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Per the requests of several people, I am posting a pictorial history of my experience bedding my muzzleloader, a .50 caliber Savage 10ML-II in stainless/laminate.
I chose to use Brownell?s AccraGlass Gel, since it is supposed to be a bit easier to work with than the original AccraGlass, which is a liquid consistency.
Additionally, however, given the high recoil of many of the loads that I shoot in the 10ML, I wanted a really hard and strong area for the recoil lug to contact. Therefore, I used Brownell?s atomized stainless steel to reinforce the epoxy.
I chose to bed my action because of relative inconsistency with my rifle. Sometimes, the four or five groups that I shot in an afternoon would all be .75? to 1.2?. At least as often, though, groups with the exact same components and charges would run 1.5? to 2.5?. I felt this to be related to inconsistent stock-to-action mating. In particular, if I did not twist the stock a particular way as I tightened the action screws in a particular order, then the right side of the forearm would press against the barrel. I hoped to solve these issues by bedding the action.
Here is a pic of the bed area before I started:
I?ve broken my project down into some large segments:
1. FREE FLOATING THE BARREL. From the contact/wear marks on the tops of the pillars and bottom of the action, I could tell that the action was resting on the pillars. (Altough friction marks on the wood showed contact there, too.) So, I tightened the action into the stock and noted where the most contact was occurring.
I then bought a 1? and a 15/16? dowel from the hardware store. I cut six-inch lengths of each and wrapped them with medium grit sand paper. This gave me sanding blocks the same size as the barrel itself. I removed the action from the stock and sanded the barrel channel. I then replaced and retightened the action, checked for contact, sanded some more and repeated until 5 to 7 sheets of typing paper would freely slide back all the way to the recoil lug. This required enlarging the area around the barrel nut a little bit.
I raised the grain by wiping the sanded surface with a damp paper towel and letting it dry. I resanded with fine sandpaper, raised the grain again, and resanded with extra fine sandpaper. Finally, I finished the barrel channel with three coats of oil-based polyurethane, sanded between coats. Afterward, I verified that five sheets of 20-pound paper still freely slid back to the recoil lug.
The sanded and finished barrel channel:
2. PREPARING THE STOCK. Now that the barrel channel profile was completed, I used masking tape to wrap all normally exposed wood on the stock. I was careful to bring the tape right up to the edge of the barrel and action channel without going into it.
I also used modeling clay to completely fill the recess for the trigger group. I only wanted to bed from the recoil lug back to the rear pillar. So, from the rear pillar back to the tang area, I contoured the modeling clay to match the height and shape of the wood bed between the pillars.
3. RECESSING BED AREA. I used a Dremel with a metal spherical grinding attachment to grind away about 1/16? to 1/8? of wood under the entire action. Since the pillars started off flush with the wood, I could tell how much I had ground out by how much the pillars protruded above the wood. I used lengthwise and perpendicular strokes with the Dremel to avoid unequal areas of recessing. I did NOT try to make the surface perfectly flat or smooth, since roughness will aid adhesion of the epoxy.
I used a metal cylindrical grinding attachment to grind would off the front face and sides recoil lug pocket, again about 1/16? to 1/8?. I made sure to put a dimple in the middle to allow for the protrusion in the top rear of the lug.
I put the action back in the stock and tightened it down to the pillars and rechecked the barrel for free float in case the wood I had removed had previously caused the action to lift the barrel away from the forearm. In this case, though, I still had a free-floated barrel. At this point, the ONLY point of contact between the entire stock and the entire barrel/action combo was the two pillars and action screws.
Lastly, I drilled about a dozen holes downward into the stock. Some went straight down, some toward the rear, some frontward, leftward, and some to the right. In grinding away the wood under the action, I also undercut the sides of stock a little bit so that, once hardened, the bed would be wedged downward by the upper lips of the stock.
4. REMOVING AND REPLACING THE ACCUTRIGGER. I removed the trigger group inside a Ziploc bag to make sure no springs went flying. I put it back together and took it apart several times to make sure I understood how it all fit.
If you look closely at the AccuTrigger assembly, you will notice that the pin slides in from the side that the spring is on. This makes for a difficult insertion, since it is fairly easy to get the pin almost in from the other side, use a Popsicle stick to press the spring into alignment, and slide the pin the last bit in and through the spring?but coming from the other (correct) side, the spring puts tension on the spring and makes it almost impossible to align everything else.
I solved this problem by getting a length of brass rod the same diameter as the pin. I slid it in from the ?easy? (incorrect?) direction, then ?chased? or pushed the brass rod out with the pin, thereby keeping everything in alignment while the pin slid into place. A job for an octopus became a simple operation taking only a few seconds.
5. PREPARING THE ACTION. I next used modeling clay to fill every single hole, slot, and machined area on the stock. I tried to make it so the action was completely round and smooth. However, if in doubt, I let the clay protrude, since it would be better to have a epoxy somewhat open in any machined areas, as opposed to locking the action in place or even just occupying the machined areas somewhat.
I filled in the ?flutes? on the barrel nut with modeling clay, then wrapped two layers of masking tape around that. I also pressed modeling clay down inside the pillars and made it flush with the tops (to keep epoxy from running down into them.)
I put one layer of black electrician?s tape on the front and sides BUT NOT THE BACK OF THE RECOIL LUG. This allows room for the lug to slide in and out of the finished bed, but allows for perfect mating along the back of the lug, which is the most critical part of the action under recoil.
I chose to use Brownell?s AccraGlass Gel, since it is supposed to be a bit easier to work with than the original AccraGlass, which is a liquid consistency.
Additionally, however, given the high recoil of many of the loads that I shoot in the 10ML, I wanted a really hard and strong area for the recoil lug to contact. Therefore, I used Brownell?s atomized stainless steel to reinforce the epoxy.
I chose to bed my action because of relative inconsistency with my rifle. Sometimes, the four or five groups that I shot in an afternoon would all be .75? to 1.2?. At least as often, though, groups with the exact same components and charges would run 1.5? to 2.5?. I felt this to be related to inconsistent stock-to-action mating. In particular, if I did not twist the stock a particular way as I tightened the action screws in a particular order, then the right side of the forearm would press against the barrel. I hoped to solve these issues by bedding the action.
Here is a pic of the bed area before I started:
I?ve broken my project down into some large segments:
1. FREE FLOATING THE BARREL. From the contact/wear marks on the tops of the pillars and bottom of the action, I could tell that the action was resting on the pillars. (Altough friction marks on the wood showed contact there, too.) So, I tightened the action into the stock and noted where the most contact was occurring.
I then bought a 1? and a 15/16? dowel from the hardware store. I cut six-inch lengths of each and wrapped them with medium grit sand paper. This gave me sanding blocks the same size as the barrel itself. I removed the action from the stock and sanded the barrel channel. I then replaced and retightened the action, checked for contact, sanded some more and repeated until 5 to 7 sheets of typing paper would freely slide back all the way to the recoil lug. This required enlarging the area around the barrel nut a little bit.
I raised the grain by wiping the sanded surface with a damp paper towel and letting it dry. I resanded with fine sandpaper, raised the grain again, and resanded with extra fine sandpaper. Finally, I finished the barrel channel with three coats of oil-based polyurethane, sanded between coats. Afterward, I verified that five sheets of 20-pound paper still freely slid back to the recoil lug.
The sanded and finished barrel channel:
2. PREPARING THE STOCK. Now that the barrel channel profile was completed, I used masking tape to wrap all normally exposed wood on the stock. I was careful to bring the tape right up to the edge of the barrel and action channel without going into it.
I also used modeling clay to completely fill the recess for the trigger group. I only wanted to bed from the recoil lug back to the rear pillar. So, from the rear pillar back to the tang area, I contoured the modeling clay to match the height and shape of the wood bed between the pillars.
3. RECESSING BED AREA. I used a Dremel with a metal spherical grinding attachment to grind away about 1/16? to 1/8? of wood under the entire action. Since the pillars started off flush with the wood, I could tell how much I had ground out by how much the pillars protruded above the wood. I used lengthwise and perpendicular strokes with the Dremel to avoid unequal areas of recessing. I did NOT try to make the surface perfectly flat or smooth, since roughness will aid adhesion of the epoxy.
I used a metal cylindrical grinding attachment to grind would off the front face and sides recoil lug pocket, again about 1/16? to 1/8?. I made sure to put a dimple in the middle to allow for the protrusion in the top rear of the lug.
I put the action back in the stock and tightened it down to the pillars and rechecked the barrel for free float in case the wood I had removed had previously caused the action to lift the barrel away from the forearm. In this case, though, I still had a free-floated barrel. At this point, the ONLY point of contact between the entire stock and the entire barrel/action combo was the two pillars and action screws.
Lastly, I drilled about a dozen holes downward into the stock. Some went straight down, some toward the rear, some frontward, leftward, and some to the right. In grinding away the wood under the action, I also undercut the sides of stock a little bit so that, once hardened, the bed would be wedged downward by the upper lips of the stock.
4. REMOVING AND REPLACING THE ACCUTRIGGER. I removed the trigger group inside a Ziploc bag to make sure no springs went flying. I put it back together and took it apart several times to make sure I understood how it all fit.
If you look closely at the AccuTrigger assembly, you will notice that the pin slides in from the side that the spring is on. This makes for a difficult insertion, since it is fairly easy to get the pin almost in from the other side, use a Popsicle stick to press the spring into alignment, and slide the pin the last bit in and through the spring?but coming from the other (correct) side, the spring puts tension on the spring and makes it almost impossible to align everything else.
I solved this problem by getting a length of brass rod the same diameter as the pin. I slid it in from the ?easy? (incorrect?) direction, then ?chased? or pushed the brass rod out with the pin, thereby keeping everything in alignment while the pin slid into place. A job for an octopus became a simple operation taking only a few seconds.
5. PREPARING THE ACTION. I next used modeling clay to fill every single hole, slot, and machined area on the stock. I tried to make it so the action was completely round and smooth. However, if in doubt, I let the clay protrude, since it would be better to have a epoxy somewhat open in any machined areas, as opposed to locking the action in place or even just occupying the machined areas somewhat.
I filled in the ?flutes? on the barrel nut with modeling clay, then wrapped two layers of masking tape around that. I also pressed modeling clay down inside the pillars and made it flush with the tops (to keep epoxy from running down into them.)
I put one layer of black electrician?s tape on the front and sides BUT NOT THE BACK OF THE RECOIL LUG. This allows room for the lug to slide in and out of the finished bed, but allows for perfect mating along the back of the lug, which is the most critical part of the action under recoil.
