Recoil Bedding Attempt: Part Deux
- Thread starter General RE LEE
- Start date
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GRL- good job. It really did pay to take the time to redo it. Those are excellent results. Begaras can be made to shoot, almost always need to be bedded properly, often the crown needs work, and sometimes the feed and ejection needs some tuning. On a gun at that price, would think it should do 1/2 MOA out of the box, but most of them won't. Every one I worked on would once the bedding and and in a few cases the crown were addressed. The one exception was one that needed a new Barrel. Bad chamber, and bore was also drilled off centre.
General RE LEE
Well-Known Member
Thank you for your help! BTW Bergara put a new barrel on this one free of charge. It couldn't do better than 1.5" match ammo and handloads. Incredible amount of copper in patches when cleaning. This new barrel is good.
Nice trigger work!
nealm66
Well-Known Member
Awesome!
Kmccord
Well-Known Member
Nice, I have an HMR in 6.5 Creed, it has never shot as good as I think it should. I will be pulling it out of the safe when it warms up a little more and begin the process. What was your target like prior to bedding with the new barrel?
General RE LEE
Well-Known Member
It could group 2-3 shots sub MOA but it threw fliers.
Kmccord
Well-Known Member
Yeah, that is what I am seeing. I took the action out of the stock and see paint on the pillars and it was flaking.
Long and short, bedding in their stocks sucks, pillars are too small, they don't make good contact, and the stocks themselves are very soft material. If you look at the OP's first thread about bedding this stock you will see what we are talking about.
I have never seen a Bergara that didn't shoot markedly better after being bedded.
Pillars do not need to be large, their purpose is to STOP the compression of the stock material, and it does not take a lot of material in the pillar to do this at all. Copper tubing cut to the proper length will serve you well. The large pillars are for marketing purposes. We also learned that metal on metal can create strange harmonics, and you are better served with bedding on top of a pillar.
Just think of the number of Unbeded Al block stocks that could benefit from the bedding job. I have had a few that shot well unbedded, but I give all of mine a skim coat before I fire the first shot.
Just think of the number of Unbeded Al block stocks that could benefit from the bedding job. I have had a few that shot well unbedded, but I give all of mine a skim coat before I fire the first shot.
General RE LEE
Well-Known Member
Looks like you may have used too much hardener in your mixture. Too much hardener makes it brittle. Also, you really need to spend a LOT of time in the prep, not only the action but also the stock. The stock finish on the tang area should almost be removed but should definitely be roughed up. I lightly remove all that finish with my Dremmel. All the areas epoxy is being applied to on the stock need to be thoroughly cleaned and definitely roughed up, otherwise the epoxy will not adhere.
General Lee, I think that you will be ok. Let the bedding sit up for a while and cure completely. Drill the holes out with a 5/16 bit from the top, not the bottom. If you drill out from the bottom, it may take a chunk of bedding out as the drill bit breaks through.
One common mistake is to not use enough bedding, you want the bedding squirting out everywhere, just remove the excess with Q tips. I only use one end of the Q tip as when you use both ends, the chances of you getting bedding material on your fingers go up exponentially, and it gets on the stock.
Good advice from JAY on prep. Rough up all areas, and I would advise you to use Starting fluid or Brake Cleaner as a degreaser on the bedding area.
MAKE SURE the bottom of the recoil lug floats, and clearance between the bottom of the lug, and bedding, this is very important.
Lines on the edges of the stock will be very clean when you use Q tips to remove the excess bedding material that is oozing out. You can also use a toothpick to cut a clean line at a 45* angle that will cut the curing bedding material out below the top of the stock line.
Remember when you are done, put the action back in the stock, always do the test where you force your index finger under the barrel at the end of the forearm tip, loosen and tighten the front guard screw. If you feel any movement, skim coat bed the action once more.
One common mistake is to not use enough bedding, you want the bedding squirting out everywhere, just remove the excess with Q tips. I only use one end of the Q tip as when you use both ends, the chances of you getting bedding material on your fingers go up exponentially, and it gets on the stock.
Good advice from JAY on prep. Rough up all areas, and I would advise you to use Starting fluid or Brake Cleaner as a degreaser on the bedding area.
MAKE SURE the bottom of the recoil lug floats, and clearance between the bottom of the lug, and bedding, this is very important.
Lines on the edges of the stock will be very clean when you use Q tips to remove the excess bedding material that is oozing out. You can also use a toothpick to cut a clean line at a 45* angle that will cut the curing bedding material out below the top of the stock line.
Remember when you are done, put the action back in the stock, always do the test where you force your index finger under the barrel at the end of the forearm tip, loosen and tighten the front guard screw. If you feel any movement, skim coat bed the action once more.
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I don't pillar bed stocks because I find Devcon Bedding them, and using Devon pillars works far better than any pillar jobs I have seen. However, if they are going to put in Pillars, they need to ensure the pillar is shaped properly so that it makes full contact to the receiver. A flat top pillar mating to a round receiver is very likely to cause all kinds of harmonics issues, so I am not surprised you have found they work better with a skim coat on them. Also, if you have Devconed the action you need not worry about compressing when tightening. Devon takes a whole wack of pressure and does not compress. With Devcon pillars also installed, or not, I defy you to compress anything without twisting the action screws off.
GREL - keep working on it, you will get it down pat with practice
, big step up from the first one.
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