Bedding a Rifle

Hi Folks,

I've seen some good youtube videos, my rifle bedding kit comes with some detailed instruction, but I want to open it up to any suggestions you guys may have!

Saturday I'll be epoxy bedding my 700 into its HS Precision stock. Tips, tricks or lessons learned are appreciated!

Thanks!

Will not skimp! Got it, thanks!

Thinking I'm going to bed the chamber area, recoil lug, rear action screw area. I'd like to do around the sides and trigger area just to make it a bit weather resistant.

K, it's sitting now. Used lots of release agent. Shave some of my stock up front to get it free floating while I was there.

Things I think I messed up:

-I failed to tape the front and sides of the recoil lug.


Think the rest went OK though. Just did the first 1" of barrel, recoil lug/front action area and around the rear action screw. Didn't use hardly any epoxy, just enough to make good contact.

I supposed we'll see how it goes in another 15 hours! If me failing to tape off the recoil lug seems to be not a good thing, I suppose I could always take a dremel or something and shave a little off the bottom?

Thanks all for the help

Here's what I ended up with. Took a blade and whittled out the bottom of the recoil lug area, seems like I got plenty out.

Some of the epoxy stuck to my metal on the recoil lug and like 9 o clock of the action. Don't know if I should leave that or remove it. Seems like it'd be OK to leave.

Not tons of epoxy on the back wall of the recoil lug slot, but it clearly made contact. Rear action screw area looks good. First inch of barrel channel I'm not convinced made any contact, the epoxy doesn't look very squished.

What do you think? Good enough? Shoot it and see how it does, or do some additional epoxying?

Keep in mind I was happy with my accuracy before, I just figured while I was free floating the barrel a bit (which is good to go now) I may as well.

Thanks for the help

part of me feels like taking a dremel grinder to it and trying again, this time grinding a bit into the aluminum block and having the recoil lug taped up. more epoxy under the barrel too.

but I hate waiting 24 hours!

EDIT TO ADD:

and so I did. I dremeled off the front epoxy and what was in the recoil lug gap. gave it some additional room down in there. got the epoxy off the metal, retaped and release agented everything. dremeled the aluminum block a bit. re applied epoxy up front, added more to the first inch of barrel area. got it back in, screws in, rubber band on.

wait and see again.

was hoping someone would say so mountainbear, thanks. I didn't take much off the aluminum block, but based off the wear marks I had lots of room in there anyway, and it is currently sitting at its same, pre-epoxy height in the stock. I think thats a win.

I think part 2 is going better. little more coverage, better fit, and recoil lug taped right.

hey all,

just to put some closure on this, my second attempt went much better. metal was still sitting at the correct height in the stock, first inch of barrel now has support, the recoil lug got bedded right and the action has a much better fit. very tight taking it in and out of the stock now and you just about don't need to bolt it down for it to look like it is. despite all my release agent, I still had some of the epoxy come up with the metal. It was just a bit though, and came right off.

Still not a professional level job, but all that matters is what happens on paper right? so here are my three-shot groups for today. I consider it a great success. while the rifle itself may have gained a little bit of accuracy, I really like the consistency I see now.

thanks for the help and advice