GLASS BEDDING RIFLES by DINGUS

GLASS BEDDING RIFLES

by Dingus

(Dingus wrote this in a forum and kept adding to it.  He was like me,  it took him several sittings to think of everything.  He was one of my dearest internet friends and I miss him dearly.  Ole Buddy I am putting this here so we can all remember you.  Swamprat)

Tools needed;

tools to take gun out of the stock
drimmel tool with a router bit and a ball grinder.( not necessary, but nicer and faster)
barrel channeling tool
small wood gouge( sharp)
small wood chisel (sharp)
sand paper
clean rags

Material needed

Bedding material    I use accura-gel
release agent    some comes with kit, but the spray from brownell is best
masking tape
elmers or all porporse glue
thin foam rubber   the pad on top of the nosler bullets
2- machine screws 1 1/4" or as needed, with heads cut off
One wide rubber band

The start;

Remove the action from the stock, and if your rifle has a recoil lug that is pinched between the barrel and action, remmy and sav for sure, make sure that the lug is dead square with the action or you may not be able to remove the rofle from the stock when glassed in.  To square this up is a job for a smith for most of us. Make sure the rifle isn't setting to high out of the stock. Remove some of the material from around the recoil lug area. Cut a couple of small vertical slots in the rear face of the recoil area. Cut some more depth to the recoil lug recess. With a wooden stock, use the router bit and drimmel, and cut a groove across the area behind the recoil lug and the front mounting screw. Do the same between the trigger cut and mag cut. What we are doing here, is we are gonna beef this area up by laying those 2 machine screws crosswise the stock to keep the stock from splitting.  We will epoxy them in when we do the bedding.
Pack the screw holes in the stock and the action with pieces of that foam rubber so bedding don't git into the holes. Place a thin piece of plastic or match book cover in the barrel gtoove at the front of the fore arm and a small piece at the rear mount screw. Set the action back in the stock and make sure that the barrel clears the stock all the way to the recoil lug. You should be able, with no resisance, slide a piece of paper from the cardboard at the front to the recoil lug.  Sand the clearance you need.  Using more of the foam rubber, cut some thin strips and glue them in to dam up the bedding material to the area you want it. I glue in a dam where the chamber area starts its taper and another one at the very front edge of the of where the magazine fits.
I don't usually do the rear tang at the same time, so we will leave it to set on that little piece of cardboard for now. Using masking tape, tape along the top edge of the stock where you are bedding.  Tape well beyond where the bedding is.Lay a few layers of tape on the bottom of the recoil lug so that when you are finished, you can peel it off and have clearance  in the bottom. Spray the release on the action, getting into all the little areas that the bedding material can get.  Hard to use to much spray. Spray the stock around the area.  Mix your epoxy, a little more than you think you need.  Put the 2 screws into the slots you cut and put in your mix.  Install action and with hand pressure, push the rifle to the bottom of the stock.  You should have epoxy ooze up  out of the stock around the area you bedded. Put your rubber band around the front of the obj of your scope and bring it all the way around and hook the other end over the obj lens. This will hold your rifle and stock togather while it sets up.  You may want to trim off the epoxy ooze before it gits hard. I take them apart after 5-6 hours, respray release and put it back togather. When you do the tang,  open up the front mount screw hole, use the same cardboard in the fore arm as before, bed the tang, and snug up the action with the front mount screw.  When everything is cured, drill out the action screw holes in the stock a little over size so the screws don't bind. Assemble and shoot.

The not using tape was strictly an economic move on my part. lol Just what ever you use under the front of the barrel should be under the tang, if you bed in two steps like I do.  I do this so that I can keep the rifle level in the stock and no bind on the action, which is also the reason I use rubber bands to hold the rifle in place while cureing.  Shimming the rifle up eleminates a lot of rasping, and its neater for a wood worker like me.  By all means feel free to offer opinions or other methods.
One thing I forgot to say, was to relieve the rear of the tang after bedding the  rear of the action.  This is especially important on a hard kicking rifle in a wood stock.  Not doing so, could cause the stock to split in that area.
I have heard P/B mention a couple times about the recoil lug having clearance in front , sides and bottom. I understand the possibility of heat jacking the action up if the recoil lug is bottomed out, but why are the other clearances needed?
There are some rifles that don't shoot their best with a full floated barrel.  Some times a little fore-end pressure is needed. While at the range, the amount of pressure can be determined by shooting groups and adding shims between the barrel and fore-arm. until the groups  get smaller. Those little plastic calanders for wallets make good shims.  Once the rifle comes in, ya can take it out of the stock and put some glass bedding in the area and reassemble with the shim-pac tha it shot the best with.
To prevent the lug from shaving material, I bevel the bottom and side edges of the lug with a file. That layer of tape on the bottom of the recoil lug may not be enough clearance.  I bought a router bit for my drimmel that also cuts on the bottom and remove  a good deal of material from the bottom of the recoil lug area of the stock.  Like P/B says, on a hunting rifle, debris can gather under the lug and cause accuracy problems.  I just took apart a 270 of mine that usta to drive nails, but now definatly don't. I hope that was what it was.
 I leave the recoil lug tight in the cut-out except fer the bottom. I don't want my rifle to be able to shift at all in the stock, and not have to rely on the action screws being super tight to hold every thing in place, though it would seem that all the fources are in just the rearard direction. I see where it could be possible for the recoil to compress the material behind the recoil lug and possibly shift the action in a forward direction as it de-compresses. If the action is pillar bedded, the screw tightness isn't an issue, Ya can tighten them down hard. With wood, I don't want to do that, because of the wood crushing and the humidity altering the tention of the screws.I don't tighten any of my screws super tight, just well snugged down.  I guess that I could pillar bed all my stocks, but that , in some cases come under "fixing stuff that an't broke." I believe that the harder the rifle recoils, the more critical everything is. I have always had an easier time making small rifles shoot good, than the big ones.

 dingus