bedding the ol H barrel? Plus a bedding material Q

[Son]

Does anyone have experience or seen a barrel bedded H barrel in action? The stock profile benefited from stiffening exercises, someone must have tried it on an H barrel to see what would happen, any ideas?

I have a good original fulton smle here thats been bedded along 2/3rds the barrel with what looks like 1/16 or 3/32 cork sheet. The cork's also been surface treated with a silvery, very slippery, powdery/clumpy material that comes off on my fingers easily. Any ideas what clever old world substance that might be? I'd say graphite except for the color and texture, it stains the same and feels slippery the same.

thanks

The silvery stuff will be graphite.

I've got factory bedded H barrel rifles (snipers), I've bedded a couple of H barrels myself using the some of the "old methods" described in the books by James Sweet (many dozens of hours). I have a fullbore rifle that was bedded in the thirties and is a proven competition rifle. I've even got a H barrel fully floated from an action mounted in an aluminium bedding block. Bottom line... Nothing beats a properly bedded barrel using the methods (refined) of factory bedding for a standard barrel. It can be very hit and miss, though. Another problem is, the woodwork can be unstable due to climate. A fully floated "H" barrel in good condition can be almost as accurate as the best bedded barrel, but more consistent. To fight this problem some old target shooters here used to hand make foreends and handguards from harder, older and dryer, therefore better suited more stable timbers. Use of cork or gasket paper packing was seen as the easy way out temporary fix or a method of getting a bit more life out of a buggered foreend. The cork was also infamous for eventually becoming compacted, hardening and cracking away.

The bedding starts at the butt socket. Just working under the barrel can just transfer the problem further back. The secret wasn't to try to lock everything up so it didn't move. It was to set it up so it moved exactly the same each time it was fired.