Wish me luck - Bedding a stock

[ShawnT]

It's officially glued together for the next 24 hours. And I'm real nervous. I used lots of release agent but it sure seems like a disaster waiting to happen. That's a normal feeling, right?

Yea. It's your first so that is normal. Just be patient. Don't be too surprised when you take out the mounting screw and it don't just fall out. You will still need the clean up (clay, tape etc) but it should not be too difficult. If it is, Still Just go slow and I bet it will come out ok. might just put the mounting screw back in and run it down so it is still above the stock and give it a wrap with a mallet. Most times I just grab the end of the barrel in one hand the forend in the other and move it up and down and it will walk out of the stock. do the clean up and then test the fit. I was scared to death the first one too and was all I could do to wait. :lol: It ended up great. I have done several since and even re-done some a couple times.

 

[SuperKirby]

Thanks. Seems doable. It's been about 24 hours. Going to go try to pull it out. I'll post back in about an hour.

 

[SuperKirby]

Good news and maybe bad news.

Stock and barrel separated without any problems. Nothing got stuck or locked up or any of those horror stories and everything inside it was tight.
Bad news- started cleaning it up and got the trigger area cleaned up. Went to set it in there with the trigger reinstalled and I didn't snug it down into the stock far enough so it sis up higher that I think it should. Is this a problem? Is it going to put the barrel at a downward angle making it hard to sight in? Here's some pictures.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tpcollins]

Bummer - I would think not just the trigger area but the entire section of bedding is on the same taper as well. Not sure how much it's off but hogging it down some the entire length with a Dremyl and rebedding with a thin layer might be an option. Good luck.

 

[wolfer]

When setting up for bedding I give the action wraps of vinyl tape to approximate the volume of bedding, then give the barrel however much wraps of tape to assure correct angle and free floating, don't forget to remove the tape from the action when doing the bedding job. Also just use tightly rolled paper in place of action screws and I just drill the paper out. Tape and putty around trigger group. Breech plug in barrel when bedding. If get anything stuck can just load up and shoot a round off and that will loosen the action from the bedding grip without fail.

Dremel out some of the bedding giving a bad angle and tape/shim the barrel to give a good float/angle and bed again. A thin layer should be all you need. Epoxy sticks to epoxy real good but be sure to get the release off the bedding when you do the new job. W

 

[4gun-drill]

If get anything stuck can just load up and shoot a round off and that will loosen the action from the bedding grip without fail.

This is terrible advise, and dangerous! Don't shoot a stuck action loose from bedding.

If your current bedding job won't work for you, just route it out and start over. Don't feel defeated, it takes practice.

 

[ShawnT]

If it is at too much of an angle and your not happy with it, then, like mentioned above just take a dremel and remove enough so you can either re-bed it or Skim bed it. I do sometimes wrap tape around the barrel to set float gap but usually only on heavy weight barrels like varmint rifle barrels. Usually I just look at the lettering and action opening when snugging it down into the bedding but I have also put a line on the action with a fine tip marker or pencil, something that can be washed off by something later. Either way is is not anything to loose sleep over since you can always remove it and re-bed.

 

[SuperKirby]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not upset about it. Honestly overall I think it turned out better than I thought it would. Frankly I was able to separate the action from the stock and that was my biggest concern. I feel dumb for making such an obvious mistake but in the scheme of things it's pretty repairable.
I may or may not shoot it as is. I'm leaning towards waiting until I'm done cutting hay and just plan to dremel it out and redo. It very well may be just fine but I think it would bug me from an aesthetic standpoint.
Like I said, overall I'm actually happy with the finished product and will consider this great practice and next time I'll have a better idea of what I'm doing.

 

[ShawnT]

The first pics it does look good. So you got that monkey off your shoulder. :wink: So next time out you will know more about the little things to watch. So that was a practice run. :wink: :lol:
As long as nothing is in a bind it would probably shoot just fine. I am a bit, well lot , like that myself if it don't end up like I really want it to be, bugs the crap out of me. Last stock I refinished was a shotgun for my cousin. I stripped it down 4 times as I was not happy with it each of the first 3 times I applied finish. He might have liked it first try but I would not.

 

[BuckDoeHunter]

If get anything stuck can just load up and shoot a round off and that will loosen the action from the bedding grip without fail.

This is terrible advise, and dangerous! Don't shoot a stuck action loose from bedding.

If your current bedding job won't work for you, just route it out and start over. Don't feel defeated, it takes practice.

With no action screws installed, I can see where it may be dangerous, but with the action screws installed and not torqued down too tight, I've read where it works quite well.


Your bedding job looks great in the photos. I think I can see what you are referring to with a slight cant in the action, but do you think you should shoot it first and see how it does?

 

[SuperKirby]

Your bedding job looks great in the photos. I think I can see what you are referring to with a slight cant in the action, but do you think you should shoot it first and see how it does?

Im very pleased with how the bedding job itself looks in the photos. The fact that it's not sitting down in the stock the way it should bothers me though. Half of the reason I ground out all the bedding that was in the stock when I got it was that it wasn't sitting down in there like it should. If I really just can't find the time I'll try shooting it before I start trying to redo it but ultimately I know it's not right and that won't sit right with me.