Thread: Rifle Bedding Opinions

So I have a Bergara Extreme hunter that I purchased as a bit of a heavier rifle for shootability as my 2.6kg 7mm08 and 2.9kg 280ai are a little lively at times and definitely not a good steeping stone for my partner coming from the 22lr she's been learning on. Been having some pretty good results except I pulled the action and retorted the action screws to 65inch pounds like I used to do my old rem 700 6.5x47. I then went and shot a group at 200 that was around 4.5 inches and with a shifted poi which for this rifle is shocking. I then Google bergaras torque spec which is 55inchlbs which I changed back to and groups returned somewhat to right around the 1moa mark which is a little more than whatever the actual torque was when the rifle came from factory.

But this prompted be to inspect the stock at which point I noticed the action is a very tight fit. I can hold stock upside down with no action screws and action stay locked in place. I also noticed the pillars had the soft touch coating peeling off them as the coating appears to be a dip which going over these. I cleaned the coating from the front pillar but have noticed the rear pillar is actually under the surface of the stock around a mm. I'm thinking of bedding the rifle but unsure whether I should dig down so the rifle action sits on both pillars. I also note that that bottom metal is very tight in the stock and wonder whether relieving it slightly and then bedding it too might not be a bad idea.

Here's some photos of the front an rear pillar.





So would people relieve the stock so the action can bare on the pillars when it's bedded or what the sides of the action probably need relieving too being they hold the action so tight it would be very hard to bed stress free when it's like this.

Ps: also looked at all previous 5 shot groups that tend to have 3 very close and 2 fliers this hasn't tended to be consistent as to which number shot is the flier.