A) There is a long list of things that can be done to improve accuracy measurably.
B) There is another long list of things I do, but the improvements are too small to measure... but I do them anyway.
C) There is a long list of things that are so ineffective, I don't bother to do them.
Glass bedding 300 Win Mag rifles falls into category B.
Glass bedding 22LR rifles falls into category C.
Sorry Clark, but I respectfully disagree. Understand I'm not attacking you personally. We are all entitled to an opinion.
I base mine on personal experience having worked almost exclusively with 22LR rimfires for Anschutz and the US National Team Resident Athletes at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO.
I'm factory trained and or very familiar/comfortable with the following manufacturers, all of whom are known in the international shooting community for putting out world class level competitive rimfire firearms.
Anschutz
Hammerlli
Feinwerkbau
Bleikker
Grunig and Elmiger
See-Hubber
Steyr
Lothar Walther
It takes a 12mm rifle to place well enough to win a gold medal in the olympics.
Mathew Emmons had a rifle that shot in the 15's. I worked on the barrel and it improved some. Not to 12mm, but close.
I then pillar bedded his 2000 series action and it shrunk down into the 10's. Ammo lots were not changed during this evolution.
We measured groups based on the largest diameter circle that it would take to fully encompass the shot plot.
These were not 3 or 5 shot groups. They were 5 shots repeated 10 different times for a total of 50 rounds.
This isn't an isolated occurrence. A number of nationally/internationally respected shooter's rifles all responded well to properly executed pillar bedding.
Sara Blakeslee, Sheri Gallagher, Lonnes Wigger, Eric Uptegraft, and a number of others who's names escape me at the moment. These are all heavy hitters who back in the day were forces to reckon with. (some still are)
Rimfires DEMAND more attention than a centerfire does. You have a horribly inefficient cartridge traveling 1/3rd the speed of anything commonly used in a high performance centerfire. That means 3x times longer barrel time. "Harmonics" are terms that get abused all too often on this site.
I think the thing to focus on is frequency and amplitude. If your 1/3rd the velocity, you have 3x in time for shit to screw with you. Ensuring a mirror image casting capable of rock solid stability goes towards improving a rifles ability to behave the same way (or at least more of the same way) each time a bullet travels down the barrel.
The analogy is hold a 12" ruler 11" inches off the side of a rigid bench. Clamp it down with a c clamp. Now thump it and watch.
Now loosen the clamp and thump it again. Watch closely. The amplitude changes. So does frequency to some degree. This is assuming you thump it with the same degree of work each time. Now make a perfect casting of the ruler where it attaches to the bench. It will change yet again.
If the gun is bedded poorly then frequency/amplitude begins to vary and this variance is what leads to fliers (shots not on call)
Understand also that shooting smallbore commands more attention to detail on you as the shooter. Accomplished highpower shooters have a secret. The better ones train with smallbore in the off season because it makes to focus extremely hard on fundementals.
I ran a development league at the OTC. I got to shoot with Lonnes Wigger. (2x Olympic Gold Medalist and rimfire GAWD) We shot "English matches" (60x prone) with irons. I started the season in the 570's. By the end I was in the mid 590's.
I still sucked. A 60 year old man (Wigger) shot 598's and up. Eric Uptegraft is the only guy to shoot cleans at the indoor OTC range.
It makes you focus. Please don't see my comments as chest beating. It's not cause I suck at rimfire shooting. I only got good at building them because Neal Johnson and Lonnes Wigger taught me how to do it. They learned from Cark Kenyon who is pretty much the guy that God would ask if he ever had an interest in this stuff. (Carl is the shizzle, God rest his soul)
Bottom line. Bedding a 22 can and does have the ability to dramatically increase the performance potential of a rimfire rifle. 2x Gold medals and numerous world/international/national championships with rifles I've built demonstrates that as fact.
Hope this helps.
Chad
