Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Bedding a wood stock.

Would Pillar bedding be a perferred method for bedding an action to a wood stock? What benefits are there to pillar bedding versus glass bedding?

Thanx,

Av,
Pillar bedding or the installation of pillars prevents the compression of the stock's material when the receiver or action screws are tightened down. If you take your rifle apart often or have a wood stock then you may want to consider pillar bedding. Done right, most boltguns benefit from it. A good syn stock like a McM does not have to be pillar bedded to wring out the best accuracy but alot of people still pillar bed em anyways like myself just because...............

MtnHtr

George
I have done few pillar bedding jobs on wood stocks because I can be a stubborn fool... It is impossible to snug the forward action screw "crazy tight" without them unless you like the screw heads to work their way in until they stop bolt rotation...

Lately I have accepted that it should be done and it is one of those things I should have done a very long time ago...
art the slow-learner

It's much much easier to do what Mauser did and bushing bed them.

This is what I do now. Sure pillars are "better" but a bushing will fit in there in a half hour of work and takes less adjusting.

You can make a bushing out of a cartridge case.

After the pillars are installed, do you then glass bed the action as normal?

I bed them all together as a unit and use an external clamp to hold the action in the stock while curing. I turn aluminum round stock to slightly smaller than the screw head and countersink it to match the screw. The body is cut with a series of ridges to grip better in the bedding.

The action screw hole is bored in two steps to accomodate the pillar and the inside boring is sloppy for bedding compound and an easy fit. After curing I bore the action screw hole oversize so the screw does not touch the pillar except at the head.

I will be the first to admit my experience is limited on these, but so far I see nothing I would change.

1/4" aluminum cable stops are cheap and readily available and can be easily turned to use as a pillar. I only worry about the head end of the screw as the pressure is focused there and not at the action end IMO.
art