I've got a 700 Remington that I want to improve. I am confused on pillar versus glass. If you pillar bed then the action is on the pillars and you can forget glass bedding or do you still need to do both? I have some concave "Remington" pillars I bought a while back but someone said the flat top pillars are better. Any advise appreciated.

If you pillar it, you still need to bed the action (glass, etc).

Thanks, sort of confused on what to do first. If I set the pillers and then remove the wood in the action area and then glass bed- bringing the barrel right down to the pillars- Off hand that would seem best but "I'm all ears" if there is a better way. Thanks.

I'm sort of halfway through doing the same to my 700. Btw, I'm a complete newb to home gunsmithing but I asked and read around. So what I found out...

I do believe the best recommended practice is to glass bed and pillar bedding job. I've pillar bedded my 700 and I've even shot it. I can't see any noticeable accuracy difference yet. However, my 30-06 has always been a decent shooter even as an adl.
And yes, you are supposed to install the pillars and then glass bed the action. From what I understand, if you do it correctly you should still see metal at the top of the pillars.

Ok, here's the anatomy.

Pillars are bushings. Burshings that keep the stock from compressing into the action, when the stock tries to compress into the action via proper torque of the action screws. No pillars, soft stock, action screws get set and squeeze the stock toward the action. Pillars prevent the bottom of the stock from going toward the bottom of the action like a smashed sponge.

Bedding is filling in gaps. You've got the bottom of a circle action, pretty much 3 o'clock to 9 o'clock. And you have the inletting (removal of material in the stock to accept the action), the female to that action that is supposed to match. Well, it doesn't match. Bedding is a liquid that fills in that slight gap between action, and the recess for that action in the stock. It goes in liquid, and sets hard like cement filler. But you do not want them bonded together. You want a tight fit, but not as one, thus release agent.

I had a miserable shooting savage wood stock rifle. I installed pillars only and significantly improved its accuracy from 1-2 moa to repeatably less than moa. Not to say that is correct but I shot and hunted with it for 3 years before I put a new barrel and stock on it never did skim/glass bed it.

You can do just the pillars, and many times it will result in improved accuracy. But if you're going to do the work, you might as well go all the way.

+1 ....this

I think the consensus is, if you are doing both then do the pillars first. Some believe in doing it all at once, I think it is too much to tackle at one time.

To me, the bigger advantage of the pillars is to save the stock in the long term.

Pillars allow you to torque it down good and ensure no movement (or possibly less movement) , without damaging the stock.

Bedding ensures a tight fit to prevent movement.

Movement of action in the stock is what causes inconsistency that degrades accuracy.

You could very well make the gun shoot worse with poorly done bedding job or pillars.

The "easiest" thing to do would be to just bed the recoil lug, you can argue for or against that but at the very least, it's easier to do that much and do it right, and it will help alot with movement in the stock.

If you have pillars designed to fit the action, give it a try. If they are the adjustable type, and you want flat pillars, can you just flip the machined piece over?

I think you are supposed to fit the pillars a little high in the bottom of the barrel inlet. What I was thinking was to put inlet black on the bottom of the action and fit in the stock and scrap off a FEW high points- sort of do a half job. Then put in the pillars but wrap a layer of aluminum foil on the bottom of the action so the pillars stick up just slightly. Then do the glass bedding of the action area. Mine 700 is the ADL without a detachable magazine plate. I'm wondering how to handle the bottom of the pillars.

For those who have done this- the Remington forestock has a couple of contact points at the nose so the barrel rests on those and is not entirely free floating. I've heard- try stuff until something works, free float- if that doesn't work do the contact at the nose of the forestock- if that doesn't work bed the rest of the barrel.

Any real life experiences appreciated.

Other work I'm planning on is a better trigger, better scope and rings, and reloading- I am wondering if those things do more than anything else to improve accuracy.

I'd start with the trigger and the reloads, not necessarily in that order. You find a load that shoots .5-.75, you might not mess with bedding to chase the other few .1s you might find.

Pillars are used to take the stress off of the action. If you fill around the action with glass you will induce pressure, and that negates the pillars. You only want the action sitting on the pillars. You will need to sand down the forearm where the Barrel touches them ,piece of sandpaper on a round wooden dowell will work just fine .