I have been trying to work up loads for the nifty little Stevens 200 I got Christmas a year ago. Between other projects, I log some time with this little rifle w. 1:9 twist.

What I have found is I get two tight groups; one two and one three shot or a vertical stringing. Groups run just over an inch, but indicate a potential for doing better. I changed scopes, so it is not an issue. I figure it is a bedding issue, so I read a bunch here and on the Savage board.

One of the things I noted was that the stock was very flexible with the action out of the stock. I felt like this could also contribute to the groups I was seeing. I decided to reinforce the stock and bed the rifle.

I got some 1/2 inch wide flat mild steel stock at Home Depot that is about 3/32's thick. The first thing I did was epoxy a piece of this vertically in the fore end of the stock. This seemed to make that portion of the stock firmer.

I noted that it was easy to twist the stock and it flexed at the magazine box area. I cut pieces of the flat steel and made a box in the magazine box area of the stock. It did not interfere with the action, and I took some JB Weld and glued the corners together. I had a really tight fit, and after the JB Weld set up, the stock exhibited much greater stability. In retrospect, I think this might have been sufficient by itself to firm up the stock, but the piece of steel was already in the fore end.

"Soft bedding" was one of the things I read about, and I had never done anything like that before, so I decided to give it a go. Bad idea! The Stevens has a light weight plastic stock the inside of which is "skeletonized" with large voids. The silicon did not set up.

You remember the school yard song about "greasy, grimmy gopher guts?" Well, cleaning out that half-gelled silicon made me thing of it for the first time in 60 years. I finally got her done, but it was a real bear.

I concluded that I would bed it with Accuglass, but the voids are so large in the fore end, I mixed up some Bondo and just filled the voids in the stock to the top of lattice structure from the point just forward of where the barrel nut sits to the end of the fore end. As I write this, it is curing over night. I will initially bed the barrel nut and the first 2-3 inches of the barrel. letting the remainder of the barrel float. If this does not work, I'll try bedding it all the way.

Lessons learned: Soft bedding with silicon may work with small layers of the product, but it isn't useful for filling in large voids.

Bondo fills large void well and cheaply.

A steel box tightly fitted into the mag well area of a plastic stock will add significant rigidity to the stock.

I hope you Savage owners may learn from my mistake. I'll keep you posted on how it develops. Kudude

PS: I got around 2900fps with 68-70gr bullets and 25.5grs of Varget. The best groups were Nosler Comp. (This bullet has a very consistent ogive.) I got 2650fps with the Nosler Comp 80gr bullets and 24.5grs of Varget. These too were very uniform. Groups at 100 yard for both were just over 1", and about twice that at 200yds. The 80's were a bit better than the 70's particularly at 200yds. I was disappointed with the Speer 70gr SemiSpitzer hunting bullet; however, it may have been my seating depth. Same with bulk Win 63gr bullets.

My test load for the stock work will be the 63gr Win loading with 25.5gr of Varget , but seated out almost to the lands and groves. kudude

I

I have heard of using an arrow shaft or 2 deponding on how firm you want the stock. also a lot lighter than 3/32" flat iron.

26 grains of varget and 69 sierra shoot 1" of less @ 3010 fps out of my savage 1-9 twist. i set the bullets out as far as possible and still fit into the mag. i bed all my savage plastic stock guns with marine tex but i don't bed the barrel nut or the barrel. from what ive read either way works good.

A standard "fix" to the two-group problem is to relieve the rear tang slightly. If your bedding fits the tang tightly into the stock, for some reason, you lose accuracy. A think sheet of paper should slide under the rear of the tang. I've done this with over a dozen Savages and its worked every time.

quote:

Originally posted by prof242:
A standard "fix" to the two-group problem is to relieve the rear tang slightly. If your bedding fits the tang tightly into the stock, for some reason, you lose accuracy. A think sheet of paper should slide under the rear of the tang. I've done this with over a dozen Savages and its worked every time.

There is no tang screw on the Mod 200s.On all the mod 200s I have (7 ) the stocks bare against the barrel on one side or the other. I like the lightness of the rifles and rather than add cost or weight I figured I'd just live with the group size per dollar. roger

Crout,
That is a wonderful suggestion about the arrow shafts. I doubt a shaft would fit in the space available in the mag box area. It would be great in the forearm.

Prof 242,

There is a slight space under the rear tang. Without the actions screws tightened, you can apply pressure to the tang and lift the barrel slightly. If I had to guess, I'd say the amount of space would be equal to a cleaning patch.

Questions: Are you saying that this space must be maintained?? I was thinking about bedding the action; letting that set and cure and then putting some JB Weld around the tang, reseating the action, and letting the JB Weld set up. This would eliminate that space and prevent any flexing of the action in the stock. Please advise!!

Bartsche,
What fun is it if you don't play with it and wring it out?

Thanks for your comments. Kudude

quote:

Originally posted by kudude:
Bartsche,
What fun is it if you don't play with it and wring it out? Kudude

That's what got me in trouble when I was 14. roger

Bartsche,

LOL-kudude

hahahahahahahahahahaha, that was excellent bartsche...goin' in my signature!

Kudude,
Yep, that space must be maintained. I would suggest, since it sounds that there may be excess space, that you fully glassbed, then gently sand out until a sheet of paper just slides in. You could shoot it both ways to see if yours is the exception to the rule, though.