Update: There's a master engraver who lives near me, so I think that phase 3 will be getting the flat panels engraved. I'll post that when it's done.
I also came to a decision on the bedding after pondering the (really good) advice from this thread. First, I'm going to just bed the front of the buttstock/receiver interface and leave the tang bolt alone. As others have pointed out, that won't help with the push from the action spring OR the forward motion of the barrel slamming back into battery. So the vital other part will be having a steel sleeve machined for the foreend. I calculated the dimensions for a steel cylinder at 0.940" ID/1.140 OD with 0.1" wall thickness, and 3.268" long. I'll hog the inside of thee foreend out to more than 1.140", put epoxy on the outer surface of the sleeve/inside of the foreend wood, and then use the gun itself as a jig. Basically I'll slather the magazine tube, barrel and end cap with release agent, then reassemble the gun with the sleeve in place while the epoxy cures. The end result should be that the barrel ring's forward travel is arrested by hitting the steel sleeve, which is held in place by the end cap. In that way, the forward momentum of the barrel is expended against a solid steel cylinder against the end cap. I think that will accomplish two things. First, it will save the foreend. Second, the sleeve within the foreend, NOT the buttstock, should absorb the shock of the barrel slamming back into battery.
I believe that the wood should do fine with a smooth push like the recoil spring force, but impact forces will destroy it. I think that this strategy will ensure that those impact loads, namely from recoil and then from the barrel slamming forward, will be borne by 1) an uniform epoxy surface at the receiver/buttstock interface and 2) a steel sleeve within the foreend.
