Bedding does a lot of things, and free floating helps too. Recently I bought a Winchester 70 featherweight in 30-06. There are no pillars in the stock and it's a barreled action bolted to a very nice piece of walnut. It's at a bedding specialist now so it'll be bedded. At the end of the day all that any little improvement really does is give you a more repeatable platform to throw bullets from just like free floating. It won't hurt, that's for sure.Why is bedding important and what does it do?
Why wouldn’t free-floating a bolt gun barrel cause the same improvements as the AR platform?
If you're consistent, that group puts down any deer in Indiana so long as you do your part. Honestly, you'd probably beat half the crowd that shows up to a rifle match if you can do that consistently at distance.I didn’t have a ton of time, of ammo for this rifle yet, so this is what I got. A three shot group that is respectable. Ignore the top right hole, that wasn’t from this gun, I assure you. Ammo was Hornaday 143 Eld-x. Seems to be a pretty accurate factory load. This winter I am going to work up handloads for it. Pretty happy with this group, given my ammo shortage for this caliber at the moment, and the lack of time to shoot this group. I will take it.