First Glassbed Project

[TXGunNut]

I have a couple of bolt guns that seem to indicate the need for a glass bedding job. I've been putting it off for months but I finally had a rainy afternoon to kill and was feeling pretty confident. Braved the NASCAR traffic and picked up a Miles Gilbert kit from Cabelas. So far, so good. First victim is Ol' Ugly, my trusty old 670 recently rebored to 35 Whelen and installed in a Boyd's walnut gunstock. She was quite a shooter in the old days but she also was bedded in her old stock. Hopefully she'll settle down again after she gets bedded into her new stock. After reading the instructions I realized the inletting around the recoil lug was mostly done already, all I did was a little relieving around the front screw. I applied the duct tape, release agent and modeling clay as directed. Mixing the epoxy was a bit messy and I forgot to mask off the exterior of the stock but got it done before I made too much of a mess. I opted not to bed the tang screw at this time.
Got my fingers crossed, should be interesting when I (hopefully) pull it out tomorrow night.
If all went well on Ol' Ugly I have a newer Super Grade M70 that has a bead of hot glue (seriously!) for recoil lug bedding. It shoots fairly well but I think it would benefit from a real bedding job.

[Love Life]

My ninja rifle has the same FN hot glue bedding. It shoots so well I haven't touched it. Hopefully your rifle comes out perfect (literally).

[DougGuy]

I did a 70s era M77 in .308 with the Steel Bed kit, and it turned out fabulous.. I used an old x-acto knife handle, 1/2" diameter aluminum, drilled it through for the tang and action screws, and put grooves around them on the outside for the epoxy to fill in.

For the area in the bottom of the stock where the recoil lug butts against the wood, I honeycombed this area with a 3/16" spur bit and when I put the bedding in, I pushed it into all them holes and filled them up.

This M77 had one of those stocks that had the "bead" of wood left at the end of the inlet to push upward on the barrel, so before I decided on free floating or not, I removed this wood and took it to the range where groups more than doubled. I thought well, uh oh, better not free float it.

In order to have upward pressure on the barrel, I inletted the whole stock all the way from the tang to the fore end but I tied a 100rd box of .45 Colt ammo to the front sling swivel. This would serve to pull down on the fore end of the stock. I applied the bedding and assembled the action into the stock, set the butt on a table and suspended the muzzle from an overhead garage door with clothesline cord. then I tightened the two screws and wiped off the excess bedding.

After it set up I took the box of ammo off and it now has constant upward pressure the entire length of the stock and it has maintained that pressure for over 20yrs.

Shooting my own loads with fireformed brass and boolits set about .020" - .030" from the rifling, 41.5gr of H4895 routinely puts three shots into a group I can cover with a guitar pick @200yds.

You should have fun with those!

[TXGunNut]

My ninja rifle has the same FN hot glue bedding. It shoots so well I haven't touched it. Hopefully your rifle comes out perfect (literally).

Mine shoots fairly well but I suspect it would be a lttle less picky with a proper bedding job. Congrats on the 10,000th post and thanks for the encouragement.

[TXGunNut]

DougGuy, my "bad weather gun" is a SS/Syn 77 in 30-06. I prefer a free-floated bbl but figured out this rifle needed to be left alone. The synthetic stock had very inconsistent contact and significant forend pressure but all it really needed was a Timney trigger and a well-fouled bore to shoot 1.25-1.5" groups.

[TXGunNut]

It wasn't perfect, Love Life, but it was pretty darn close. Been worried about getting it out all day and rushed in after work to start trying to free the action from the stock. First few tugs it didn't budge, not even a little. Got a little more worried. Then I turned it over and took out the action screws.
Should have checked the instructions, that was one of the first steps.
Bedding was exactly where I wanted it with just a narrow overflow bead at the breech end of the chamber. Cleanup was no big deal, wood chip made it's way into the lug rail and bound things up a bit but all in all a successful project.
Can't wait to see how Ol' Ugly shoots now.

[johnson1942]

i dont know if this is revelant or not as it isnt about modern rifles. i have built quite a few custom muzzle loading rifles and i have bedded the barrel channels of all of them. i use paper coated on both sides in layers with gorrilla glue in the barrel channel. the last paper on the layers has no glue on the top of it. i then put plastic wrap over the paper and clamp the barrel in real tight. gorrilla glue expands and forms the paper to the barrel perfectly. 2 days latter the barrel comes out very easy because of the plastic wrap. i trim the excess and sand the edges. i then hit it with a very light coat of spray car touch up paint. if the would is dry and oil free it will stay their just as good as glass and has never failed even after years of consistant use. again i dont know if this is revelant to this post, but it is the method i use for my muzzleloaders. also my stocks take a lot of shock. one is a .50 cal that shoots a 680 grain bullet with 100 grains of real black behind it. the stock has never varried nor the bedding.