floating and bedding a rifle

ok took my mod 70 win. to a local gunsmith to get it floated and bedded .
i called and ask questions like any one else would do he told me when he beds it , it will also float it . well that was a lie because i cannot see were i can get a dollar bill under the barrel . bedding job looks ok . how much more can floating it help i know its a matter of sanding it down .how do other gun smiths do a bedding job ?

^

Just wrap some coarse sandpaper around a piece of dowel and open up the channel a bit. You dun need no steenkin gunsmith.

Yes the barrel should have been floated during the bedding process.

ok thanks guys i want be using him again and ill float it myself

care to post pics of the bedding?

Did this for my brother's 30-06 that had the whole barrel channel bedded as well. I should have used a dowel rod, but I just free handed it.

+1. You can also wrap sand paper around the correct size socket set that fits the barrel channel. It's pretty easy. Just find the barrel contact points before you take the stock off, and work those areas. I did one of my rifles, and used a Dremel in a thick point on the stock. When you put the stock back on, don't over tighten the action screws.

As bad as I hate to be a topper, I'm going to.

Scrap the dowel rod. Barrels taper, dowel rods do not.

Lock the stock into a vise. I put a bipod on the fore end with a piece of 3/4" sucker rod 90 degrees to the bipod, wired to it, so I can stand on the sucker rod holding the rifle down, but I'm always working alone.Loosen both the action screws enough that you can fit a 1" wide by 6" long piece of emory cloth between the barrel and the stock. The same way you would check with a dollar bill. Saw the emory cloth from the tip toward the recoil lug. Once you get to the recoil lug remove the cloth, tighten the action screws bit, and start again at the tip of the forearm. Repeat until the action screws are completely tight and you have clearance all the way to the recoil lug. You will have a barrel channel that is perfectly parallel to the barrel. I double the emory cloth since I want plenty of assurance I have clearance.

I've done this procedure on a $600 McMillan that had the wrong barrel channel, and a $600 Manners stock that had the wrong barrel channel. A ball cutter on a milling machine can't replicate the results of a few cents worth of emory cloth, some time, and a few beers.

^This.