Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Rifle bedding idea

I plan on doing a Kimber Montana bedding job, and I wonder if it is workable or not, to do a two-step job?

I'm considering doing the lug/chamber epoxy job first, using the rear tang screw to insure that action and stock are properly aligned and not rotated. I would not tighten the tang screw down, but leave it slightly loose. I propose to hold all together with surgical tubing till the epoxy cures.

Then I would complete the job for the tang screw, using the front screw for positioning, all held in place again with tubing till the rear epoxy is cured.

Or is this asking for problems, and more work than needed, and better to do both front and back in one pass?

Wrapids,years ago, I used to do them that way. It always bothered me that I would end up with some misalignment between the tang bedding and the forward receiver/lug bedding. So, probably 15 years or more ago, I started doing lug and tang at the same time.
That being said, you should be fine, doing one and then the other, if you have pillars front and rear and tighten the screws down good when you bed the lug and again when you bed the tang. RJ

I've done it a couple of times in one step. It worked fine.

I can think of no reason to bed in two steps this way. I also see no need for the surgical tubing. Gravity will keep the barreled action in place. I wrap tape around the barrel at the forend so that it sits at the correct level (top of the stock at the centerline). Then, if the tang has anything to sit on, I can use the rear screw to hold the tang in place. If the stock has been relieved so there is no contact anywhere prior to bedding, I apply tape to the barrel at the forend tip and just ahead of the receiver so that the barrelled action sits level. Then, when the epoxy has been smeared into the stock, the screws are used to locate the receiver. The screws are tightend down just to where the heads contact the seats. In essence, the action is floating on the bedding with no stress induced by anything. It is acceptable, perhaps even preferable, to bed only at the receiver ring/recoil lug and the tang but one may also bed the entire action if that is your preference. Tape the bottom, front, and sides of the recoil lug for clearance. GD

Do it all in one step. Buy some long bolts and make yourself some long studs instead of using the action screws. Test fit and adjust the stock until the action fits flush/level and without binding at the front and rear tang.

I did one other bedding job many years ago and it went fine, but I don't recall exactly the procedure I used.

Any huge reason not to use the action screws, as Greydog suggests? I like his idea on the action floating and stress free bedding. I imagine the action screws must be very well coated with release agent, though? I do remember I used Johnson Paste Wax, and had no problem getting things to separate.

On a skim bedding job there is no reason to remove a ton of material unless there is something drastically wrong with the previous bedding. 5 minutes with a Dremel and a drill is plenty. All you want to do is rough up the previous bedding and drill a couple of holes to allow the new compound more surface area to adhere to. A teaspoon or maybe 2 of bedding compound should be all you need. You definitely don't want to remove so much material that you have to worry about whether the action sits too low in the stock. I have used a kit from Midway that has surgical tubing and it has worked fine.

You do have to be sure the screws are well coated with release agent (I also use paste wax and have for fifty years). If the screws have rolled threads and the threads are larger than the shank of the screw, you may want to carefully wrap some tape around the shank. The reason I like to use the screws for alignment is that the tapered head of the screw, seating in the bottom metal, aligns the action and bottom metal as it should be. By the way, if a screw is crooked, it shouldn't be used and should be replaced. GD

For a while I did the two step process also. Came to the same conclusion as you........

I bed all rifles, barrel to shank, one pass. No reason to do two passes, especially with the simple Kimber Montana.

I took advice and did the job in one pass, and it worked fine. The lug mortise had some unfilled area on the sides near the top, but all critical areas filled perfectly. Thanks guys. As long as I was at it, I took sandpaper - 320, 400, and 1000 grit to the underside of the feed rails and the feed ramp, which really slicked up feeding. Too bad the factory doesn't take a few minutes to do this.

Shot it yesterday (7mm-08), first with Nosler BT 120s, which didn't group well, but I suspect my technique was not great. After attending to technique, I shot AB 140s, and got two 3-shot groups of 7/8 inch at 100 yards. Plan on trying the 120s again, as I would really like to give them a try, after the praise I've seen for them on game.