Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Pillar bedding a Bell & Carlson Stock

I have a Remington 700 with a Bell & Carlson Stock. I would like to take the stock off of the action when transporting it via airline. Would pillar bedding improve the "repeatability" when the stock and action are put back together? Also, would you recommend bedding the rear of the recoil lug?

Thanks for your time and effort addressing this issue.

Welcome back. Not many posts over 8 yrs.

I would pillar a B&C stock when I glassed it. I've done several.

It may help when the action is torqued down. I'd get a torque wrench to use when putting barreled action back in the stock, re-creating the original torque values.

DF

All of the B&C stocks that I have come with a full length bedding block. Have you checked yours? This alleviates the need for pillars. I have tried a light skim bedding on one stock, and it made absolutely no difference, so I don't do that anymore. All I do is mount the stock, check for barrel clearance and torque the action bolts.

Some had no bedding block , I believe the early TI's were like that. I would pillar bed those but the bedding block models only need a skim coat.

+1

The light weight ones didn't have the aluminum bedding block.

I have skim bedded those with aluminum bedding blocks.

I like McM better, but B&C stocks are good for what they cost.

DF

I like skim bedding just 'cause.

HS Precision rec. 65 inch pounds of torque with their aluminum chassis stocks, probably to overcome any less than perfect fit. That's a LOT of torque.

IMO, skim bedding gives a solid, even foundations such that you don't really need that much torque, maybe 35 inch pounds or so.

If you ever torqued one to 65 inch pounds, you know what I'm saying.

DF

Anything that reduces tolerances (play) improves accuracy and repeatability. Glass bedding does that. But since you are taking it on and off I would use Steel Bed. When you reassemble do it the same way every time. Take the action screws down until they just touch and pull the action fully in. Then stand the rifle on its butt and apply pressure down on the barrel. While holding the pressure back both screws out one turn, then torque them to spec. That will ensure your recoil lug is fully and tightly seated in its recess.

You might want to lightly knock the sharp edges off the bottom of the recoil lug.

High torque overcoming less than perfect fit sounds like a stressing/binding the action situation.

Very true. When I first read this thread (last night), dirtfarmer answered the question very well, but in the back of my mind I was wondering if it had the aluminum bedding block like many do these days. Generally he glass beds his rifles in the same manner I do (based on his posts I've read). But with the mention of the bedding block, I would say the rifle doesn't need pillars (as you said), but just a skim coat. Rough up and slightly remove material, just as you would any stock and skim bed it. On the ones I've done, it makes a considerable difference in accuracy. I've had to do a couple factory winchester model 70 extreme weathers that were not up to snuff and also a FN PBR that had an aluminum bedding block. It does help, if you like consistent reliable accuracy with no POI shift after R&R of stock. Your groups should NOT shift, no matter how many times you remove it from the stock: Proper bedding is key to this though. I also agree with DF in his explanation of action screw torque. 35-40 is plenty in a properly bedded rifle. The use of a good bedding compound goes without saying. These would include Devcon 10110 and Brownells steel bed (as armedandfree suggested) is also very robust. I will say that some of us do this bedding thing slightly different here. I have to comment on armendandfree's post about how he snugs up his action though. Not how I do it at all. Generally I bed my rifles tight. That's the best way to get consistently good accuracy. There's no "pulling" the action into the stock with the screws. It's put the action in the stock slightly rap the bottom of the stock with the palm of your hand and it's in nice and snug. You can actually turn the rifle upside down, while holding just the stock and the barreled action will stay in there without the action screws holding it. On a synthetic stock I like everything tight. I dont' tape a damn thing (like some do on the recoil lug) and on a rem 700 I would also glass bed the full length of the receiver , so it lays in the stock in a stress free manner. Like DF said earlier, high torque on an aluminum block will create a lot of stress if the bedding block is not perfect. And, I've never seen a perfect one yet.

Yep, sure does and that has a hell of an impact on accuracy...

I’m not a fan. Evidently it works for them.

I cringe torquing 65 inch pounds. That’s TIGHT.

DF

My steyr needs 7 Newton Meters per specs

A quick internet conversion shows 61, almost 62 inch pounds.

That's still pretty tight. Is it metal on metal like with the HS aluminum chassis?

DF

DF
[/quote]

My steyr needs 7 Newton Meters per specs [/quote]

A quick internet conversion shows 61, almost 62 inch pounds.

That's still pretty tight. Is it metal on metal like with the HS aluminum chassis?

DF[/quote]

No bedding block at all, the stock is pretty substantial as is the receiver. POI has not moved since I bought it 3 years ago, I had it apart one time when I first bouight it. I had to do a doubletake when i saw the newton meters and had to buy yet another inch lb torque wrench

Turning Newton meters into inch pounds is not too unlike using a metric Crescent wrench...

DF

I had to buy one that went up to 62" lbs

Thank you very much for the helpful information. My stock must be one of the early ones as it does not have the bedding block. I now know how to proceed with your help. I appreciate that.

This tube is 0.375" O.D with 0.065" wall thickness. It has to be drilled out for a 1/4-28 Remington action screws with at least a 1/4" drill .
https://www.onlinemetals.com/mercha...howunits=inches&id=283&top_cat=0
The Remington 700 Round action has a diameter of 1.36".
If I side mill one end of the pillar with a 1.25" end mill, the misfit will be taken up with the preload of precompressed pillars.
That means the tightened screw will spread the ears of the pillar end....as seen in the pic. Getting precompressed pillars with epoxy all over them, to be pushed into the stock, and then get the screws in line with the bottom metal is an exercise left to those wearing gloves. I did some rifles this week were I let the epoxy get a little hard, pulled the screws, added the bottom metal and tightened the screws again. This assumes the half hard epoxy will keep the concave end pillars from rotating. The trick is having the precompressed pillars very close to where the bottom metal lines up, so the epoxy can be almost hard when the bottom metal is added.

There are many ways to design pillars, Chad Dixon of Longrifles would be one that gets more metal to metal contact area. His spread out at the top.

Sometimes I just want to drill a small pillar hole and not mill out sections of the stock for a custom wide top pillar.
To get force multiplier effects of a V block where the pillar touches the receiver, a tiny pillar will spread the force over a wider area with preload spreading.
The coefficient of friction sounds like it is linear, but it is not. The higher the pressure in a spot the lower the coefficient. That means a bigger footprints is better and those ears forces to spread are more likely to do their share in resisting receiver torque reaction from rifling twist and bullet acceleration.

This is for drilling the 3/8" + hole for the pillar. If one can afford to drill larger holes, the effectiveness of prestressed pillars gets easier, and can even be made from Aluminum alloy.

I learned how to calculate action screw max torque from an engineer at Caterpillar posting on Practical Machinist. But there are variables involved and most guys on gun forums just want a recipe. That means they want to be told how many inch pounds.