Pillars and Bedding in walnut

[Adam in WI]

Is hiring a good smith to put pillars and a proper bedding job into a walnut stock worthwhile? I have a recent production Model 70 Super Grade that I would like to have a proper bedding job done on. It shoots well enough as-is (moa or sightly under at 250), but it has the factory hot glue bedding and the barrel is visibly biased towards the left side of the channel. It clears a piece of printer paper full length though. I feel like the rifle is leaving something on the table. I'd rather not ever be to the point that I think I need to replace the stock with a high end fiberglass, I like having something nice to look at when there's no deer to look at...

 

[Twdmar]

You don't want to attempt it yourself? It's really not hard. I would pillar bed it if it were me. Lots of people here would help you.

 

[Adam in WI]

I'd love to. I know pre made pillars are available. If a pro can do it reasonably, I might opt that route. I can barely steal an hour to go shoot or try a couple of loads out these days. Hard to stay sharp for sure

 

[Will Henry]

In wood stocks, I prefer to cast fiberglass pillars. Easily done and just as effective. WH

 

[Adam in WI]

In wood stocks, I prefer to cast fiberglass pillars. Easily done and just as effective. WH

Could you elaborate? I've not heard of the process.

 

[Will Henry]

Drill a hole, 5/8 inch diameter, through the stock; top to bottom. Hold the screws in place with masking tape and put the bedding compound around them. Make sure to put release agent on those screws and on the bottom metal! Set the barreled action in place, snug up the screws, and let the epoxy set up. Remove the screws and the barreled action and bottom metal. Drill out the screw holes to 17/64. Now prepare the stock for bedding by removing the wood you wish to replace with glass and rough up the top of your pillars. Now glass bed as usual.
This is a fairly simplified explanation but covers the high points. If one wants larger diameter pillars, he can drill larger holes most of the way down then just finish the hole at whatever size can be covered by the bottom metal. If the stock is a single shot or has a blind mag, just drill down to the escutcheon. WH

 

[Twdmar]

I'd love to. I know pre made pillars are available. If a pro can do it reasonably, I might opt that route. I can barely steal an hour to go shoot or try a couple of loads out these days. Hard to stay sharp for sure

I get ya. Yeah, I would do it if you can find a Smith who will do it for what you consider is reasonable.

 

[AlNyhus]

Just finished up a Model 70 factory walnut stock for a 9.3X62 project a few weeks ago. Used .625" O.D. aluminum pillars front and back with .312" inside diameters. In the back, A relief was milled on the front of the rear pillar to clear the rear ledge of the receiver (arrow in pic shows the ledge). This ledge and not having adequate clearance around the action screws is where most get into trouble doing Model 70 pillars and bedding.

This is the rear pillar hole after being milled for the pillar. After this step, two deep grooves were cut around the pillar hole in the stock. The pillar hole is coated with epoxy along with the pillar when it goes in. This locks it in place permanently.

This was kind of an odd Model 70 stock as it was an ADL style like on the 670's...which is wasn't. The front escutcheon was this small diameter thing with a washer under it to space it correctly to the stock level. The stock already had a small crack starting behind the escutcheon as it was pounding on the stock due to no clearance between the action screw and the I.D. of the escutcheon....the escutcheon was effectively acting as a recoil lug.

Since the aim was for it to look as 'factory' as possible, I used a Remington 700 escutcheon which is .625" outside diameter. The hole was milled to the correct depth for the 700 escutcheon to fit flush, then it was epoxied in. This gave it a solid ledge to locate on. After it set up, I came down from the top with the end mill and opened the hole for the pillar, stopping when it was against the escutcheon. While this seems a little backwards, it actually worked out better as it let me correct the action screw spacing in the stock, which was off by about .020....which had contributed to the original escutcheon hammering against the stock. Using the larger 700 escutcheon also cleaned up the cracked area behind the original.

Good shootin' -Al

 

[Adam in WI]

Al, is there a reasoning behind the large pillar I.D? Sounds like a pretty thin pillar.

 

[Will Henry]

I was assuming that was a typo. WH

 

[farmerjohn]

Is hiring a good smith to put pillars and a proper bedding job into a walnut stock worthwhile? I have a recent production Model 70 Super Grade that I would like to have a proper bedding job done on. It shoots well enough as-is (moa or sightly under at 250), but it has the factory hot glue bedding and the barrel is visibly biased towards the left side of the channel. It clears a piece of printer paper full length though. I feel like the rifle is leaving something on the table. I'd rather not ever be to the point that I think I need to replace the stock with a high end fiberglass, I like having something nice to look at when there's no deer to look at...

YES!!! IMHO. John

 

[AlNyhus]

Ooops...typo on my end. Pillar I.D. is .312". I've corrected it in my original response. -Al