Ol' Mike,
You can take the barreled receiver and wrap a support band of 1" wide taper around the barrel about 2" short of the end of the forend. Wrap the tape up until the tapped support pad just fits in the barrel channel with no side to side movement. We do not want it tight to push into the channel, it should sit easily in the channel but the support pad should hold the barrel with no side to side play.
The key here is to not tighten the receiver screws down when you bed the rifle. If you do, the barreled receiver will flex and when you are finished the barrel/channel fit will the the same as it was and worse yet you will have a stressed bedding system.
To prevent this, apply your bedding compound, drop in your barreled receiver with the approriate applied release agent of course.
Take your rear receiver screw and holding the barreled receiver up out of the bedding slightly, engage the rear receiver screw and begin to screw it into the receiver. Slowly allow the barreled receiver to settle into the bedding. I prefer to keep the muzzle slightly elevated compared to the rear of the receiver.
As the receiver starts to bottom out on the stock, allow the receiver/barrel to level out as well and sit in the barrel channel.
Turn the rear receiver screw until it JUST bottoms out. We do not want to tighten anything here, just snug enough to hold things where they are.
Then let the receiver settle into the bedding until the barrel support pad bottoms out in the barrel channel. You can carefully apply pressure if needed to lower the receiver into the bedding compound but be gental!! I generally will apply very light pressure to the front of the receiver as well as the barrel at the support pad until the support pad bares on the barrel channel and then no more pressure.
If you over do it you will push out more compound then you should and the bedding quality will suffer. Then take the same tape you used to build up the barrel support pad and apply several tight wraps around the barrel at the point of the support pad and around the stock forend. This will hold the barrel solidly into the stock but will not stress the bedding because the pressure is counter balanced by the support pad itself.
Basically the barrled receiver is held in a floating postion for the bedding to cure.
Generally to aid in clean up, I will take some cotton swabs and clean out the front action screw hole and then insert the front action screw and screw it in several turns. Not bottoming it out in any way, don;t even want it to contact the stock as this will stress the system, just making a hole in the bedding for the front receiver screw.
Things to look for when setting up the rifle for this type of bedding:
-Make sure the barreled receiver is level when supported by the barrel pad. We don;t want the barrel pointing up in the air, looks bad!! Level it in the barrel channel best you can with the support pad.
-Be sure to apply release agent to the receiver and barrel, all over, inside the bolt locking lug recesses as well as there will be compound squeeze up into this area as well. Also use release agent on your receiver screws as well!! Very important.
-Be sure not to overtighten the rear receiver screw when setting the receiver into the bedding, just want it to bottom out, not tighten down!!
-If any, only apply light, even pressure to settle the receiver into the bedding until the support pad bottoms in the barrel channel, no pressure is best but at times some is needed.
This system when done correctly will center your barrel in the barrel channel and things will look much better when finished.
Obviously remove tape from barrel after bedding!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Kirby Allen(50)
