To Bed or Not Bed the Recoil Lug in New McMillian Edge Stock

[Bwht4x4]

I just purchased a new Rem 700 CDL SF in 30-06. I'm going through the motions of upgrading some of the components of the rifle. To date it's been a new Jewell trigger and a McMillian Edge stock (came with pillars). I have the Talley rings and now waiting for the Leupold scope. I have not shot it yet.

I'm considering whether or not skim bed the action or just bed the recoil lug. To be honest I'm not sure what I would skim bed because below the action as there's really nothing there and what is there is so low that no part of the action is resting on it. It appears like the only spots the action touches the stock is around the recoil lug/front bolt hole and at the rear tang/bolt hole. The rear tang is such a small spot and wouldn't take much bedding. Right now I'm leaning toward just bedding the recoil lug with Devcon epoxy and nothing else. I am thinking I wanted to give it a solid area to push against.

The other issue is the barrel is not centered in the barrel inletting. Can this be re-centered if I bed the lug?

So...

Should I bed just the recoil lug before I shoot it or shoot it first?

Should I skim bed all of it before I shoot it?

If I skim bed all of it what do I bed....the recoil lug area and the small rear tang area? There isn't much else to bed.

Thanks

 

[Shane Lindsey]

Greetings,
For the amount of money you paid for that stock, I would send it back to Mcmillan and have them fix the barrel channel first.

Once you get it back, it has the pillars, mount it up and shoot it first. Then look to bed it if isn't grouping to your standards. I once bedded a Sendero around the lug and tang only. Very pleased with what that did.

I have been looking at these for a 270 that I want to make a mountain/lite weight.

Hope you get it to shoot.

Shane

 

[Joel Russo]

I would do a complete bedding job, then properly free float the barrel.

You will never realize the accuracy potential of the barreled action if you do not properly bed it.

If you are not comfortable doing it yourself, send it to a reputable smith or stock maker.

 

[Hunter2678]

i would do a complete bedding job, then properly free float the barrel.

You will never realize the accuracy potential of the barreled action if you do not properly bed it.

If you are not comfortable doing it yourself, send it to a reputable smith or stock maker.

+1,000,000.

I'll always bed my rifles, takes one less variable & weakness out of the equation.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

I would do a complete bedding job, then properly free float the barrel.

You will never realize the accuracy potential of the barreled action if you do not properly bed it.

If you are not comfortable doing it yourself, send it to a reputable smith or stock maker.

Joel, what advantage if any is the full bed vs the 2 point bed (recoil lug and tang)?

 

[Bwht4x4]

Thanks guys for the replies. As I mentioned and as the picture shows the only parts of the stock that can be bedded are the rear tang and the area around the recoil lug. The other areas of the stock under the receiver are either too low or just nothing there. Because of this there is no way to fully bed the receiver without adding additional material underneath it.

My biggest issue is the fact that it's not centered. It's not a big deal and is still floated, but if I squeeze the barrel and stock together at the closest spot they will touch. Without the screws in place I can mess with the receiver and get the barrel to be centered, but as soon as you put that rear screw in it goes off to one side.

If I decide to bed it what's the technique for centering the barrel. I know about the electrical tape on the barrel inside of the inlet to center it. What I don't know is once the bedding is in place and the barrel is centered and all of it is held tight in the stock to cure, what happens afterwards. Will bedding and centering of the barrel throw the stock screw holes off and/or cause the receiver screw holes to be off center from the stock holes?

 

[Swamplord]

Last summer I had my 300 Rum LSS converted to a 338 Edge, I did the sane thing by going with a Jewell trigger and a Hollands recoil lug... I also got me a new McMillan HTG stock that had a similar problem you describe, the barrel was off center when the stock was snugly attached..

I ended up using a dremel tool and "Miles Gilbert Bedrock Glass Bedding Kit" to fix that up...

I had already opened up the recoil lug recess for the Hollands recoil lug anyway and continued to remove a bit more material and making several cuts and angled holes drilled away from each other as anchor points to hold the bedding material...

I had a gunsmith skim bed the rifle on the factory LSS stock a few years ago and all his crap came up and peeled away as it was a thin surface layer with no hold onto the stock

in order to center the barrel in the channel and get it at the correct height to bed I used a roll of electricians tape and kept adding tape onto the barrel at the fore end of the stock for the desired effect ......

just follow the directions that come with the kit and you will be okay... it comes in black also but my local supplier only had the brown available.....

My 338 Edge shoots fandamntastic after the bedding job without any kind of action accurizing or truing/blueprinting etc...

After seeing how well it shoots I decided not to mess with it anymore and canceled the action tuning,
I don't know the current quality of Rem 700's but the one I have was fine,
matter of fact the 300 RUM factory chambering shot the 200 gr Swift A-Frames and Accubonds very well also but having two 300 Rums I figured I "needed" a 338 Edge just so I could be cool like all these other guys on LRH... (like my kids would say, lolz dude !)

 

[MontanaRifleman]

Thanks guys for the replies. As I mentioned and as the picture shows the only parts of the stock that can be bedded are the rear tang and the area around the recoil lug. The other areas of the stock under the receiver are either too low or just nothing there. Because of this there is no way to fully bed the receiver without adding additional material underneath it.

What I refer to as a "fully" bedded action is what Swamplord is showing in his pics. Maybe my terminology is wrong? The point being that all the action that is n contact with the stock is bedded vs just the lug and tang areas.

There are some good tutorials on youtube and at least one in the forum here.

 

[Bwht4x4]

Thanks MR for the clarification.

Also feel free to post any links you know of to YouTube or here on LRH.

 

[Bwht4x4]

One thing I just noticed is if I push on the barrel to try and center it in the stock it get's very close to being centered and then if I push it back it goes back to being off-centered too. Almost like something is not holding it tight enough and/or it's not being supported side to side.

I called McMillian and they said to sand a couple of specific spots in the stock to provide room for it to move toward center and then they said bedding the lug would help too with centering it and with overall accuracy. I think I'll try this and see what happens.

 

[Swamplord]

Regardless of what you may have heard, McMillan stocks are not "drop in" and shoot.... any gunsmith will tell you that, you will run into those that will require a bit more work, like the ones you and I have, but can be easily fixed by removing a bit of material and "fully" bedding..

Even the Bell and Carlson V block type of stocks perform better after skim bedding, forget their claims of drop in and shoot ,

You have in your hands one of the best made stocks, treat her as such and make her bed properly, she will never let you down.
then give her a cool pet name and you will be friends forever !

 

[Joel Russo]

Joel, what advantage if any is the full bed vs the 2 point bed (recoil lug and tang)?

Not really sure there is an advantage, as long as they are both stress free.. The whole purpose of the bedding process is to create a "stress free environment" for the action to sit in the stock.
I don't pay any mind to the barrel channel when I bed stocks. I just make sure the barrel does not touch any part of the stock when I do the bedding. After I complete the bedding, I will open the barrel channel appropriately. Some guys will wrap the barrel in tape to center it in the channel, and that will work just fine.
I like to do a full bed on everything. it's just a bit more work, but I feel the results are worth the effort.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

Thanks MR for the clarification.

Also feel free to post any links you know of to YouTube or here on LRH.

This video is in the Videos Of Tech Stuff And Reviews forum.

http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f94/range-report-after-bedding-remmington-700-sps-v-89790/

Here's another video tutorial by a member, Kiwi Nate

Bedding a Rifle With MatchGrade Bedding Compound

You can also google "youtube action bedding"

 

[Bwht4x4]

Regardless of what you may have heard, McMillan stocks are not "drop in" and shoot.... any gunsmith will tell you that, you will run into those that will require a bit more work, like the ones you and I have, but can be easily fixed by removing a bit of material and "fully" bedding..

Even the Bell and Carlson V block type of stocks perform better after skim bedding, forget their claims of drop in and shoot ,

You have in your hands one of the best made stocks, treat her as such and make her bed properly, she will never let you down.
then give her a cool pet name and you will be friends forever !

Funny thing what you mentioned. I contacted McMillian when I first got the stock and they clearly said to me that I may need to dremel out a little here or there to get it to fit, but likely not that much and I definitely wouldn't need a gunsmith. They also were very clear about not bedding it until I shoot it. They said 90% of the time they will shoot perfect unbedded and bedding will only wring out a tiny bit more of the accuracy, possibly. Another good buddy of mine too said to shoot it first before even doing anything to it.

Unfortunately I'm a bit of an OCD perfectionist and want a gun that can consistently shoot cloverleafs. I get the scope tomorrow and may have to take it to the range this weekend to see how it shoots unbedded and uncentere, but either way I still want the action/barrel to fit perfect in the stock and it will bug me to death until it does. I never follow the, " perfect is the enemy of good."

I'm tempted to do the bedding myself, but leery of tackling it due to the fact I need to center the barrel. Even though I've never bedded a rifle it doesn't scare me. What scares me is how to fix the dynamics behind what is causing the barrel to be off center without causing undue stress somewhere else during the process. Rhetorical question: If I sand a little here and there and then bed it and then put the screws back in and they bind a little in the pillars am I going to have an issue?