Glass Bedding A Hunting Rifle

[rather be hunting]

Guys - I need your advice on this one. I have a Winchester Model 700 30-06 stainless synthetic featherweight rifle. Polished sear and Pachmyar decelerator recoil pad. I bought this rifle new and use only hand loads. The rifle shot very well for years until the factory recoil lug bedding fell off (soft bedding didn't adhere to stock). I have heard target shooters say you should only bed the back face of the lug. I am thinking of bedding the entire base of the lug (similar to factory) with Acraglass as this rifle will be in a gun scabbard on a quad where it will be exposed to lots of vibrations. I have also free floated the barrel. What do you recommend?

 

[manitou210]

Front & back and under

 

[Gibbs505]

Just be careful that you don't lock the action into the stock. Make sure that the action is properly prepared and that all nicks or dents are filled in with putty!

 

[JEC]

I would bed the same as it came from the factory...nothing wrong with a tight fit on all sides of the recoil lug as long as you can get it out. A single piece of tape applied to the front of the lug will give you enough room. Also, a good idea to leave some room on the bottom side of the lug so the lug does not "bottom out" (so a couple of tape thicknesses on the bottom of the lug)... As previously mentioned...watch for any features that will lock the action into the stock!

 

[Republic of Alberta]

Give yourself a little extra room around the front and possibly the bottom of the lug. The reason being if you do it tight around the whole thing it is hard to get the action in and out of the stock. But The biggest problem I have had is the lug is so tight it scrapes a bit of the epoxy off when tightening it down which then gets under the recoil lug and gives you a pressure point there. Only happened to me once but it did happen.

 

[Ganderite]

I agree with all of above. I tape the front, sides and bottom of the lug with duct tape. Cut off surplus with sharpe blade.

As Alberta says, if you don't, a shaving will get under the lug.

One trick I do is to take a fine file and take off the sharp edges of the recoil lug so it is easier to get in and out without scraping. I do this AFTER the bedding, so there is a little exrea room left in the corners for dust and crap.

Make sure you use a good release agent. I use spray on silicon mold release.

 

[guntech]

A rifle may shoot quite well with the lug fully bedded.. providing when you take it apart and reinstall it, you can get the lug to fully seat again... lugs are not exactly true in shape... and the smallest amount of scraping and friction can affect how it seats.

It is so much easier and more reliable to simply give the front, bottom and sides of the lug a little clearance. In doing so you take away one possibility of a problem that may occur. A little clearance in the right place does absolutely nothing to detract from accuracy and makes life so much easier.

I do it by using one layer of masking tape on the front, bottom and sides of the lug before applying release agent and bedding.... been doing it fairly successfully for 40 years.