Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles DIY bedding M77 (pic heavy)

Here are some semi-crappy cell pics, my decent camera is MIA. The whole goal of this rifle initially was a cheap 2nd deer gun...it's turned into a bit more than that, as I love this caliber.

This is a Stevens 200 in 7mm-08 I got for $196 out the door on a clearance at Academy....unfortunately that's the Academy that was in Joplin, MO and is gone now...add another $200 for the Nikon Monarch UCC 3-9x40, and another C-note for the stock. Not too shabby for a $500 rifle. I'll post some target pics after we go to the range Saturday evening.



The tinge of red and shiny in the center of the bedding is all that is visible of the forward pillar. The red is the remnants of the red sharpie I was using to check contact where I relived the wood around the pillar, as well as proper contact of the receiver to the pillar itself. I made the pillars .430 diameter, reamed the factory screw holes to .440, and ran a 1/2-13 tap thru them for grip. The pillars were heavily textured as well, and were faced to be .010 proud of the wood on the bottom side. A fiend of mine is gonna do his rifle in my shop over the weekend, and I plan on adding a bit more compound forward of the lug recess to turn down the suck a little on the way it looks there. It has some contact with the barrel nut, so the stability is there, but I was a little disappointed in the way it looked. The pillars were glued in first with JB Weld, and the bedding material is Devcon.



The rear pillar had to be notched for clearance of the Savage firing mechanism. I decided I wouldn't try to put any bedding material in the rear side, because I didn't want to try to get the ignition system apart, since I had done some polishing work to it, and made a new spring out of .04 piano wire. The trigger is a very crisp 3.5# now, and I didn't want to take a chance on messing it up. If it's not broke, DON'T BREAK IT is my motto.