Removing old bedding?

[kyotekiller25]

I sold my MPA chassy and bought a Manners PRS1 stock for my 6 BRA from a guy and it was bedded to his action. His action was a 700 SA clone, Impact I believe. Mine is a kelbly Atlas with a trigger hanger. When I received the stock it would not drop in. The rear trigger hanger was hitting the tang area and the top of the rear mag box. I took it to my gunsmith and had him mill out those spots, but after we did all that, come to find out the action screw holes wouldn't line up properly, so then we had to drill out those a tiny bit. Then the front action screw wasn't long enough to get to the threads due to the extra material of the AREA 419 ARCA rail, so we cut out some of the material from the hole on the rail. After all that modifying and 3 hours later, we got the kelbly to finally sit in the stock and get torqued down.

With that said, I still have 2 issues. For one, when we torque the action screws down, the front screw is slowly coming loose. It's like there's too much pressure from the bedding pulling the stock, or something like that. I'm not a gunsmith so I'm not sure how to explain it. All I know is I'll torque it down to 65# and within a few minutes, it will come loose and needs another 1/8-1/4 turn to get torqued back down to 65#. Gunsmith says hopefully over time it will "settle in" and won't need retightened, but in the meantime he said I'll have to keep an eye on it and retorque after each shooting session. That doesn't sound good or right, and it's a pain in the butt. I feel like with that much pressure it will effect accuracy? Secondly, the barrel favors the right side of the barrel channel, so it's obviously still not sitting straight in the stock either.

What are my options here? Gunsmith said the last remedy would be to tear out all the bedding and rebed it to my action. Which he doesn't want to do, because he said it's both costly and timely. My thing is, I've now got $1350 into this Manners stock with the origonal price of the stock, and giving him $150 yesterday to even get it into my action, and it's just not sitting well with me that it's still not 100% "right" I'm worried about the front screw continuously coming loose and with the pressure, it's going to effect the accuracy. Plus I shouldn't have to retorque the screw every 5 minutes or before and after each range session. I'm almost positive it will start coming loose with each shot anyway, so it won't be consistent.

Is there anyone you guys would recomend I could send the whole rifle to and have the old bedding tore out and then rebedded and put back together 100% the right way?

 

[AlNyhus]

Band aiding existing bedding will guarantee poor results, as you've seen.

Please....get it to someone that knows what they're doing regarding bedding. They'll remove the old bedding and start fresh. It's not a $100 job but the results will be worth it.

Good shootin' -Al

 

[kyotekiller25]

Any recommendations on a good smith for bedding?

 

[Boilermaker]

Tom Meredith in Fort Wayne, IN is who I would send it to. His work is second to none.

 

[kyotekiller25]

Tom Meredith in Fort Wayne, IN is who I would send it to. His work is second to none.

Thank you. I left him a message.

 

[pavementends]

Are you sure the action screw is coming loose? More likely the bedding is compressing. Easy way to see is draw a line across the top of the action screw when it is tight and see if the screw has turned when it becomes loose. My granddad always said modify the cheapest part first.

 

[Clancy]

Any recommendations on a good smith for bedding?

Jon Beanland

He will mill it out and redo it.

If he’s too busy call Johnny at Crimson Accuracy in Cresson, TX. Johnny was Stick’s apprentice.

 

[kyotekiller25]

Are you sure the action screw is coming loose? More likely the bedding is compressing. Easy way to see is draw a line across the top of the action screw when it is tight and see if the screw has turned when it becomes loose. My granddad always said modify the cheapest part first.

Yes, I believe the screw is working loose because it is compressing the bedding somewhere along the lines anyway.

I know it's coming loose because my wheeler torque wrench makes a click noise when it's torqued to spec, and I can see/feel the hex bit turning 1/8-1/4 turn before it clicks tight again. I've been doing this every hour since yesterday afternoon...Haven't even shot it yet because I'm so irritated and feel it's going to be a waste of my time loading and ammo.

Lesson definitely learned. Do not buy a stock that's already been pre bedded. Even though it's a 700 SA, all 700 SA clones are obviously not the same. A few thousand difference here and there starts to add up real quick and then you're left with what I'm dealing with. $1300+ into a stock that's still not even right...And lord knows how much more to get it fixed the right way.

Definitely frustrated and beyond irritated at this point to say the least.

 

[kyotekiller25]

Jon Beanland

He will mill it out and redo it.

If he’s too busy call Johnny at Crimson Accuracy in Cresson, TX. Johnny was Stick’s apprentice.

Thank you. I'll reach out to them as well.

 

[Clancy]

Beanland
Crimson

 

[kyotekiller25]

Looks amazing!

I'm too embarrassed to even post a picture of what mine looks like. Granted I, nor anyone I know did it, but it still looks like a complete hack job in my opinion...Guy said it fit his Impact and CA "perfect" I seriously wonder about that...

 

[Boilermaker]

Looks amazing!

I'm too embarrassed to even post a picture of what mine looks like. Granted I, nor anyone I know did it, but it still looks like a complete hack job in my opinion...Guy said it fit his Impact and CA "perfect" I seriously wonder about that...

I think some people have a different definition of “perfect fit” than you or I would. Tom Meredith’s work and the pictures shared above of Jon Beanland’s work is what I want in the inletting and bedding.

Speaking of that, I have a rifle I bought used that needs to go visit Tom

 

[kyotekiller25]

Most definitely. I have really bad OCD so I notice every little thing. It's both a blessing and a curse haha.

 

[ShtrRdy]

Yes, I believe the screw is working loose because it is compressing the bedding somewhere along the lines anyway.

I know it's coming loose because my wheeler torque wrench makes a click noise when it's torqued to spec, and I can see/feel the hex bit turning 1/8-1/4 turn before it clicks tight again. I've been doing this every hour since yesterday afternoon...Haven't even shot it yet because I'm so irritated and feel it's going to be a waste of my time loading and ammo.

Lesson definitely learned. Do not buy a stock that's already been pre bedded. Even though it's a 700 SA, all 700 SA clones are obviously not the same. A few thousand difference here and there starts to add up real quick and then you're left with what I'm dealing with. $1300+ into a stock that's still not even right...And lord knows how much more to get it fixed the right way.

Definitely frustrated and beyond irritated at this point to say the least.

Please reconsider what @pavementends wrote. I once had a bedding job do what he is suggesting. It will be a simple test to see if the screw is backing out by itself or if the bedding is soft.

 

[Judd]

I’ll start by saying it’s easy to critique guys work over the internet, where we are all experts, without the stock in hand.

It almost sounds like you needed a new set of action screws too. I’ve had all 3 of those fellas work in my hand and all three of them can fix it. If they want to and can agree to a time line you’re happy with. Most guys don’t want to fix stuff like this…because it’s time consuming, you never know what you’re really getting into and it’s hard to charge the customer enough to make it worth your time.

At minimum, the bedding needs milled out and rebedded. Good luck, you did learn a lesson…

 

[jackieschmidt]

Band aiding existing bedding will guarantee poor results, as you've seen.

Please....get it to someone that knows what they're doing regarding bedding. They'll remove the old bedding and start fresh. It's not a $100 job but the results will be worth it.

Good shootin' -Al

^^^^^^^^

 

[Clancy]

Anybody that ever played with an etch a sketch can remove the bedding and drill out the pillars. It’s just not difficult and won’t cost much. Fixing an ejection port or bolt release cut out is no big deal either, but will likely add to the cost. I just fixed a Manners stock that had been in an off-road accident for a bottle of Weller. It’s really easy to hide boo boos on a tactical stock. Not so much on a wet sanded PPC.

Don’t overthink this. Send it off and get it redone. I can tell you of the ones mentioned that Crimson will be the fastest and very likely the cheapest. That’s not a reflection on the quality of his work.

I don’t know what bottom metal you’re using, but I’d see if they’ll give you the pillar heights and pass that info along.

 

[kyotekiller25]

I’ll start by saying it’s easy to critique guys work over the internet, where we are all experts, without the stock in hand.

It almost sounds like you needed a new set of action screws too. I’ve had all 3 of those fellas work in my hand and all three of them can fix it. If they want to and can agree to a time line you’re happy with. Most guys don’t want to fix stuff like this…because it’s time consuming, you never know what you’re really getting into and it’s hard to charge the customer enough to make it worth your time.

At minimum, the bedding needs milled out and rebedded. Good luck, you did learn a lesson…

He provided the same action screws with the stock that he was using on his action. So all was good there I thought, until I got it in my action. The front screw was only catching like 2 threads, and then we had to shave off a little on the rear screw because the little piece of metal that sticks out underneath the rear of the bolt shroud was catching on the rear screw when you worked the bolt. Just problem after problem...

I don't care what it cost to get fixed at this point because what other choice do I have? What good is a $1300 stock doing me that is unusable at this point? This is my only full custom build so it needs to be right to be able to shoot to its full potential.

 

[kyotekiller25]

Anybody that ever played with an etch a sketch can remove the bedding and drill out the pillars. It’s just not difficult and won’t cost much. Fixing an ejection port or bolt release cut out is no big deal either, but will likely add to the cost. I just fixed a Manners stock that had been in an off-road accident for a bottle of Weller. It’s really easy to hide boo boos on a tactical stock. Not so much on a wet sanded PPC.

Don’t overthink this. Send it off and get it redone. I can tell you of the ones mentioned that Crimson will be the fastest and very likely the cheapest. That’s not a reflection on the quality of his work.

I don’t know what bottom metal you’re using, but I’d see if they’ll give you the pillar heights and pass that info along.

The bottom metal is the PTG Oberndorf flush mount M5 that came with the stock that he was using. Guy sent me a video of it in his action, and everything looked good from that aspect. I had no idea it was going to turn out like this for me in my action, otherwise I never would've bought it. I would have just bought a new one.

 

[kyotekiller25]

The barrel sitting on the right side of the channel.