Bedding 20MOA Rail

[Mxracer532]

So I have searched and read and watched Youtube video's and still have a ?.
I prefit the EGW rail to my Vanguard and what I noticed is a small gap in rear corner with screws in the front. So I checked with screws in the back and there was a little bit more of a gap in the front than the back. So do I tighten the back screws and bed only the front and hope I dont screw up the 20moa base? Or bed both front and rear and only slightly tighten the 2 inside screws? Thanks guys.

 

[kcebcj]

I have my smith bed every rail I install. Now I have never stood right there and watched him but at the start talked at length with him about it and how he does it in general. He jig's the rifle up in his mill so he can properly check the rail with a dial indicator at all four corners. He beds the whole rail adjusting it with the screws till it's perfect and the excess bedding material is shoved out.

The whole thing wants to be straight so when you mount the scope the rings align perfectly and if you don't have a way of checking that everything you do is a guess at best hence ring marks on your expensive scope or worse.

I use Near rails as they are perfect.....but spendy!

 

[bruce_ventura]

I recommend that you bed both the front and rear. Apply wax to the receiver and silicone to all threads. Use bedding compound sparingly. Some videos say to tighten the screws during epoxy cure. This a mistake. Finger tighten all screws only to squeeze out the excess epoxy. Torque on the screws should only be 1 in-lbs. That means take out the slack and stop turning when the screws start to resist being turned. The base will have negligible stress when the epoxy cures.

I use a long metal straight edge to check alignment of the receiver and rail with respect to the barrel. Be aware that many factory rifles have barrels that are installed crooked. I that case, I torque the rail with my fingers to get it closer to true with the barrel. There isn't much slop in the screw threads, so you can't take out much misalignment this way.

Also, the EGW screws that come stock are cheap. EGW or Brownells will sell you higher quality screws.