johnnyk, the procedure to bed in the orig plastic Savage stocks is identical to any stock.
The difference is in the prep. All plastics have a surface 'oil' or mold release. This stuff has to come off.
First step is to clean with an organic solvent. I use aerosol brake cleaner because it leaves no residue. Go outside and spray liberally. The surface will go a whitish grey so make sure little is sprayed on the outside. I let it air dry.
Don't start by sanding the surface as you will drive that surface oil INTO the plastic. Real hard to get it out then and you will have serious delam problems.
Now gouge up the surface. Forget about sanding drums, you want deep scratches at different angels. I used a chisel and very strong knife. Just don't go overboard and cut or weaken the stock. You can also drill shallow holes at different angels. You are giving the bedding a mechanical grip on that stock.
clean again with the brake cleaner and bed as usual. I use the two syringe epoxy steel you can get at most hardware stores. Works as well if not better then the gunsmith stuff and very convenient.
I also like to flow some extra bedding into the front recoil lug area so that it will form a dam in front of the lug. Hold the stock almost vertical so the epoxy flows back onto the recoil lug.
I have bedded a 7RM that is nasty for shaking up all my scope bases and rings. The bedding however is still 100% fixed.
Once the bedding is done, free float that barrel channel. On the bottom, there is over 1/8" gap. The sides are a little under 1/8".
Even when squeezing with my hand, the barrel does not touch the stock. The results shooting have been very favorable.
Factory barrel, sub MOA to way out there. A very nice gun with horrid recoil pads. I swapped in a prefit Hogue ooey gooey pad. Works great with the Micaluk muzzle brake (like shooting a 22/250). Not a perfect fit but close enough. I got this from Brownells.
Jerry
