Bedding for "specialist" 22's

Hello Folks

I've had a couple of higher end 22's that haven't shot as well as I'd expected, but never got round to bedding one.

Currently I've got a EM-322 that doesn't shoot what I'd call top notch results (despite trying many different ammo makes including all the best match ammo's). In many ways these rifles are set up very well, match chamber, tight headspace and a well sorted primer strike (better than any production rifle I've handled, except maybe Annie 54's ).

But the bedding on the example I have is horrible, despite the fundamentals being good - action has two well located screws and a very solid flat bottom metal. I can do quite a bit by installing pillars and glass bedding the action.

So - question - do 22's benefit by having a bedded recoil lug or surface??

Some people say they do benefit from bedding
Ive never bedded one generally 22’s shoot bloody well out of the box as you know

Oh haveing said that the most accurate 22 I have shot
(And trust me ive shot and owned alot of highend 22’s)
Is an old carl gustof target rifle (glass bedded) which belongs to a mate
Im talking 1/2 inch or better groups at 100m and that was just with some cci standard (love to see what it would do with some real ammunition)

Sounds like you've identified a problem and have a plan to fix it. Better bedding may or may not help, but done properly it should never hurt.

For your specific question around .22's needing a recoil lug surface, in my opinion it can be a benefit. I want the position of the barreled action in the stock to be 100% repeatable when removed and replaced, and that means some reference feature to locate the action fore/aft as well as side-to-side. Would it be strictly required for recoil transfer? I'd guess no - friction between the action and bedding with the screws done up tight is probably ample to transfer what little recoil force there is. That would mean that a surface on the action facing forward might serve as an alignment feature even though it won't transfer recoil - just make sure the action is hard forward in the bedding when you assemble the rifle. But if there's a suitable backwards-facing surface, even better.

Looking at photos on the net, it doesn't appear that you've got a lot of ready surfaces on that action to serve as a fore/aft reference or recoil lug. If it was me, I would glass bed around the rear action screw and forward to the front of the receiver/start of the barrel. I would float the action tang from the rear action screw backwards, and make sure there was clearance behind the tang vertical surface. I would look closely at whether allowing bedding material to flow into the recesses for the barrel retention pin might give useful 'recoil' features without risk of a mechanical lock during the bedding process. I would install pillars as you plan (particularly as I don't know the strength of whatever stock wood is used), and as a personal preference I would make the front pillar thick walled and tap (thread) the interior. Then you can thread a nylon bolt up the front pillar to easily lift the barreled action from the bedding - both when taking it out the first time and for routine disassembly if you've chosen to bed it 'tight'.

It is norinco at the end of the day em332’s are fantastic but they aren’t Immune to the quality control issues that come with cheaper rifles
Although em332s are generally very good it’s not impossible to say that sadly you just may have a bad one