Bedding Clean Up

[Clay Target Guy]

Ok the thread on here about release agents got me to thinking and I did not want to mess up his thread with my question so here it goes.
I have two questions:
1) how many of you bed under the chamber area of the barrel?
2) If you bed under the chamber area, how are you squaring the front edge up and making it look good.

The guy that taught me how to bed a rifle said "I always bed about 1.5-2" under the barrel channel (shank) when bedding a rifle. If the rifle does not shoot well with it bedded there, it is easier to remove it than to have to go back in later and bed that area if it needs it". That made sense to me so I have always bedded that area.
I have tried the clay dam thing and was not really pleased with the results. The bedding material would stick in any little crease or crevice in the clay and did not look great.
The way I have been doing it (with good results but it is a pain to do) is to bed the action and this area, measure from the recoil lug forward on both sides of the stock, take a plastic card bend it to match the contour and make a line. I then take a chisel and work the line very carefully cutting the bedding away. It really looks good but is a major pain to do.
I have seen pictures of guy that just leave it in whatever shape the bedding material happens to squeeze out in. This may not matter, but to me I could see where it would give uneven pressure or support to this area, plus it does not look good.

I am always looking for better way to improve my technique so how are y'all (yes I'm from the south) doing it?

 

[Clay Target Guy]

Oh one more question,
The same guy showed me when bedding to bed the front and back of the recoil lug tight but to tape the bottom (so the recoil lug would not bottom out when the action was tightened down) and to put one strip of tape (trimmed) along the each side of the recoil lug.
I see where many people tape off the front face of the recoil lug.
Which is the correct way to do this?

 

[cohunt]

I tape the front and bottom of the lug, not sides or back

Reasons: 1-keep the bottom of the lug from touching/bottoming
2- the lug really is the only thing that keeps a round receiver from rotating under recoil in the stock so I like a tight fit on the sides
3- the front of the lug really doesnt touch the stock under recoil so this area is taped for easier removal of the action from the bedding

As far as the dam- I dont really care what it looks like as you cant see it when the action is in the stock, but I have used both a clay dam, and multi layers of masking tape on the barrel to create a dam-- the tape makes sure I have a consistant "free float" on the barrel and creates a dam- just make sure you dont use too many layers or you can create uneven pressure on the action.
As far as under the chamber-- it depends on the barrel profile, I never bed under the taper of the barrel, so some heavier/magnum barrel will get about 1.5" under the chamber, but lighter weight tapered barrels may have as little as 1/2" of non-tapered straight area under the chamber to bed.
Just my opinions, I'm no pro.
Not really sure there is a "correct" way to bed--- more than 1 way to skin a cat.The main function of bedding is to create a consistant, stress free, bedding area for the lug and action so as not to create any undue stress on the action when torqued down-- the rest seems to be subjective and aesthetics.
I never bead any tapered areas on the barrel, as when it heats up it expands and a tapered area can then push on the bedded area under heat expansion-- if you want to bed the barrel, I used a "band" of bedding to dampen the barrel whip harmonics rather than full bed barrel, but only if freefloating doesnt produce the desired accuracy.
I use aluminum pillars too.

 

[Gregg C]

I am new to the whole custom- semi custom rifle scene, so I have limited experience. I have only bedded the action area, but I have my dad's model 88 Winchester 308. He hand whittled the stock for it, and bedded it. Full length. And I watched him make many inspiring shots with it, and made a couple nice shots with it myself. I wonder, would it shoot better without that full barrel bedding ? He built that in 59, and I guess that full length was the thing then. Any thoughts ?

 

[cohunt]

Some swear by full length bedding, some abhor it -- its alot of personal preference and experiance-- what works for 1 gun may not work for another, kinda like crimping

I am new to the whole custom- semi custom rifle scene, so I have limited experience. I have only bedded the action area, but I have my dad's model 88 Winchester 308. He hand whittled the stock for it, and bedded it. Full length. And I watched him make many inspiring shots with it, and made a couple nice shots with it myself. I wonder, would it shoot better without that full barrel bedding ? He built that in 59, and I guess that full length was the thing then. Any thoughts ?

 

[Dosh]

Perhaps try layers of tape around the barrel at the end of the stock barrel channel to center the barrel in the stock. I use tape on every part of the action and stock that don't touch each other to keep epoxy and release agent off. More time consuming, but an easier clean up.

 

[Frog4aday]

I am new to the whole custom- semi custom rifle scene, so I have limited experience. I have only bedded the action area, but I have my dad's model 88 Winchester 308. He hand whittled the stock for it, and bedded it. Full length. And I watched him make many inspiring shots with it, and made a couple nice shots with it myself. I wonder, would it shoot better without that full barrel bedding ? He built that in 59, and I guess that full length was the thing then. Any thoughts ?

Hey Gregg C, if the gun is shooting 1.5 MOA or better, I'd leave it be. Full-length bedding can work and does work for some rifles. It's not "wrong". Probably not great for a target rifle that will be shot a lot and get hot. But a hunting rifle, where 1 or 2 shots is about all it's going to see at one time? Full-length bedding is fine.

 

[Frog4aday]

<SNIPPED STUFF>
I have two questions:
1) how many of you bed under the chamber area of the barrel?
2) If you bed under the chamber area, how are you squaring the front edge up and making it look good?

I like CoHunt's reply - more than one way to do it and they all work depending on caliber, barrel profile, stock material, etc.. If you were looking to get into benchrest competition with a gun heavier than your car, you would just do whatever it is that they do. But most of us are just hunting and shooting and are happy when we get to 0.5 MOA (or better.) For the nitpickers, please note I said "most of us..."

I've bedded just the recoil lug area. I've bedded two inches under the barrel. I've full-length bedded. You never know until you do it what is going to work. Plus the circumstances were different in each case, which is why I chose the method I did.

I used to bed the recoil lug all the way around. And let me tell you, it is a pain to get the gun out of the bedding when you do that. But, it worked great. Guns shot well. Then I read that people were putting tape on the FRONT of the recoil lug when bedding, then removing the tape after so there was room to get the lug in and out of the stock in the future without 'fighting' it. That made sense to me. So I now bed the back, bottom, and sides of the recoil lug, but tape the front to leave some 'play' in that direction for ease of disassembly and reassembly. What's "right"? I don't know. Ask 10 guys on here and you'll get that many variations of 'right'. I wonder what they teach at 'gunsmithing' school?

Bedding just the lug OR bedding some barrel, too, I use layers of duct tape to be my 'dam' and create a gap where I don't want bedding to barrel contact. I really don't care too much what it all looks like inside the stock when I'm done. No one will see it unless they take the gun apart. Since it is my gun, they shouldn't be taking it apart. And if they buy it from me, and it becomes 'their' gun, they can tidy it up all they want at that point ;o)

What I have learned though is to ALWAYS do the tang/rear area of the action when you do the lug! Actions flex when you tighten that rear screw if there is no bedding back there. It can cause 'weird' things to happen, to include sear release and firing pin fall when you really don't want that. That'll get your attention!

 

[Clay Target Guy]

This is an old bedding job in did years ago but you can see what I am talking about. The white line are hair line scratches from where I was cleaning up the front edge. Photobucket has some of my better stuff hostage.

 

[Dr. Vette]

I use 2 layers of blue masking tape on the stock, oriented perpendicular to the direction of the barrel. I then put release agent on this.

On the barrel I use black vinyl tape, 2-3 inches wide, often sold as plumbing supply. It's not that adhesive but sticks to itself well. I wrap the barrel with enough layers that it "almost" touches the blue tape. In doing so there is minimal room for bedding material to go between. Release agent here as well.

After I'm done with the bedding I can usually trim the bedding material with an Xacto knife at the back edge of the blue tape when I'm done and it works well, giving a nice sharp edge.

 

[jrock]

I use tape around the barrel at the front of the stock to center it. I use modeling clay for the dam. Just force the gun down into it until it bottoms out. Then take an knife of exact zero (exacto) and trim a nice clean edge to the dam. Works perfectly 100% of the time with no cleanup required.

 

[ntsqd]

I've only bedded a couple rifles so I've been reading up. On this last rifle I dropped an endmill back into the barrel channel and cut the front edge of the under-barrel bedding square. This worked because I had already been in there removing wood to lighten the stock so the bottom of the forearm channel was already flat. The Play-Doh dam did very little to contain the excess bedding epoxy. Finding modeling clay in this town on short notice wasn't happening. I do like the idea of taping the channel first. Had I done that the dam may have just moved forward en mass. Band of electrical tape on the barrel centered it in the notch at the front of the forearm.

One thing that I like to do is to gently roll that front edge of the bedding with sand paper. I don't want a sharp transition there. If the barrel does vibrate there I want it to "roll on" and "roll off" the front edge rather than "bending" over a sharp edge.

The action screws should pull a round action into the stock to keep it from rotating in the bedding. Given that, I tape the front, sides and bottoms of the recoil lugs so as to minimize damage done to the bedding with any R&R of the action from the stock.
Except for this Howa Mini, I didn't tape the bottom because the front action screw threads into the bottom of the recoil lug so the pillar needed to bear directly on the bottom of the lug.

 

[jrock]

I got modeling clay at Walmart in the kids play-dough section. Didn't want to go to a art shop and pay through the nose

 

[jlvandersnick]

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