bedding - work back from the shop

[inglysh]

What do I do now?

I wasn't going to engage the shop again as 1. I knew I would just get upset 2. I didn't think they would take me seriously 3. I don't think they would put any more care into remedying the situation.

...but I did send them an email. I do not expect to hear back. It was pretty harsh.
While it is a 'nice shop', the guy I have dealt with always leaves me with the impression that he feels like he is better than is customers. It is a really strange attitude and one that I don't often come across. It's hard to explain... I'll call it a 'fake nice' with a side of 'my customers are all retarded and clearly don't know more than I do'.

My options are :

I could leave it like it is... shoots fine. I shot well under 1 moa @ 300 yards with a gusty wind. Really how often do I take the barrel off the action...

I could try to relieve the recoil lug work myself and bed/re-bed the action. what do accomplish here? I am not sure anything other than it might look a little better after I get done with it... maybe. And so what if it does look better? Who is going to know?

I could pay a pro to do it... but who?

In the grand scheme of things does it really matter? This may just be another lesson.

 

[inglysh]

I'm floored... at (a different) shop. The recoil lug is loose and the front pillar isn't true or making contact with the action.

 

[.257rwr]

I have done several rifles and it doesn't look bad at all to me. From what I see he did a fine job.

 

[inglysh]

I have done several rifles and it doesn't look bad at all to me. From what I see he did a fine job.

Click on the link to see the image of my gun. I suspect that you are referring to the work of another member.

 

[eshorebwhntr]

I'm floored... at (a different) shop. The recoil lug is loose and the front pillar isn't true or making contact with the action.

If it isn't sitting on the pillars I'd find a way to prove it and try to get some of your money back from the first shop. You might not but at least worth a try.

And for what it's worth I don't bed my lugs tight. I put 1 layer of painters tape on the bottom, sides and front of the lug. It comes out of the stock fairly easy but sits rock solid up against the rear of the lug. I also cut out a good bit of the wood behind the lug so that I have it pulling up against a thick piece of bedding compound under recoil. Not saying my way is the only way. Others bed them tight and have good luck. That's just how I've had good luck doing it.

If the other shop thinks they can fix it let them have a go at it. Ask them if they have any examples or pictures of others they've done and what steps they are going to take to get yours corrected.

 

[inglysh]

If it isn't sitting on the pillars I'd find a way to prove it and try to get some of your money back from the first shop. You might not but at least worth a try.

And for what it's worth I don't bed my lugs tight. I put 1 layer of painters tape on the bottom, sides and front of the lug. It comes out of the stock fairly easy but sits rock solid up against the rear of the lug. I also cut out a good bit of the wood behind the lug so that I have it pulling up against a thick piece of bedding compound under recoil. Not saying my way is the only way. Others bed them tight and have good luck. That's just how I've had good luck doing it.

If the other shop thinks they can fix it let them have a go at it. Ask them if they have any examples or pictures of others they've done and what steps they are going to take to get yours corrected.

So question... in the Tikka, the lug is built into the stock and without bedding would be removable/replaceable. I have no experience with this sort of work but my gut tells me in looking at it that I would want it rock solid. If I were going to do it, I would expose what I believed to be an appropriate amount of room for bedding compound both fore and aft of where the lug would need to rest leaving only enough material to keep the lug true and would, in one go, insert the lug into the compound and bed the entire action. Should the lug be allowed to float? I wouldn't think so.... anyone know?

 

[eshorebwhntr]

Rather than try to type out all the steps I do I'll try to dig up a video I found that I watched about 10 times to make sure I was doing it right a few years ago before I did my first one. It's actually a series and shows a great amount of detail. In my opinion this dude goes above and beyond and you can kind of tailor his process as you like (which is kind of what I did).

I'll give you my theory on the whole deal.

1. You want the bedding to be mated to your action so that it sits in there solidly, stress free and doesn't shift under recoil.

2. The job of the lug is to transfer the energy from the action to the stock. When this happens the rear of the lug is what is making contact. That is why I only tape the front, sides and bottom of the lug. That way you get a few thou of clearance on all sides except for the rear of the lug. That part should sit firmly against a good section of bedding compound, not wood.

3. The pillars should allow a more solid attachment to the stock. If installed correctly the metal pillars will allow your action bolts to go in finger tight about 95% of the way and then get tight all at once at the end rather than a "spongy" tightness that gets gradually tighter during the last 25%.

4. I tend to like the barrel completely free floated. Some will say the barrel needs a pressure point down the stock channel somewhere and can be "adjusted" to fine tune harmonics, blah, blah, blah. Not saying it won't work, I've just never had to do it to get the results I expected in about 8-10 guns I've done.

An end mill makes for pretty finish work but good functional results can be had with a dremel used carefully.

Here's the link to the videos I found the most educational.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GItWubJX6VY

 

[Pdvdh]

I bedded my Tikka T3 Lite into a Manners stock using information provided from this Thread. I used Devcon bedding material. The expensive stuff. The stock cost as much as the entire rifle. Anyhow, it shoots better than it ever did prior to bedding in the new stock.

http://www.ballisticstudies.com/Resources/Discussion+Forums/x_forum/17/thread/3925.html

 

[maninthemaze]

I've only bed three rifles, so my experience is very limited. But I believe that anyone who has a few basic tools and an understanding of what they are doing, can pillar bed their own rifle. There are numerous videos online that make this a very doable project. The article that gave the confidence to try my own was this one.

Stress-Free Pillar Bedding

I also contacted Richard Franklin and ordered his videos on pillar bedding.

http://store.richardscustomrifles.com/

Hopefully you can either get it fixed or learn to live with it. My only concern based on the pictures is the rear pillar looks to be recessed into the stock. After time, the wood will begin to collapse and the action screws won't stay tight.

 

[J E Custom]

https://goo.gl/photos/jY5bhfAz8Hi4bpeX7

How bout this link?

Sorry, that is not a bedding job. (Not even close)

At minimum it should be in full contact with the front receiver ring.

I try not to be to critical of how a bedding job looks as long as it supports the action in all the right places, But this is not worth anything and will not improve the accuracy. (If anything it will hurt it).

Here is "One" example of how to and what it should look like when finished. There are more good pictures and examples if you do a search.

Stress-Free Pillar Bedding

J E CUSTOM

 

[inglysh]

Sorry, that is not a bedding job. (Not even close)

At minimum it should be in full contact with the front receiver ring.

I try not to be to critical of how a bedding job looks as long as it supports the action in all the right places, But this is not worth anything and will not improve the accuracy. (If anything it will hurt it).

Here is "One" example of how to and what it should look like when finished. There are more good pictures and examples if you do a search.

Stress-Free Pillar Bedding

J E CUSTOM

So I hope to close out this thread very soon.

I don't recall if I posted, but I did engage with the shop that did the work after I discovered what it was going to cost to fix it.

Long and short, I demanded that they make reparations to me as a result of the botched job and they appear to have agreed.

While I am not getting everything I hoped for, I am none the less satisfied enough with the result.

I am being refunded the total cost of the work + the total cost of what I paid for the stock. Unfortunately, the stock was (and no longer is) on sale when I purchased it so I will not be able to get a like for like replacement. I am disappointed here because it was relatively nice wood and it'll cost me $100 to get back what I lost. That said, I am not out any money... which is good... And the guy made an effort to make things right... which I can't begin to describe just how shocked I was at this. From what I heard and expected, I believed that I was just going to be told to pound sand.

Moving forward, I am probably just going to leave the gun in it's tupperware container. This little experiment has left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth...

Chaps my @ss, the guy keeps saying he's done nothing wrong and has done good work. It is all I can do to hold my tongue... but hold my tongue I shall until this sh*tshow is over.

 

[Wild_Bill]

Ok he needs to rebed this timber stock that is not a problem or get a reputable gunsmith to do that for you it just looks like he used epoxy to glue the recoil lug in and glued 2 flat pillars that do not fit the action profile into your stock.
All that is there looks like it can be rectified.

Or get your money back from him and hand it over to someone that knows what they are doing.

Cheers Bill