Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Bedding a J.C Higgins model 50 FN Mauser

Can any give any insite into the best way to bed JC.Higgins FN Mauser for accuracy I just got a hold of one that has really nice wood and a new custom stainless barrel in about a number 2 counter by a barrel maker here in Canada. Its in 7x57 and my poject and would like to bed this a best a possible.

IME with any Mauser the following has always worked:
1. Glass bed the action in front of the magazine, make sure only the rear of the recoil lug touches the glass. The front, bottom and sides must be free.
2. Glass bed the barrel for 1" in front of the action.
3. Put a dot of glass where the rear tang meets the stock.
4. Make sure the sides of the action are evenly bedded in the wood
5. Ditto the floorplate.
6. Free float the rest of the barrel.
7. Torque the front screw to 40 in lbs, the rear only enough to be snug (otherwise you can bend the action)
None of this is original, the method was invented by Col. Townsend Whelen in the early 60s.
The glass bedding supplies and other bedding materials are available from Brownells 800-741-0015.

This link is quite good too:
http://www.varminthunters.com/tech/bedding.html

The most important thing is not to economize on the use of release agent!

Congrats on getting a classic FN and don't let anyone tell you that because it came from Sears it is no good!

Amazing coincidence, but I did one Thursday and took it out of the stock yesterday. I am not an expert, but BossLady's advice seems spot on. As you probably realize, the front screw goes into a lug on the floorplate that locks things up and acts as a pillar. There is also a pillar on the rear tang screw (unless it has been lost). I was a bit concerned about gluing the front of the action to the matching part of the floorplate. I used a lot of release agent and everything came out fine.

Good luck,

Al

You have to give the rear tang clearance @ the sides and back, where it is inletted into the stock. Not much, but @ least .005". If you don't, The tang can dead head agaist the stock and it can split from recoil.

You have to be careful NOT to raise the action higher in the stock than it came from the factory. Model 50s use a two piece trigger, with the sear in the action and the trigger in the trigger guard. It is vital that the distance between the action and trigger guard not change.

Bed the REAR of the recoil lug. Mask off the sides, front and bottom of the lug with tape,

Thank-You very much that is grerat advice. I am to try and shoot it first without the bedding and see how she does. I might evern replace the trigger with an aftermarket ? Can anyone recommend which might be the best and easiest to deal with Timney, Boyds, Dayton ?

Definitely try it out first-they have a reputation for excellent accuracy out of the box.

Right on! I have owned several of these over the years in 270 and 30-06. They all shot so well I never bedded one of them.

Ted

I just completed bedding and refinishing my mod 50 and here's how I handled the two piece trigger. I assembled the floorplate and action, sans stock, tightened them up, and measured the distance between the head of the rear screw and the top of the rear tang centered on the end of the rear screw. I measured the trigger pull weight at this point. then I backed the screw out a few thousandths at a time, watching the trigger sear interface and measuring the trigger pull, until I reached a point where the trigger pull was deemed too light to be safe and the trigger/sear contact too minimal. Then I started screwing the action back together until I reached a point where the trigger pull was an even three lbs and the trigger/sear interface was deemed safe, IMO. Then I proceeded to carefully stone the trigger/sear contact surfaces. This measurement was annotated and is what I used when bedding. The difference between full on action screws as tight as they would go and backed off until unsafe was .100". My happy medium point was .040" less, or just slightly less than 1/2 of the tightest it would go.

I don't understand why people automatically poo pah these two piece triggers. They are safe, and with a little judicious work can be made quite servicable. I now have a trigger that breaks at just over 2 lbs, is smooth as a baby's bottom,has no creep and is as safe as any trigger can be.

Hope that helps some.

I read on this forum once that if the stock breaks then the rifle could fire. My thought on that would be to keep it pointed in a safe direction. (muzzle control)
If someone is that hard on the rifle that the stock breaks, there will likely be other problems too!
whelennut

The safety on a Model 50 blocks the firing pin directly, not the trigger. So, yes, if the gun is loaded AND the safety is off AND you drop it hard enough to completely shatter the entire stock, then it might fire. Of course, so might any other rifle under the same conditions.

I once had a guy tell me that the Model 50 trigger was dangerous because it might fire if you disassembled the rifle. That's why it's generally considered a good idea to unload your gun before you take it apart!

The Model 50 trigger is fine as long as you are aware of its requirements when doing stock work.