stock changes with humidity and temperature won't affect the zero.
Bedding the RECEIVER usually accompanies a free-float job on the barrel. That involves making the recoil lug and all the other reciever parts fit perfectly into the stock recesses by a process just like bedding the barrel.
Bedding is filling the barrel channel in the stock with epoxy or some similar compound, coating the barrel with mold release or something similar, and assembling (this word should have been a-s-s-emble) the rifle, allowing the epoxy to cure. The theory is that there is uniform support for the barrel and it should lead to tighter groups.
Free-floating is removing enough material in the barrel channel to insure that the barrel doesn't touch the stock forward of the reciever, so that stock changes with humidity and temperature won't affect the zero.
Bedding the RECEIVER usually accompanies a free-float job on the barrel. That involves making the recoil lug and all the other reciever parts fit perfectly into the stock recesses by a process just like bedding the barrel.
