I glass bedded my first stock in the last few days. It's a Winchester injection molded and I bedded it with acraglas gel. I removed plastic around the recoil lug and tang, gouged the side of the action with a chisel and drilled a few small holes here and there. I follow the instructions and removed the barrel action after 10 hours. Everything looked find exept that I realized that I hadn't put enough bedding gel in some area (mostly side of action nowhere critical like the recoil lug or tang). I wasn't sure if I would just leave it like that or redo it. After over 24h, I started cleaning the stock by filling the edges with a file like I read in several places. The bedding material started peeling from the stock . I was then able to remover pretty much all the bedding just by pulling on it. I had read that injection molded weren't the best to bed but...The recoil lug and tang area weren't too bad because the bedding was thicker. Should I just bed those area instead of the whole thing? Any other trick to have the bedding stick better? Any bedding material work better on injection molded? Please help!

Steve, I've bedded a LOT of injection-molded stocks from Winchester, Remington and Ruger without a problem. First thing you've got to realize is that Silicone is used as a release agent in the injection molding process. Silicone is one of epoxies worst enemies. You need to clean the area to be bedded with Acetone or Zylol first. Second, rough up the area to be bedded with 60 grit sandpaper. After this I "crosshatch" the area to be bedded with an exacto knife. The last thing I do is add a few holes for the epoxy to "grab"... I also rough-up the inside of these holes with sandpaper.



Hope that helps...

Brad is right. I did exactly what he's said on my Win and it worked fine. I used MEK (methylethylkeytone) as a solvent to clean the stock rather than what he suggested but thats not the issue. You may also have to measure the mix of the gel better as it should have set up harder even if it didn't stick.

I'm sure others have some more tips but what Brad said does work.

You guys are right, cleaning could have been an issue. It's the first time I've used acraglas gel. I mixed it 50/50 like it said but it was pretty thick. The white part of the mix (resin) was kind of cristalized, like I said I've never used it before so I'm asuming that how it's supposed to be. The mix wasn't smooth, it was kind of thick and chunky like cookie dough. The end result looked kinda good, nice and smooth but started peeling and breaking off when I started filing. Does that sound normal? Is that the consistancy of acraglas gel? It definately didn't look like gel.

quote "it was pretty thick. The white part of the mix (resin) was kind of cristalized, like I said I've never used it before so I'm asuming that how it's supposed to be. The mix wasn't smooth, it was kind of thick and chunky like cookie dough. "

Send it back to Brownells. The resen is not supposed to be like that. It should be smooth like the hardner. I got a batch like that about six mounths ago. It was no fun to try and work with. And yes, clean it well before bedding. Michael

Like Brad, I've done quite a few and have never had a failure of any kind. I've done them with both AcraGlas Gel and later with Marine Tex. It's my perception that Marine Tex bonds much better to the plastic, and it also dries considerably harder, almost brittle. One other thing I do is to drill two 5/16" holes at 45� into the recoil lug in the stock. That provides an additional "lock" for the bedding.

Injection molded stocks get a bad rap in my opinion. I bed all mine but find because they are so flimsy I have to bed them twice. I remove a lot of the plastic in the bedding area with a router so that bedding material has a lot of area to grab. The first try almost always results in flexing around the action area. The second try does the trick.



You should also replace the front swivel stud with a stud that has a metal washer.



I own Brown and McMillan stocks, but have no issues with injection molded stocks either.

All correct about cleaning and roughing things up. You may have some problems sticking to the stock just because of the material they use but it seems to work for those who have posted.
When there are crystals in the resin it means that one of the components has started to come out of the mix. Do not use resin like this or use the still liquid part as you are not getting all the components that you need it the mix. This happens when the resin is stored at a too cool temp. The fix is to put the jar in hot water or a hot place until the resin is clear and mix well before you use it. It will be as good as new.
We buy our epoxy by the drum and we never tap off any without visually checking for clear and using a drum heater when needed!

Good to know that not everybody thinks my injection stock is crap . I'll have to admit that proper cleaning was probably an issue. I cleaned it but didn't realized how important that step was. The Acraglas didn't look quite right either. The hardner was nice and smooth but the resin was cristatlized and looked like old honey that's cristalized in the jar. I'll try to heat it up and see what happens. If it doesn't change I'll go buy another box.