There are two recoil lugs on this rifle. Should I permanently expoxy in the front recoil block as shown in the picture? Also the rear cut out has a piece of metal held in place with expoxy. The rear lug does not touch the metal by about .002. Should I remove the metal before bedding the unit? Also with the front recoil block in place, the front lug is about .003 from the front lug.

I’ve never bedded that type of rifle, but in general terms the recoil lug on the receiver needs to make full contact with the bedding on the rear face of the lug in order to do its job. If it isn’t in full contact with the bedding on its rear face it isn’t really a recoil lug, its just a square piece of steel sticking down from the bottom of the receiver holding the front action screw.

Does that doubled lugged base just sit in the stock and wedge against that rib under the barrel? Personally, if that’s all it does I’d toss that puppy in the trash can.

this is about the ONLY time I will tell you to bed the various lugs together...

the F block should be bedded into the stock, at the same time you bed the action recoil lug. be sure to stick SOMETHING at teh action end of the f block to put a little forward pressure on it... 1/8" of an inch of a toothpick works.

Rick, the F block actually serves a purpose.. and throwing it away, on a 458 and up, WILL result in a split stock, if you don't have a barrel recoil lug

jeffe

What about the piece of metal in the stock? Shoud it be removed to increase the thickness of the bedding material? With it in place the glass will be very thin. Maybe inlet a little more and use the piece with glass?

Thanks for your input

jeffeoso,

See, I learn something new every day!

I remember “F†Troop...but “F†Blocks are a new one on me.

Jboutfishin:
I would remove the piece of steel from the recoil lug mortise and replace it with a military style (square shouldered) cross bolt properly fitted for contact. That will keep the area under compression which adds considerably to the strength of the stock at that point. Glass both that and the barrel recoil lug assembly with Marine tex or one of the steel bedding type compounds noted for strength

Stocker, exactly what my local gunsmith suggested. He also offered that Devcon Steel Gel would be a good option.

When I first looked at the project, the action would rock end to end when all of the screws were removed. I have cleaned things up so that the action is solid in the stock.

What I thought was a piece of steel turned out to be plastic glued in with rubber contact cement

what I have done on brnos is to crazy glue the F-block to the barrel so the block is tight against the recoil lug. Then bed it together with the receiver.

When you pop it out, the crazy glue will let go, and you will have solid contact to both the barrel and receiver recoil lugs.

That piece of delrin is an impact cushion of sorts for the recoil lug to prevent the lug from hammering back the wood in the lug inlet. Toss it, and install a crossbolt to reinforce this area prior to bedding.

You may get by w/out the F block if that rifle is a 375H&H; but if you wish to retain proper use of the foward lug/forend screw, bed the F block into the forend. I would recommend you bed the entire front lug/screw contraption if you retain the F block.

On mine, I have pillars installed in lieu of the escrusions that are of the correct length that the barreled action is square and stress free in the stock inlet. The F block is retained and the rifle was bedded in several steps so that from tang to the forward lug/screw the barreled action sits squarely and evenly when torqued against the pillars. The only thing I would do differently next time is to bed the rifle to the end of the forend as this floated part of the barrel collects twigs and debris when going thru brush. I also added a crossbolt behind the recoil lug and I reinforced the web area between the trigger group and mag box.

quote:

Originally posted by free_miner:
what I have done on brnos is to crazy glue the F-block to the barrel so the block is tight against the recoil lug. Then bed it together with the receiver.

When you pop it out, the crazy glue will let go, and you will have solid contact to both the barrel and receiver recoil lugs.

A moment of brilliance

Thank you

Just a silly question, but if that “F†block isn’t attached to the barrel wouldn’t it take quite a hammering during recoil? Even a slight gap caused by temperature, humidity or whatever would allow the barrel to get a running-start at it.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick 0311:
Just a silly question, but if that “F†block isn’t attached to the barrel wouldn’t it take quite a hammering during recoil? Even a slight gap caused by temperature, humidity or whatever would allow the barrel to get a running-start at it.

If it were permanent to the barrel it would become another recoil lug and you would still need reinforcement w/in the female/inletting in the wood stock forend for it to mate with. Otherwise, the wood stock would take a hammering instead of the steel plate.

The CZ as in the above pic uses the flat plate that mates w/ the underside of the forward barrel lug. The plate itself is inletted into the forend w/ two small lugs. This whole rig is sandwiched between the stock and barrel by the forend screw.

The Ruger RSM uses only a flat plat that is held into the forend w/ one screw. The RSM only has a small tit/boss (no real recoil lug) that mates into a matching hole in this steel plate. It is also sandwiched in place by the forend screw.

Winchester used the cheapest and easiest route. They dovetail a block of steel in the barrel and inlet a larger matching recess in the stock forend. They fill the gap and give the steel block a mating surface by filling the wood stock w/ a glob of bedding epoxy that appears as durable as hot glue. They use no forend screw to sandwich the lug.

I do beleive that Sako is now using an aluminum plate to receive the lug on their rifles.

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

Using the super glue idea, I glassed in the F block, removed the "plastic" piece from the recoil mortice, and bedded the recoil lug and reciever. The barrel is free floated from the F block forward.

Will let it set a few day, looks like the weather will let up a bit on Sunday, will go and make some noise