Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Bedding Actions - Which Areas?

How many bed the action all along the sides, from front to rear, as opposed to just the front and rear action screw areas. Any practical accuracy differences of one method over the other?

None that I've seen. As long as the action is level and evenly supported, and there are no unsightly gaps, I don't worry about it, and my guns shoot very tight groups.

I don't do it either.. Never found a need to.

Same here, usually just bed the usuall areas (recoil lug, under chamber, and bottom of tang). Redneck can you post some pics of some good bedding jobs you've done. I can do this later (still recooping from dragging a bull out of the woods last night). BSA.

Tang and recoil lug areas if the action is obviously stressed.

Thegman, I've compiled some pics and posted another thread on bedding rifles. You should take a look at some of the rifles I've bedded, BSA.

There are many ways to skin this cat, but I was taught to keep the barreled action support under the front and rear at the action screws. I was also taught to pour a pad under the barrel shank ahead of the receiver to the measured knife edge balance point of the complete barreled action less stock. On a wood stock, I often add pillars and inlet for an aluminum forend stiffener that runs from the lug mortise at the pillar through the length of the forend to the front swivel stud. This completely changes the dynamics of a light wood forend by making it very stiff for floating. The example below had front and rear pillars, an aluminum lug inletted for the forward trigger guard screw, front and rear cross pins, the forend stiffener, and bedding with the forend sealed in epoxy; all this and I was able to keep the stock lighter than a standard fill McMillan and within 3oz of the factory compact stock weight.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...oject_Hawkeye_338_Ruger_Comp#Post3060014

Gary,

I just tried your technique (minus the aluminum rod and no pillars) on my tang safety Ruger and It came out pretty well. Had a couple of minor voids with Accra Glass but was able to repair them. Gun shoots very well though. I have ecided to move on to Devcon 10110 plastic Steel Putty from now on.

CLB

I put bedding compound the entire length but put a layer of tape on the action from the front of the magazine port to the tang area. Only the front and rear action screw ares receive any benefit, but it keeps me from answering questions as to why I did not bed the full length of the action. An added plus is I do not need any modeling clay that way.

That section is the hardest to do without a mess but can be done.
I still wonder about pillars in minus 30 weather?

My pillar-bedded rifles are still running fine, and as you know, we have some pretty cold weather.

Thanks for the help,BSA

No pix, sorry.. I rarely have the time..


GaryVA - that's a big-project bedding job for sure.. But IMVHO not really necessary unless the stock has shown real tendencies to warp at temp/humidity changes.. And some stocks really do!!

I wanted to retain the factory Ruger compact stock and it had a very flimsy forend that would have been worthless floated without a barrel stiffener. This was and is an ongoing project rifle testing the new Ruger 338RCM, so everything I've done so far was warranted. Not sure if you can tell by the pics, but this stock was also stripped and refinished with an epoxy sealer. It is definitely a sleeper. The next step in the project is testing the new Superformance powder to max out the 338RCM.

Best:)