Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Winchester M70 - is this a good bedding job?

Bedding cain't be "seen".

Hint...…………………..

MtnBoomer - now that you point it out, I do see a thin film of epoxy on the bedding block. Its very thin so as to be almost transparent, but it is visible as a slight grey discoloration over the surface of the metal. Thanks.

And, while everyone says this looks like a really good bedding job, I am still gonna tell my friend he sux, just so he doesn't get a big head. :-)

Thanks for all the helpful comments.

I would want clearance behind the tang and under the recoil lug. I would never bed the tapered portion of the barrel. Not my gun though. GD

greydog - thanks for your input. I am just trying to learn, here, so could you please explain the mechanics behind your preferences?

Thanks!

Nothing should contact at the rear except the rear surface of the recoil lug. The recoil lug needs to be clear on the bottom to ensure the action is pulled down against the bed at the location of the screws.
Now, there is no way I am saying my way is always best but these are the rules for bedding I was taught fifty years ago and they have always worked. Bedding should be stress-free with contact in the appropriate places and nowhere else. The clearance at the rear of the tang is always important to prevent chipping of the stock, if nothing else. Clearance at the bottom of the lug prevent interference.
There are times when bedding the bottom of the lug is probably advisable. When the guard screw enters the lug at the front of the action, the bottom of the lug is designed as the contact point. If the screw goes into the lug, at the very front of the receiver, this is also the only time I might bed the breech end of the barrel but if there is any portion of the receiver in front of the lug, I won't bed the barrel because I have found it to frequently create a rifle which tends to shoot vertical groups. Again, all of this is my opinion only and many will vehemently disagree with it. For myself, I've been at this long enough to never say "x" is always better than "y" and if others have success with different methodology, it's pretty hard for me to argue with it. I have my theories and they have their's. GD

greydog - Thanks for your explanation! It is very helpful. And, I understand there is more than one way to skin the cat.

I recently had a bedding job done on my Bell & Carlson stocked Rem700 7mm/08. I reckon it came up damn good!

It looks very good. Again, I would not bed any portion of the barrel on a 700 but that's just me. The 700 is very nice to work with; round, smooth, and the tang is not inlet into the stock but just lies on top. The Model 70 is much more complex with different planes and contours which must be dealt with. GD

Bedding only rates a critique,after having been shot.

Hint...............

dingo - that looks really good.

Pretty sweet bedding job dingo. Looks like whoever did that one, knew what they were doing. As for the OP, as others have stated, "there's many ways to skin the cat". That's very true when it comes to glass bedding. Greydog hits on some good points and then not so much on others. But then again, he also said others wouldn't agree with him. I guess he was also right about that...

I did say others would disagree but neglected to say, if they did, they were probably wrong GD

It may prove sufficient, But If I was doing mine or a friends
I would continue the epoxy the whole way along the sides of the receiver., like Dingoes clean example.

Dingo’s bedding is a work of art.

I’m still trying to learn - what benefit does epoxy at the sides of the receiver provide?

I don't know any smith worth his salt who doesn't bed the whole length receiver.
Those who take their stock inletting seriously talk about 'full contact' bedding walnut and syn. stocks.

Some will even skim bed walnut stocks with epoxy cause it gives true full contact.

If anyone has an issue with that ,..they can take it up with D'Arcy Echols Co. and set them straight about
how you bed a hunting rifle. ..

Mel Forbes -NULA, also beds the whole length of the barrel channel.

The only thing you "shoot" is your mouth and Imagination.

Hint..................

Thanks mate !


Took my newly bedded 7mm/08 to the range today and it certainly showed promise. I'm not sure what happened with the flyer though.

Sure I'm wrong. Thats why my rifles shoot like chit.....:

Improved Cylinder is "promise"?

Hint................

When bedding Remington 700's (722, 721, etc), it was long considered proper to provide cearance along the sides of the receiver so that the only points of contact were at the receiver ring, behind the recoil lug, and under the tang. This was usually accomplished with a couple layers of masking tape. The thinking was, since the stock would deflect along the sides under recoil forces, there was a chance of minute stress points when it didn't return to the same place (keep in mind, this was within the context of precision rifle building) and zero contact was consistent. This system still works very well but, as has been amply demonstrated in the intervening fifty years, it probably is not critical and full bedding of the action works every bit as well and looks better for the customer. I have, over the years, bedded rifles both ways and lost matches to rifles bedded either way!

When bedding Model 70's, many did things the same way but did bed under the center screw as well; to the extent that they could, anyway. There is not a lot of surface there. Others chose to eschew contact at the center screw location and bedded at only the receiver ring and tang. Clearance was provided at the bottom of the recoil lug although the sides and front of the lug were, and are, frequently bedded according to the whim of the one doing the bedding. There seems to be little difference in performance and I like to clear the front, sides and bottom just to make stock removal and replacement easier.
I like to incorporate the center screw as part of the bedding system rather than just a support for the trigger guard and will do so by using a pillar at that location. As it happens, I have a Winchester Model 70 which has three different stocks, all of which are bedded differently so I can make a pretty good direct comparison. The Rifle is a short action, push-feed Model 70 which has been bored and re-threaded at the receiver ring to 1 1/16"x 16 TPI. I retro-fitted bumps at the rear of the bolt to close up tolerance and provide better alignment. It has been fitted with numerous barrels but, for the comparison, I used a particularily good shooting 308 barrel. This is a 23" barrel, gain twist (15-13.5) and contoured to .750 at the muzzle.
The stocks are:
1. A walnut, modified-factory stock which has been fitted with an aluminum bedding block with the 2- round magazine integral to the block. The fore arm is flat and 2 1/4 inches wide and the butt is shaped to ride the bags better. I cobbled this together for a one-time foray into Hunter Class BR. It is skim bedded with Acraglas over the block and uses all three screws. Shooting 150 Sierras it would group five shots at 3/8 or better and was capable of shooting 50's with a good x-count.
2. A laminated, Marksman style, prone stock which is pillar bedded at all three screw locations and is bedded all along the sides. In this stock, using the same barrel, it will group five into 3/8 and I can usually stay under 1 moa prone, with a sling, for five shots.
3. The third stock is a glass/carbon fiber silohuette stock from Steve Wooster from Washington state. This one is bedded at the receiver ring and tang only (no middle screw) and, off the bench, will shoot groups just about the same for five shots with the same barrel. With the barrel I use for MS shooting (a 26" Krieger, 13 twist), it isn't quite as good but still shoots about 3/4 moa. Sadly, my inability to hit my own butt, with both hands, prevents me from doing what the rifle will, offhand.
All this shows is that various bedding systems, assuming similar quality, will produce similar results if all else is equal. In other words, the real measure of a bedding job is on the target.
My best shooting Model 70 prone rifle uses a bedding block, has a solid bottom and is bedded ahead of the trigger group only; the tang floats. The second best one is bedded for the whole action and has a magazine and I suspect the real difference between them is that one has a better barrel. GD