My wife bought me a Houge Overmolded piller bedded stock for a Rem 700 for Christmas.

Finally got around to putting it on this weekend and had a problem. The it was impossible to get the stock to seat fully and it appeared to the off center. There was a little instruction sheet that said this was due to angular differences in the recoil lug. Looking at the stock, it appears to attempt to tightly seat on both sides of the lug.

It suggested whacking the lug until centered or bedding.

I tapped on the lug with a rubber mallet and it didn't move. I decided I would rather modify the stock.

I relieved material on one side until it was centered fairly well, being very careful not to touch the area contacting the rear of the lug.

I inked the lug bedding area and find uneven contact on the sides of the lug. There is no contact on the bottom. The lug seems to get "stuck" every time I slide in on and off. I have to use the front action screw to get the lug to seat in the stock.

My questions. What would you do?

My factory stock always shot well and seems to make no effort to contact the sides of the lug. there is just a slot. I am thinking of sanding the sides until there is no contact at all with the sides of the lug and calling it good.

As a secon option, I was going to rough up the rear lug contact area, and relieve well around the sides and bottom, and then bed in MarineTex with two laters of tape around the sides, front, and bottom of the lug.

Is a tight fit around the sides of the recoil lug an issue?? Does MarineTex bond to platsic?

It is literally impossible to make “drop-in†pre-bedded stocks due to manufacturing tolerances in receivers.

This can be argued (and I’m sure it will be) but there is no mechanical reason to have any part of the recoil lug, except the back, touching the stock or the bedding. Most people use a layer or two of electrical tape on the bottom, sides and front to give a slight gap in those areas.

To get a nice fit you can always hog-out the entire recoil lug area and re-bed using the tape on the lug for spacing.

Whack the lug??? What kind of instruction is that??? I can think of a few guns I would like to take a hammer to, and probably will before I'm done, but for this, I'm going for option #2.

FWIW, Don't beat on the lug. If you can actually move it, without damaging it, you may have other more pressing problems...

quote:

Originally posted by malm:
Whack the lug??? What kind of instruction is that??? I can think of a few guns I would like to take a hammer to, and probably will before I'm done, but for this, I'm going for option #2.

FWIW, Don't beat on the lug. If you can actually move it, without damaging it, you may have other more pressing problems...

Are you supposed to use the same hammer as the one you used to beat on the bolt handle???

See instructions

whack the recoil lug with a brass hammer

I thought this not the best idea. I tapped mine with a rubber mallet (no brass hammer).

I thought better to have a $80 stock fit the gun than fitting an accurate gun to an $80 stock.

I guess contact on a recoil lug is one of those black mystery things. I might try it both ways and report what I find.

It seems the majority of things I can find in a search suggest full contact on the back and NO contact on the front, bottoms, and sides.

I think I would rather have no contact on the sides than uneven. Wander why they designed the stock this way instead of a slot like the factory??

I was under the impression that Hogue stocks had an aluminum bedding block, not pillars. I also agree with Rick, no contact on lug other than back.

I have a Hogue ovemolded(with block) on my M-700, and ran into the same problem.

I just filed the edges of the lug until it seated properly. I then glass bedded it under the action and tang.

I love the feel of it, and IMO it's a perfect stock for a truck gun.

Your problem isn’t the stock...it’s that your wife bought it for you...and you had better like it no matter what!