You can lift the action to where it needs to be and do what i call a locator bed where i put a dab at a few spots to orient the action and check it all out or get it painted or whatever. And having a huge barrel channel isnt always a bad thing
You never want the action to be in hard contact with the pillars, anyway. Regardless of the compound used, avoid having a 'skim' of bedding over pillar tops. Ditto for any sort of bedding block.
Despite what mfgs. technical sheets say, all two part epoxies exhibit shrinkage. If you dig a bit deeper into how the mfgs calculate their shrinkage numbers, you can see why the shrinkage number alone may or may not have much meaning when it comes to bedding rifles.You never want the action to be in hard contact with the pillars, anyway. Regardless of the compound used, avoid having a 'skim' of bedding over pillar tops. Ditto for any sort of bedding block.
.050 is my normal and I'll go thicker. If anything, it's actually a bit better for stability and longevity. There's a second part to 'over bedding' pillars that most don't consider when just putting compound over the pillar tops. Whenever possible, I reduce the pillar top O.D. and extend that reduced O.D. down .250 or so. The compound flows into the space around the pillar top and locks on to the pillar. This gives the compound above the pillar more stability. On a normal .625 dia. pillar, the top diameter is .500. On a .750 pillar, the top diameter is .625.
The bedding compound used matters more than a little.
Good shootin' -Al
Looking good my friend!
Jim I'm working on a stock that has tungsten rod's inserted into butt.
Speedy had a test done that the bulletin talks about. Marine-Tex shrimp .1% while all the others shrunk 3-6%, so it seems like the best choice. Like most here I have used a half dozen bedding compounds over the years, but I have never bedded over the pillars.
I like the idea of the reduced diameter at the top of the pillar.
I agree. Any of the common expoxies work fine. When I bed a square action it has to be worked out of the stock carefully. If the Devcon shrunk less you wouldnt be able to get it out. Actually stopped using marine tex because it would shrink and suck down below the stock line. Not every batch but I had to redo enough I went back to devcon and have never had that issue. And I HATE cutting devcon.
Looks good, I would like the thoughts on the bedding in front of the lug, I see that some do and others do not add this support under the barrel.This one is just out of the bedding....still need to do the final clean up, a bit of mill work, chamfer the action screw holes, etc.
When I got it initially, it showed .012-.015 of barrel movement when the front action screw was cracked loose. Everything looked pretty good, so on went the Sherlock Holmes hat. The culprit ended up being the bottom of the recoil lug not being flat. After I milled that flat, the inletting got lowered so a consistent thickness of bedding was under the entire action and over the pillars.
For what it's worth.... -Al
Stainless butt plate and rudder will help too.
Other than extremely light barrelled rifles, I don't do any bedding under the barrel shank.
