Just did my first bedding job over the weekend, been planning it for a while and doing plenty of research. There are some pretty good You tube clips and tutorials on various websites. Each has their own preferred methods so I kind of picked and chose the materials and methods that made sense to me.
I ended up using Devcon for the bedding material and Kiwi shoe polish for the release agent. I also used some Play-Do to fill in the trigger group area to prevent the Devcon from entering that area and I dripped wax from a candle along the area where the internal box magazine meets the action so none of the Devcon would get in there and lock my action into the stock.
A dremel was used to remove material to allow for the bedding to have a place to go, after this I drilled a few 3/16 holes about 1/4" deep to give the bedding more adhesion to the wood.
A couple of longer bolts with the heads cut off centered the action on the factory pillars. A layer of tape on bolts centered them in the pillars. Electrical tape wrapped around barrel at far end of stock to center barrel in the channel.
Wood relieved and Play-Do in trigger area. After the photo, holes were drilled after this in the area around pillar and recoil lug.
Devcon oozing out after clamped into stock. In the back you can see the tang is free floated which is apparently the proper thing for a Savage rifle. As a Canadian Gun Nut I had to go with Canadian Tire money
Front area prior to clean up. Note candle wax mixed with Devcon in magazine area and tape stuck in bedding material.
Action with most overflow removed from magazine area.
What I learned and would do next time....
All in all I am happy with how it turned out and am anxious to see if this will eliminate some of my flyers and make my groups a little smaller. For those curious the rifle is a Savage 12 VLP, the last weekend I replaced the factory recoil lug with a SSS Competition one so I have had the barrel off recently. Gotta love the Savage barrel nut!!
I ended up using Devcon for the bedding material and Kiwi shoe polish for the release agent. I also used some Play-Do to fill in the trigger group area to prevent the Devcon from entering that area and I dripped wax from a candle along the area where the internal box magazine meets the action so none of the Devcon would get in there and lock my action into the stock.
A dremel was used to remove material to allow for the bedding to have a place to go, after this I drilled a few 3/16 holes about 1/4" deep to give the bedding more adhesion to the wood.
A couple of longer bolts with the heads cut off centered the action on the factory pillars. A layer of tape on bolts centered them in the pillars. Electrical tape wrapped around barrel at far end of stock to center barrel in the channel.
Wood relieved and Play-Do in trigger area. After the photo, holes were drilled after this in the area around pillar and recoil lug.
Devcon oozing out after clamped into stock. In the back you can see the tang is free floated which is apparently the proper thing for a Savage rifle. As a Canadian Gun Nut I had to go with Canadian Tire money
Front area prior to clean up. Note candle wax mixed with Devcon in magazine area and tape stuck in bedding material.
Action with most overflow removed from magazine area.
What I learned and would do next time....
- Use Play-Do only in mock up to see how much material to remove, as it is very soft and can be squeezed out to show what the bedding material would be like but it is a bit to soft to resist pressure of bedding material being pushed out would prefer a modeling clay for hole filling.
- Tape stock sides with several layers of tape to prevent accidental nicks and gouges when using dremel, (See first photo, now I have some refinishing to do)
- Keep taped off area ahead of recoil lug as smooth as possible to prevent tape from getting caught up in bedding material.
All in all I am happy with how it turned out and am anxious to see if this will eliminate some of my flyers and make my groups a little smaller. For those curious the rifle is a Savage 12 VLP, the last weekend I replaced the factory recoil lug with a SSS Competition one so I have had the barrel off recently. Gotta love the Savage barrel nut!!
