Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Free floating a BDL sporter

Remington sporter barrel, BDL stock. I want to "Hog out" the barrel channel to free float and also accomodate a coat of epoxy paint under it. What is the fastest easiest way to hog out the channel? Dowel with sand paper? I did that on my 10/22 and it took more elbow grease than I thought.

Any suggestions?

Get yourself a Gunline BBT (barrel bedding tool) from Brownells in the diameter just smaller than the diameter of the barrel at the tip. With that and the stock in a good padded vise, you should have no problem. Just don't use a Dremel or you'll muck it up. They are to hard to control.

I don't use the "D" word, unless I absolutly have to! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />
Those things are possesed!
Catnthehat

I still think the dowel and sandpaper are the safest method. I does take a while, but it forces you to go slow and take a little off at a time. It's easy to put epoxy back on a fiberglass stock / not so easy to put wood back on once it's removed.

I did cure an ingrown toe nail once with a dremel! oh my! That little super thin cut off tool, looks like a little disc of sand paper... Man it gets hot! But boy did it ever do the job!
(don't try this at home without iodine!) heh heh

Thanks for the replies

Dixie
I use a chisel to relieve the wood below the stock line, all the way to the tip. This leaves a thin line that needs to be removed carefully and is very fast.

I use a chisel for all of it, but careful work with any number of abrasive tools will do it fast and do it safely, once relieved.
art

A few years ago I broke a molar and it left a sharp point. Since it was the weekend and I couldn't go to the dentist, I used a Dremel tool to knock the point off so it wouldn't cut my tongue. Boy did I get a bunch of kidding about do-it-yourself dentistry!

Paul

When they came from Remington they had a pressure point around the sling stud.That was the only touching point with mine.

Dixie,
Get youself some 2" wide shipping tape. I like the kind with the fiberglass strands.

Apply the tape to the underside of the barrel, all the way to the recoil lug.

Buy a 1" wide sanding belt used for a small belt sander. You can get these at any Sears or Lowes store. Make one cut to cut the belt in half.

Place the barreled action in the sanding belt, and place both in stock. (The non-grit side facing packing tape of coarse.)

Tighten action screws only enough to cause slight friction between belt and stock.

keep hands high and in center line of the barrel, and pull the sanding belt up and down along the length of the stock. Tighten the screws as stock material is being removed. This will give you even clearance (approx. .040") following the countour of the barrel. Makes a real neat job.

GB

Do you use the sandpaper like a shoeshine rag. That is up and down or back and forth like a wood plane?

There are a 101 ways to accomplish the job. The absolute best tool (fastest and easiest), with the most control and ability to do precise work, is a barrel channel scraper with a diameter slightly smaller that the narrowest portion of ones barrel. It's what the pros use, and one has a lifelong usable tool thereafter.

If one just wants to get by, then a dowel and sandpaper or shard of broken glass from a Mayo jar will work just fine.

Clamping ones stock in a padded vice is most efficient, as one can scrap a little, drop the action in, remove and scrape some more,until you have the desired fit.

Just be patient and any tool should do an adeuqate job.

if your not in love with the stock you could get a decent bdl takeoff for not much coin. get it in a magnum channel and your in like flynn

woofer

Like a shoeshine rag, up and down.