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+3

Al, how do you tape the lug? Sides and front?
Always seems to be a source of some spirited debate.

(1) With one exception* the rear surface of a recoil lug is the only part that should have any contact with the stock. Sides, front and bottom of the lug should have a minimum of .020 clearance.

(2) *On receivers where the front action screw goes into the bottom of the lug, the bottom has to be tight. The sides and front on this type still need a minimum of.020 clearance.

Good shootin' -Al

Here's a few pics showing how much things moved after the stock finish was cured. Like previously mentioned, prior to this the gun had been nicely rebarreled, pillar bedded (not sure by whom but it was a nice job) and was all together.

The previous pillars had also moved so they needed to be replaced. Once they were out, the action screw center-to-center was used to locate the centers of the pillars and mill the holes.

New pillars in. You can see some of the initial mill work done to straighten out the inletting:



More mill work to straighten and square things up:



Sleeves in the pillars to center the action screw guide pins:



Somehow, it all fits:

That’s genius. I need one. How about $50 headed your way and one of those rigs coming back my way?

Closing in on some final small details of this project. One nice upgrade is eliminating the nasty 'center' guard screw that many of the Model 70's are saddled with. Over tightening this screw leads to all sorts of issues and leaving it just snug-ish tight can give as many issues as it fixes. The best approach is to eliminate it, which is simply done. I like to use a piece of .375 round aluminum stock, drill/tap to 10-32, epoxy it into place and the issues get fixed before they become issues.

I like it. Thank you Al for showing how it was made. Now to buy some 3M!

The center screw pillar makes everything better on these old dinosaurs.
Closed yesterday @ $125.30. Pretty good two week run (^ $12.00).
Good shootin' -Al

Interesting stuff as always, Al.

A few final pics.

Center screw pillar and trigger guard inlet milled flat and cleaned up:


Trigger guard over center pillar:


The 10-32 Allen flat headed cap screw is a perfect fit in the conical recess of the trigger guard. On some of these, I've had to reduce the O.D. of the cap screw head. The pre '64 Model 70's were done with a lot of hand fitting so this isn't always a consistent diameter:


There are several areas of the bedding that really need attention to make these Model 70's perform. Once you've addressed those areas, the rest is straight forward. Model 70's that don't respond to 'bedding' are simply the result of these areas not being understood as to how they influence the final job.

It was a lot of work to straighten out this light weight stock. Guns like this end up more of a labor of love that anything else...and that's where the payoff comes, for me. This classic Model 70 in 270 Winchester will be back out hunting, like it has done for decades and will continue to do for many years to come.

Good shootin' -Al

Thanks, Al, for the post!

Learning new things is one of the joys of this place.

Thanks again for sharing your knowledge and expertise!

Ed

Well done sir!

Note to self; don’t bake a good shooting stock.

Thanks again for the write up and pics Al.

Out of curiosity, what did that stock start life as - Brown?

Just make sure when you bed the thing you clean out all the excess epoxy material from the trigger group area - if you have some that squeezed out in the wrong place (and this is common) the sear won’t catch and it will act like it doesn’t want to cock the rifle.

Everyone learns once… if it’s your first one - learn from someone else.

It's a Bansner Model 70 Classic. The post coat heat was 150 degrees, which is right at the temp where epoxies release. That fits with the pillars moving along with the inletted surfaces moving around.

People think that 'glass and composite stocks don't move but the truth is quite different. Shooters should keep that in mind when they stick their rifles in the trunk on a 100 degree day.