Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing pillars for a Rem M700 question

I am going to order Devcon 10110 from Brownells and I figure I might as well order the pillars as I am going to do my first bedding.
Question I have is how long should the pillars be? I think I can get the measurement by removing rifle out of stock and remove the nut in the action screw, how do I remove this metal nut?
Then put the action in the stock and measure the length from action to the end of the stock? I read somewhere that I need to add .010" to the number I came up with for stress free bedding?

??? I must be missing something... What 'nut' in the action screw???

I don't 'add .010"' . I use a depth gauge to measure protrusion, then remove the majority of metal in the lathe. Once installed, I mill the pillars at the bottom for final fitment to ensure the bottom metal fits flush..

My question also! WTF?

700 ADLS have a reeded front action screw escutcheon that the screw goes through. Sometimes they are loose, sometimes not so much.

I usually push them out and run pillars down to the screw head. The bedding material creates a tiny filler donut around the screw head.

You can push/punch the escutcheon out, be careful if the stock is painted as it could chip the paint edge if you are not careful. On the ADL's you can run a full length pillar up front or a short one and use the escutcheon. One way is not going to be better than the other if done right.

I make pillars for each rifle that is getting pillar bedded and I leave them proud a little on the bottom and mill them for fit after cured. Don't forget on BDL's you have about a 2-3 degree draft on the rear of B/M. If you don't account for that when trimming the rear pillar the B/M will spring up on one end when one screw is tightened.

Ditto....

Agreed all the way, but I also bed trigger guards to prevent any spring, BDL, ADL, whatever...

Usually, they NEED to be bedded also - since it's a rare thing to have the trigger guards fit flush.. Usually they're either proud or a tad recessed.. Once the pillars are in, I'll skim bed the trigger guard from the magazine well back to the rear of the unit to ensure a proper fit..

If you trim the pillars right the B/M will NOT spring. If you are bedding "for spring" you didn't set up for the draft right.

Not bedding for 'spring', but to fill in any gaps around the rear of the guard and under the body of the unit itself.. None is used over the pillar..

I install them short and let the glass finish making contact. Is this not a good method? I don't have a mill so need to keep it at the Bubba level.

Whether or not I contour the pillar to the action radius, I always bolt the pillar to the action and then drop the pillar/action assembly into the pile of epoxy in the action. The pillars and the bottom of the action are painted with about 1/8" of epoxy to eliminate visible air bubbles and ensure proper bonding of the pillar to the stock. You have to take some extra prep steps doing this to keep the mess down (full tape on stock, putty on bolt heads) but it gives me a good job every time with the action in hard contact with the pillar. The barrel is supported and I usually have a front or rear point where the stock contacts the action to define the height. The pillar length is cut to be flush or just under flush with floor plate or trigger guard which gets bedded to the stock in a second step if needed. This should always result in no stress because the action floats on the pool of epoxy while it sets without bolt tension or any external forces exerted on the action to stock interface.

If the pillar is not in contact with the action, I would want at least 1/16" of gap for a reasonable thickness of epoxy so it doesn't chip out. At that point you may as well use poured pillars because the pillar is now just a bolt tube but as long as it is a quality epoxy either method should work.

I just send my guns to Redneck and get it back faster than ordering any supplies. <GRIN>