TomG
posted this
10 December 2011
James,
Glad to hear that that worked for you. Actions aren't as stiff as some people think they are and screws have much more strength than most poeple give them credit for.
Whenever a bolt binds at both ends, that's a clue that the action may be bent. If a poor bedding area in the stock is causing the action to warp, the gun will never shoot up to it's potential till it's bedded stress free in the stock.
Sounds like you need to bed the action in the stock as the stock is probably not straight were the action sets. You can get a very good bedding situation by doing the following that will bed the action in a crooked stock stress free.
Coat the action with a good wax like car wax so the bedding won't stick to it. Put modelling clay in all the holes and crevices in the action. Plug up the trigger cut out in the stock with modelling clay. Degrease the stock bedding area with Methle Ethel Ketone (MEK) e fast drying de greaser solvent will leave no residue. Coat the false stock screw thread and bodies with wax so they will release. Put the bedding compound in the stock with plenty of it so it ooozes out when you tighten down the action. Use a bedding compound that is thin enough to oooze out under pressure from the stock clamps. I use false stock screws with no heads to align the stock and action. Use C clamps or something similar to clamp the action in the stock. Don't use the guard screws for this. Wrap tape around the barrel up in the forend to keep it in the center of the stock barrel channel when you do the bedding. Make sure the action is aligned vertically so the trigger will be in the center of the trigger guard cut out. Check this and then remover the trigger assy. for the final bedding.
Bed all of the action, not just the front and back. Get all the contact between the stock and action that you can get. Bed all of the recoil lug but relieve the area under it so that the bottom doesn't bottom out in the stock. You want to be able to pull the action down evenly and not have it teeter totter on the recoil lug.
The secret to getting a stress free bedding job is to clamp the action nice and tight till the ooozing stops and then release the pressure on the action and stock to just enough pressure to hold it in the stock while the epoxy hardens. If you leave it in the stock with a lot of pressure, the action will be bent and the epoxy will harden so that every time you tighten the guard screws it will bend the action again and put it under stress. If that happens, you haven't fixed a thing.
After several hours, check the excess epoxy in your mixing cup and when is is hard enough to break if you bend it, pull the action out and clean everything up. You can pound on the false guard screws to get it to release. When you re install the original guard screws again, count the number of turns to bottom out the screws in the blind holes and then shorten them to come tight at one turn less than bottoming out when they are installed with the stock.
When I bedded target or hunting rifles for my customers I almost always installed . .625” dia. ( 5/8 inch diameter for us Yankee's) aluminum pillars in the stock. That way, the stock screws were compressing alum. pilars instead of the stock material. When you do it properly, stock screw tension is not important as long as the action is tight in the stock. After the bedding is done, drill out the through holes in the pillars so that the stock screws do not touch the pillars but just the floor plate and the bottom of the action. Stock screws are not there to align the action or to take up recoil forces. They are simply there to pull the action down into the stock. You never want the stock screws to take any recoil. It should be the recoil lug the takes all the backward thrust. You can bed the first couple of inches of the barrel in front of the action but, I believe that it's best not to if the barrel isn't too heavy. The reason is that the reinforce area of the barrel around the chamber will heat up and expand and can unseat the action slightly. There's a lot of theories and hog wash old wives tales going around about bedding actions. Some only bed the back side of the recoil lug. There is no plausable reason not to bed the front and sides of the recoil lug and get the most support that is available. Bedding the sides will take up the torque forces present when the gun fires and keep the action from rotating in the stock.
The whole trick is to not bend/sress the action when the epoxy hardens. Most folks don't have a clue what is going on and bend the crap out of the action when the bed it and then wonder why it won't shoot as well as a stock bedded by a real accuracy gunsmith.
This gun sounds like a perfect candidate for a bedding job. Let us know if you do it and how it comes out.
Tom Gray
