bedding conundrum

[lurcher]

I am in the process of fitting a remington model 7 action into a fibreglass stock. The plan is (was) to pillar bed it and then glass bed/free float.

I got a hold of a piece of 7075 T6 alloy for friend to turn up some pillars. The trouble with a remington model 7 is that the rear action screw is only 4.04 mm diameter. Also, the there is only a very small distance between the rear hole in the stock and the trigger well. The first step was to drill the rear hole in the stock (currently about 5mm in diameter, still binding very slightly when I fit the trigger guard and action and tweak up the screw). I don't know if there is enough meat in the stock to take a pillar.

My understanding is that ideally there should be some play between the screw and the pillar so that when assembled the screw does not touch the pillar. If I made the hole through the pillar 6mm and then the total diameter of the pillar 10mm I might just get away with it. But with such a narrow wall diameter in the pillar would it gall when I torqued up the action screw? (I had thought of using stainless for the rear pillar). I was planning to make the pillars flat-topped as opposed to curved to fit the action

Apparently the stock has carbon through the areas where the screws run so I can probably get away with out pillars, or just build a pillar for the front screw (which is norrnal diameter, and no issues with the stock) . How should I proceed from here?

[James Jones]

Having only worked with a M-7 once Ihave limited experiance with it , BUT I did manage to use pillers to get i bedded well. The piller work a little better if you turn them down to 1/2" rather than the standard 9/16. I used a bit bigger hole in the rear to that the piller could slide back a little away from the trigger guard..

Here is a couple pics of a M-7 bedding inlet that was in a russo A5L stock

[NesikaChad]

First, I'd put the action in either a mill or a carefully set up drill press and open the rear hole to a 1/4-28 tpi so it matched the front. A 4mm screw should measure around .160" and the tap drill for a 1/4-28 is a .213" so there's plenty of room to get into virgin material.

Just use a good quality drill and cutting oil and have no fear.

Next. I'd make pillars out of SS, but to each his own.

Scuff the hell out of that stock's inlet to get rid of the gel coat, resin isn't going to stick too well to that for a number of reasons, most importantly its probably still contaminated with mold release from when it was made.

Bed all in one effort. Not one single reason to install pillars and then go back and skin bed over the top. Just more work for yourself and easier to goof up. Consolidate the steps.

Here's a link on a post I wrote in another forum.

Hope it helps. My screen name is "Longrifles" on that site.

Epoxy Bedding - The Firearms Forum.Com

If I can get my photobucket account to work, I'll post up some pics of a finished job.

[J E Custom]

Lurcher

I have done quite a few mod 7,s and the new mod 673 and there are
many ways to pillar bed them.

One way is to use a standard pillar in the front and a redeuced one in
the rear/tang.

I normaly use a peice of 5/16 " stainless tubing for the rear and the
original #10 screw.

Also you can re'thread the rear action screw to the standard 1/4 28
and use the larger pillar(1/2" or 5/8") but it will infringe in to the trigger
inleting and after it is drilled I mill/file a flat on the side of the trigger and
epoxy it in.

After the pillars are bonded to the stock I then do a full blown bedding
job like NeskaChad recomended. Some people bolt the pillars to the action
and bed action and pillars at the same time.

I like to do them separately so that I can fit the barreled action to the stock
and make final/minor adjustments if nessary.

As to the bedding compound there are a lot of good ones available and
the "NEW" Steel Bed is one of the best.( They added metal to both the
resin and the hardner and it mixes well and doesn't run.

You have plenty of handling time and if you want to expedite the harding
time just warm with a hair dryer(Just Warm) or set in sunlight.

Check it often by bending the over flow around the action , once it breaks
clean, remove all of the excess that you can with out disturbing the action.
This will save a lot of grinding. (This stuff gets very hard/tough)

I hope this will help
J E CUSTOM