Glass Bedding

[kflan22]

Does one need to glass bed a laminate stock? They are pretty stiff so you wouldn't think things are going to move around if the action screws are torqued properly.

The rifle I'm referring to is a cheap Savage .243 that I put in a Boyds Classic stock with checkering(not important but it looks great!) and its has a rifle basix trigger. The gun shoots 5 shots under an inch with handloads so I haven't messed with it much. I'm looking for consistency, not bench rest accuracy. So I'm wondering if things will change if I don't glass bed?

I would really appreciate hearing some of your opinions and experiences.

Thanks!

[lyonch]

I recomend bedding all actions. Your consistency will be noticed in severe temperature changes. Even a laminate stock expands and shrinks with humidity and temperature changes. Just my 2 pennies on it.

[kflan22]

I should also add that the barrel is floated in this stock.

[leadbiscuit]

The Boyd's stocks are an excellent value and definitely a cut above injection molded synthetics that normally come on lower priced rifles. I've seen a few that were inletted slightly off center but that has no effect on how a stock performs. Just a cosmetic thing. You're right about the laminates being plenty stiff. That having been said, I'm with Chris on this one. I even bed my aluminum block stocks with Devcon. For me it's mostly a peace of mind thing. I can remove and reinstall a stock on any of my guns without having to worry about a shifting zero. No need to check it. I like that. I would say that if you're capable of bedding it yourself, do it. If you have to pay someone to do it.... just run it the way it is and see what happens.

have a good one
leadbiscuit

[Prairie Ghost]

+1 I think they should all be bedded

[Coyotehunter]

I would bed it.

[kflan22]

Thanks guys, I think I'll give the bedding a try on my own over the weekend. I'll let you know how it goes.

[bucksnbears]

kflan, if your gonna do it yourself and have never done it before, follow instructions to the letter. one wrong move and it can turn into a disaster. some kits come with modeling clay, some don't. make sure you have some on hand before starting. there are spots that need to be filled befroe you start. good luck

[leadbiscuit]

kflan

How did things turn out?

[kflan22]

kflan

How did things turn out?

Well, I decided to leave the .243 alone for now since it seems to be shooting well enough. Thats the good news...

The bad news, according to my wife, is that I picked up an Accustocked 22-250. Oh, what a solution!

Barrel is a 24 inch medium weight, stainless, fluted. I've never seen one before. It looks to be an identical rifle to the Savage Predator Hunter MAX-1 only its stainless with a black stock instead of camo, so I pretty much had to buy it! Anyway, now I have satisfied my wanting of a rock solid shooting platform. I have always wanted a Hot Rod that shoots lights out. 36 grains of Varget and a 50 grain V-MAX shot very well when breaking in the barrel so I don't think I'm even going to do any fine tuning.

It wasn't the solution to my original problem but I'm sure the .243 bedding project will happen soon enough this winter. When I tackle it, I'll be sure to let everyone know how it goes.

Thank you again for the opinions and advice, guys. I really do appreciate it.

Keaton

[barebackjack]

Just about anything will benefit (to some degree) from a simple skim bed job. Fiberglass, plastic, laminate, or straight wood. Just how much of a benefit, well you wont know till you do it. If done right, it certainly wont hurt anything.

One thing I do on stocks with integral bedding blocks is just bed the recoil lug area and the very rear of the action at the tang. Bedding these two areas assures proper alignment if you ever pull the action. Its a lot faster, and you dont need to completely tear down the action to do it, and pretty much gives the same results as a full length action bed IF you have a solid bedding block or pillars in the stock.

Just make sure to triple check your application of release compound, or you'll likely destroy your fancy stock getting the action back out.

[sandhillkid]

bedding ur rifle will help alot! Marine tex is great! thats alll i use.KIWI SHOE POLISH, synlube, and brownells release agent all work good
I just bedded my 250 ackl. this fall. shoots well under 1/2 inch.Have any questions just ask. GL!

[kflan22]

kflan

How did things turn out?

I used Permatex Cold Weld as bedding and Pam as the release agent. I just did the recoil lug area for now.

Would like to know what you guys think.

thanks

[leadbiscuit]

kflan,

If that was your first attempt, I'd say you did pretty damn well. What you did there could best be described as "skim bedding". In other words, you bedded without removing any of the original stock material. I do it that way once in a while too. I'm guessing it will work just fine. On my personal rifles, I always remove a fair amount of material from the stock and bed it back in. You can see how I do it if you check out the build thread on my 22-243. An alternative to using the mill like I did is to use a dremel type rotary tool. If you ever need to free float a barrel but don't feel like sanding out the barrel channel, You can do what you did there and simply add a thin plastic or metal shim under the front of the action between the front screw and the recoil lug.

lead

[kflan22]

Thanks for the words of confidence and also the suggestions, I appreciate it.

This was my first bedding job, talk about being nervous! All I did was rough up the bedding area with 80 grit sandpaper and did a little work with a wood chisel in the recoil lug area before applying the bedding. Now I'm wondering if this will be sufficient or should I bed the rear action screw area too? The fit seems very good as far as I can tell.