The standard weight barrel should be accurate. If you got that perfect rifle from the factory, maybe you're already rocking and rolling. Nearly an M1a/M14 will benefit hugely from bedding. But more important for the high-power shooters than the rest of us. At 3,000 rounds, if done right, you start to get some breakdown in accuracy. The Sage stock seems to be a "middle ground" option, but it is much more expensive than bedding a rifle, it makes a heavy rifle even heavier, and I am not even sure if such a stock is considered legal for certain matches. I am sure that a bigger commercial institution like Springfield Armory has a much higher productive capacity and would not take nearly as long as to ship one a Super Match M1A or an M21. How does LRB compare to Fulton?įor the record, I am satisfied with my "Springer," and I would be open to get another one, as someone like Fulton can take 6 to 18 months to build a high end rifle. So, to make a long story longer, I am not sure the Fulton is any better than the Springfield, their CS used to be much worse, if yer on a budget you are prob better off buying a Springer and putting the money into bedding and a trigger job and having a lifetime warranty on every single part of the gun, for the life of the gun.ĮDIT-deleted pointless rant. This does make sense and I found it highly informative. It needs the barrel pulled downward by the stock. And needs the opposite, to perform its best. So unlike most other rifles, which want their barrels free-floated for best accuracy and most repeatable zero, the M1A/M14 actually wants the opposite. Without that downward pull/pressure on the barrel, the M1A/M14 is never going to shoot its best. Which is why you need a fairly rigid stock to properly bed them. And so to get the things shooting consistent, M14s are bedded so that the barrel is pulled very strongly downward (via the barrel band) by pressure from the stock. The movement of the gas piston/op rod almost acts a second recoil impulse. And the M14 has a heavy as shit gas piston/operating rod, that yes, is heavy as balls, and yes, moving fast as shit, so it vibrates all weird. They were basically born in the 20th century. But semi-auto guns have come a long way in the 20th century. In fact, you might say: well Tex, I've heard that same thing on very lightweight sporter barrels-they shoot more repeatable groups with some consistent UP pressure from the stock, say a small pad of bedding at the end of the barrel channel.Īnd yes, it's roughly the same idea. IE, in a properly bedded m14 rifle, the barrel assembly is actually being pulled down at the barrel band, a constant maybe 10 lb downward pull. Why? Well, the normal reasons, you want the gun to have the same pressure on the barrel/action after each shot, so bedding takes care of that, BUT equally importantly, you want the barrel to have a shitload of DOWNpressure coming from the stock. Now, bedding an M1a is a lot more important than bedding a bolt action rifle.