Bedding a recoil lug

[chino69]

Would there ever be a reason to bed a recoil lug in an action with no front cleareance? The reason I ask this is that a friend of mine showed me his switch barrel rig. When he took the barrel off, with the action remaining in the stock, I noticed his recoil lug to be bedded to the stock. I always thought that some space was desired in the front and sides of the action. Is this considered a glue in action?
Chino69

 

[Dennis Sorensen]

I think the biggest objection to bedding a lug is the problem it may cause when removing it from the stock and returning it to the stock.

If it stays in the stock and there is no chance of bedding material to shave off and build up underneath the lug, I don't think a tight fit will harm accuracy.

If however everything is removed and installed in the stock I would much prefer clearance on the front and bottom and sides of the lug.

 

[crb]

On the few that I have done I bed everything but the bottom surface on the lug. I break the edges of the lug to make sure there is no issue with shaving the bedding. Also, I have single shot actions which are much stiffer than a magazine action and this may have some bearing on which method of bedding would work best for a particular action.

On the next stock I do I am going to bed the bottom of the lug along with all the other surfaces. I think not bedding the anything but the back surface is a left over from less than ideal bedding materials. I only used Devcon 10110.

 

[chino69]

If it stays in the stock and there is no chance of bedding material to shave off and build up underneath the lug, I don't think a tight fit will harm accuracy.

Dennis,
That's the answer I was looking for. This job was done by a very well known Benchrest Hall of Fame gunsmith who has the respect and admiration of many. It's the first time I've seen it done and just wanted some other opinions.
Chino69