How do you remove bedding from a stock?

[MontanaRifleman]

I picked up a Sub MOA Vanguard at a pawn shop and when i brought it home and removed the action, it was bedded from about 2" in front of the receiver to about an inch or so behind the recoil lug, then a little under the tang. It appears that the barrel is a little cockeyed off-center in the stock and it needs to be floated out. It's the standard Sub MOA Vanguard B&C aluminum bedded stock.

Your help is much appreciated.

-Mark

 

[Dr. Vette]

Dremel tool + deep well socket and 80 grit sand paper followed by 120 or 200 grit if you want to sand the channel. Go SLOW with the Dremel and try not to hit the base stock material.

I own 2 of these stocks. They do not have aluminum under the whole action, ONLY at the two action screw holes, i.e. the pillars. These stocks are manufactured crooked (or at least they get that way when the foam cools in the mfg process since there is no internal support, which is my theory) and they all need to be tweaked for proper bedding. The B&C stocks with full aluminum bedding are markedly better.

You will probably need to remove a bit of material on the right side of the recoil lug and just in front of that. There is probably interference there. You will also find that if you want to make the ejector port even (level) with the opening in the stock that you'll end up with many layers of masking tape around the barrel and you'll automatically be free floated. These stocks also "droop" in the forearm. FYI, the owner of B&C told me that the cost difference between a full aluminum bed and the "pillar bed" of the Sub-MOA stocks is relatively small, but Wby chooses the less expensive one anyway...

Let me know if you have questions.

 

[shortgrass]

I picked up a Sub MOA Vanguard at a pawn shop and when i brought it home and removed the action, it was bedded from about 2" in front of the receiver to about an inch or so behind the recoil lug, then a little under the tang. It appears that the barrel is a little cockeyed off-center in the stock and it needs to be floated out. It's the standard Sub MOA Vanguard B&C aluminum bedded stock.

Your help is much appreciated.

-Mark

You can use a rotory burr, or the old fashioned way , with a sharp gouge and carving mallet, sometmes,,,, both.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

Thanks for the replies.

Dremel tool + deep well socket and 80 grit sand paper followed by 120 or 200 grit if you want to sand the channel. Go SLOW with the Dremel and try not to hit the base stock material.

I own 2 of these stocks. They do not have aluminum under the whole action, ONLY at the two action screw holes, i.e. the pillars. These stocks are manufactured crooked (or at least they get that way when the foam cools in the mfg process since there is no internal support, which is my theory) and they all need to be tweaked for proper bedding. The B&C stocks with full aluminum bedding are markedly better.

You will probably need to remove a bit of material on the right side of the recoil lug and just in front of that. There is probably interference there. You will also find that if you want to make the ejector port even (level) with the opening in the stock that you'll end up with many layers of masking tape around the barrel and you'll automatically be free floated. These stocks also "droop" in the forearm. FYI, the owner of B&C told me that the cost difference between a full aluminum bed and the "pillar bed" of the Sub-MOA stocks is relatively small, but Wby chooses the less expensive one anyway...

Let me know if you have questions.

You are right. There are only pillars for the action screws. I just took a quick look and assumed it was a full aluminum bedded stock after seeing the pillars under the bottom metal. I also just noticed that the barrel is completely bedded and not the greatest job of that it there is a fair amount play in the forearm, about a 16th or so and the gap is on one side which makes it look a little cockeyed. The bedding compound (looks like Devcon) is about the same color as the stock so it blends in. It was lightly sanded so it looked like an attempt to float the barrel.

You can use a rotory burr, or the old fashioned way , with a sharp gouge and carving mallet, sometmes,,,, both.

Thanks for the tips gentlemen. I need to get a Dremel anyway... no tinkerer should be without one. I'll get a sharp chisel too. I think I'll shoot it first just for kicks before I get too carried away. If it doesn't do well, I'll have another project to keep me busy.

Thanks again gents

 

[Dr. Vette]

FYI, one of mine was done for the previous owner by an "old school" gunsmith and apparently the common way to bed in yesteryear was to do the barrel. The deep well socket + sandpaper worked exceptionally well for that.

A new fully aluminized stock from Stockys is $205-225. Think of how much your time is worth before you spend too much of it on this stock. That's how I acquired one of my stocks - it's probably not worth anyone fixing it.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

Looking a little closer at it, it looks like the barrel was bedded first. There's a seam about 1 1/2" in front of the lug where it flows over the barrel channel bedding.

Yeah, I actually have a couple of the full aluminum bedded one on the way in LA from Stocky's for a couple other actions.

I don't think it should take more than an hour or so to get this down far enough to skim bed over it.

 

[bigngreen]

A lot of times just using a flat tip screw driver and a light hammer and give the bedding a tap a 1/4 inch in from the edge and it will chip out fast! Also removed a sorry bedding job the other night that was Devcon, use the Dremel with a little wire wheel. It came out real well without and unintended free styling