more bedding questions...

[earlcurtis67]

just a couple of questions on issues that came up when i bedded only the lug area of my LA remmington. first question, how should the lug be taped? i allways thought it should be taped front, back and sides. the reason for tape, i assume, is to allow clearence in the pocket to allow the barreled action to be removed from the stock. i understand that the tighter the clearence the better, but what is realistic for a hunting rifle?
second question, what are ya'lls thoughts on bedding foward of the recoil lug? my thought, and please chime in, is a longer seating plane would be a good thing, and by longer i mean 1"- 1.5" forward of the lug.
thanks in advance for you're thoughts and suggestions.....E

 

[J E Custom]

just a couple of questions on issues that came up when i bedded only the lug area of my LA remmington. first question, how should the lug be taped? i allways thought it should be taped front, back and sides. the reason for tape, i assume, is to allow clearence in the pocket to allow the barreled action to be removed from the stock. i understand that the tighter the clearence the better, but what is realistic for a hunting rifle?
second question, what are ya'lls thoughts on bedding foward of the recoil lug? my thought, and please chime in, is a longer seating plane would be a good thing, and by longer i mean 1"- 1.5" forward of the lug.
thanks in advance for you're thoughts and suggestions.....E

In order to hold the action in place I bed all surfaces of the lug and place a layer of tape on the bottom of the lug to be removed after the bedding cures.

On the bedding in front of the lug, I full float the light contours and bed 1/2" to 1" in front of the lug on Heavy or long barrels for extra support for the action.

As long as the shank is straight you can bed all but the last 1/2" of the shank on heavy and long barrels, just don't get into the tapered part of the shank.

Just my opinion

J E CUSTOM

 

[earlcurtis67]

so, no tape on the lug except for the bottom?...... E

 

[J E Custom]

so, no tape on the lug except for the bottom?...... E

Correct :That's the way I do them.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Hired Gun]

For ultimate accuracy I like to bed them tight front to rear but it does make it harder especially with the factory lug to get them out of the stock for cleaning. Most customers prefer a slip fit so we only tape the bottom, sides and front of the lug.

My opinion of a floated barrel is that there is nothing touching the barrel forward of the action. Even our extreme lightweight or the heaviest rifles we never bed any portion of the barrel. With bedding under any part of the barrel, any and all forearm pressure is transmitted directly into the barrel causing point of impact shifts. It also variably changes the harmonics of the barrel. For most hunting rifles this isn't really much of a factor but as the ranges extend and the degrees of accuracy are magnified this becomes important.

 

[earlcurtis67]

The bedding job on the lug area that i did didnt turn out the way i was hoping. After clean up, i sat the action back in the stock and discoverd that there was about .006" gap between the area just behind the recoil lug and the stock. Im thinking that this happened because i didnt tighten down on the action screws in order to seat the action down in the stock ( i only snugged them)
So, long story short, i sanded down the bedding foward of the lug and dug out some of the bottom of the lug pocket and bedded the whole action like i should have done in the first place. No harm no foul, it was a good lesson learned, at least i didnt have to use a chainsaw to get the action and the stock apart, haha. Hope this will help some one else.
I went ahead and bedded about 1" foward of the recoil lug, and i used marine tex for the bedding. will try to post a pic tommorow. thanks to some good advice from my fellow members i was more confident this time around..... E

 

[Dr. Vette]

I tape the sides, front and with most actions the bottom - but JE has a lot more experience than I do.

Note that rifles that have an action screw in the recoil lug, eg Weatherby Mark Vs or Vanguards as well as others, should not have tape on the bottom of the recoil lug.

 

[Dr. Vette]

The bedding job on the lug area that i did didnt turn out the way i was hoping. After clean up, i sat the action back in the stock and discoverd that there was about .006" gap between the area just behind the recoil lug and the stock. Im thinking that this happened because i didnt tighten down on the action screws in order to seat the action down in the stock ( i only snugged them)
E

I'll be interested to see if that .006" gap goes away or actually worsens if you tighten it down more. My suspicion is that it will worsen.

Give us an update when you can.

 

[Dr. Vette]

and take a look back at the other thread, reading this post when you can:

http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f37/bedding-question-127283/index5.html#post900576

garycrow is preaching the same sermon I am over there.

 

[earlcurtis67]

With the gap under the front part of the action and the forward part of the lug sitting on the new "bed", i wasn't gonna take any chances and risk stressing or worse bending the action by tightening the action screws.
So i sanded down the lug bedding , but then the recoil lug bottomed out in the pocket bedding, so i had to dig some of that out. when all was said and done, i was back to square one with the exception of a tighter pocket...
The new bedding job turned out pretty good, the marine tex was easy to work with and hardened nicely overnight. It didn't chip like JB weld during clean up. I used some 1 1/2 x 1/4 24 bolts with the heads cut off to center the action in the stock, and zip ties to keep the action from shifting while the epoxy was curing.
Things I would do different ; i would tape the upper part of the action and barrel to prevent getting the epoxy every where. (2) i would wait till after the epoxy cures to try and do ANY clean up. i used popsicle sticks and only succeeded in making a huge mess and smearing marine tex all over the action. (3) I would coat all the bottom edges of the action with release agent before filling with putty. this made clean up tedious trying to remove the cured epoxy with out scratching the blueing.
Hope this helps......E

 

[Hired Gun]

I quit masking up stuff a couple years ago. As soon as it's down and in position we whip out the Q Tips and start cleaning. Usually burn up a 1/4 of a box but we wipe off everything showing. This leaves very little to do once it pops out. The only thing we tape is the forearm under the barrel from right in front of the lug forward. Once hardened you can grind down to the tape and then just peal it up. This way we don't get any bedding under the barrel.

 

[Dr. Vette]

I mask everything, and I use Q-tips as well.

I'd rather eliminate any chance of leaving epoxy on the metal or scratching anything. And yes, I've seen Devcon leave the tiniest of scratches as you wipe it off with a Q-tip.