Glass bed, pillar bed or both?

[Tommie]

PD gun build is in process. Expecting the stock to arrive some time this century The wood is exhibition claro walnut (decided on pretty instead of maximum utility on this one). So as the title states: pillar, glass or both?

 

[Peebles24]

Both

 

[Mark M.]

Good question, some say pillars, some glass is obsolete, I guess it depends on who you talk to and what they're selling, I just had a gun put together by Bullberry Barrelworks in Utah, and they did both to mine pillar and glass, rock solid, pillers for the screws, glass for the receiver and the barrel channel, Free floated of course, Fantastic job

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Ive never seen anybody pillar bed a stock without bedding as well. You want your action to have full contact- not sitting on 2 points.

 

[Someoldguy]

I know Savage model 12s used to come with laminated stocks and only pillars. I coukd never get one to shoot the way other people said they could, either.

Go figure.

 

[bobinpa]

I do both, every time. My logic is I feel glass alone can still move if/when the stock moves. And if you are doing pillars, why not do glass too?

 

[NorCalMikie]

Add a V Block. That covers all your bases.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Add a V Block. That covers all your bases.

Except wanting your action to have full contact.

 

[msinc]

Except wanting your action to have full contact.

Yeah, I believe in having full contact. Back when H.S. Precision first came out with their version of an aluminum bedding block it was played up as the end of having to glass bed actions to stocks. Seemed like a good idea that should work, slap in the action tighten it down and go shoot impressive groups. But, it didn't work that way for me and it must not have for a lot of others because we all ended up glass bedding the whole mess.
I've seen guys bed the lug area and the tang and call it a day and they get away with it, but I never was able to. Tear it all down, clay it all up and glass it all.
As to the OP...I would do the pillars and glass. Pillars are supposed to support the stock material between the action and floor plate and stop it from crushing the wood {or stock whatever it is}. This is always a good idea with Claro as it is one of the softer of walnuts for stockmaking.

 

[DickE]

Use Devcon or MarineTex. MarineTex is preferred.

 

[s100whunter]

I use pillars but don't touch the action with them I want bedding only touching the action,all epoxy shrinks ,a tightly bedded action after 1 year is not so tight anymore,hence action is not setting on two points the pillars don't shrink with the apoxy

 

[natdscott]

Except wanting your action to have full contact.

Yessiree.

 

[shoot4fun]

Both.
Any bedding compound will shrink. Some of the best bedded actions I had were where custom made pillars were installed and then devcon bedded with the action wrapped in a very thin piece of metal. That 'smith said the bedding is "for looks" and the pillars should do the work.

 

[JFrank]

I’m a big fan of bedding and pillars but I gotta say that I have a rifle that is only pillared , not sure what the deal is but it shoots better than you could imagine for a non custom.
I don’t think I wanna mess up a good thing.
J

 

[tomswede]

Have done both. Pillars are a pain in the butt and have not seen any advantage. My engineering mind can’t accept the pillar concept completely if not bedding a foam filled stock ( what good is two hard spots supposed to do?).
But I shoot high power and sling prone so maybe I missed something. Personally I will never pillar a stock again but always bed.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Have done both. Pillars are a pain in the butt and have not seen any advantage. My engineering mind can’t accept the pillar concept completely if not bedding a foam filled stock ( what good is two hard spots supposed to do?).
But I shoot high power and sling prone so maybe I missed something. Personally I will never pillar a stock again but always bed.

Pillars keep the stock from compressing under screw tension and changing tension with the weather

 

[tomswede]

Pillars keep the stock from compressing under screw tension and changing tension with the weather

That is the theory. With reasonably stable wood the compression is very slow and can easily be handled by tightening the screws a bit. The weather affects pillars too, they tend to be aluminum with a lot higher thermal expansion than steel.
Maybe they work as advertised, but I’m curious if the benefits have been observed in wood stocked rifles using good solid wood.
Another issue with pillars are that they tend to leave very little wood at the aft tang screw forward towards the trigger cut, if a magazine fed rifle the same happens at the forward action screw.
For me not worth the painful installation.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Most pillars i install are half exposed- especially in the back. The thermal expansion of a 1/2”dia pillar 2” long is way less than a stock swelling. We can always agree to disagree but id say 99% of all screwed in competition rifles have pillars. Could be a waste of time but its peace of mind for sure and that means a lot

 

[perry42]

I did both to a Mauser action, bedded with JB WELD. 6.5x55AI 1.25"x32"barrel. Boyd's s thumbhole stock very accurate at Mexia at 600yds. Smoked 4" clays from 200 > 600 yds.

perry42

 

[AndyTaber]

I am less concerned with thermal expansion on the need to use pillars as I am with humidity. I like the look of a wood stock and living in The Great Lakes area, humidity swings can be extreme. Pillars solve that problem.
Several comments were made about just tightening the action screws if things loosen up a little by not using pillars. If your action screws are at the maximum length already, you can introduce another variable that is hard to diagnose when you extend them into the bolt channel.