Gentlemen,

I wanted to post this question here to clear an argument I am having with a friend of mine.

Apparently, he has read that when bedding an action, only the REAR of the recoil lug should be bedded, while leaving the front free.

I have told himI have never followed this example, and have always bedded the action, including the recoil lug, with as little play as possible.

In fact, on all my bedding jobs, I make sure that the bottom of the action, plus the shank of the barrel, is solidly bedded.

I have used this system on all our rifles, from bench rest to large calibers, and never had one single failure.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Saeed,

I have always been advised against bedding the bottom, sides, and front of the recoil lug.

I have never followed that advise, though, as when I first read it I had already glass bedded two rifles with great improvement of their accuracy and consistency.

I fully bed the whole action plus the first 1.5 inches of the barrel and always got good results.

Regards,

Montero

I tape the front and sides of the recoil lug, so as not to have any contact with the bedding after it sets up. I bed the whole action and chamber area of the barrel.

Jim

Saeed,

Like you, I always bed the whole recoil lug. But when I pull the rifle apart, I polish all the edges off the lug before putting the rifle back together.

I always free float the sides of the action, that is, between the front and rear receiver rings.

On actions like M70 or Rem 700 with the front screw through the centre of the bedding pad, I never bed any of the barrel. On actions like Weatherby or the earlier Sakos I like about 1 inch of the barrel bedded.

Mike

[ 08-29-2002, 17:39: Message edited by: Mike375 ]

Saeed,
the way I do it is to
0: (for DGR ONLT) 1 layer of duct tape around the rear tang/lug

1: from PAST the barrel shoulder, I put 2 layers of duct tape to free float a couple hundredths

2:close Bed from the barrel shoulder BACK to the maagazine and then bed the rear.

this allows you to create a pressure point if you need to, and free floats the barrel

jeffe

I leave some clearance at the bottom because its common for a shaving of bedding compound to be forced into the inletting as the gun goes back together. Leaving a little room for that will keep it from affecting accuracy.

I bed all surfaces that are parrallel with the bore. That means everything that's at right angles to the tang screws, but any socket or recess that can trap debris, like the recoil lug recess is relieved on the bottom.

The NRA advises to leave clearence on the bottom, front & sides of the recoil lug.

Saeed,
I usually clear the sides, bottom,and front of the lug but it depends on the rifle. I always clear the bottom except on those rifles which have the lug at the extreme front of the action. Rifles like this are the only ones where I bed the barrel shank. Otherwise I prefer to float the barrel entirely or provide a pressure point near the tip. Regards, Bill.

On model 70's, I'll bed the entire lug and action without relief on the sides. I will also extend the bedding on any of the rifles that I do out to two thirds of the chamber length. On Remingtons, Winchesters, or anything else, once I'm done, I remove about .020" off of the bottom of the recoil lug with a sander. This will ensure that the recoil lug doesn't do a teter-totter in the bedding, since glass is forced down into the lug at the time of bedding. Some people like to tape the lug, but invariable it leaves you open for mistakes by losing your tape in your new bed job. The sander works the fastest and cleanest.
On Remingtons, unless the bedding is just a knockout, and I'm working with an exceptional receiver, being Remington, this doesn't happen very often, I'll relieve the bedding on either side of the reciever. Remingtons are kinda handy that way because there is so much bedding surface to work with in the first place compared to a Mauser or Winchester.

Saeed,

With Rem 700s it is quite common in Australia to have to have some masking tape about half inch wide on the bottom of the front receiver ring so that there is no bedding between 5 o'clock and 7 o'clock. It is also quite common for bedding rifles that will be "glue ins"

I have tried but it made no difference.

Mike

On most rifles I only bed the rear of the recoil lug, but bed the rest of the receiver skin tight. If you shoot in places with different humidities, the wood may warp and add stress to the receiver if the recoil lug is bedded all around. I have a BDL stock that altered the point of aim about four inches between Connecticut and Wyoming. I don't use it any more; nowadays the rifle commutes between an old single-shot 40X stock and a synthetic with aluminum bedding block.

On the other hand, I put my brother's Savage .222 in a left-handed target stock made for an Anschutz .22 RF. The Savage recoil lug is also used as part of the attachment, so I bedded the whole thing. It shoots well, so maybe it's not alwayw as much a critical issue as I thought.

Gentlemen,

Thank you all for your input.

Just what I thought, there is more than one way to skin a cat, and as long as it works, I will stick to my own method.

My friend who posed this question is not too happy about all these answers. He thought there was a RIGHT way and a WRONG way.

Hasn't Walter learned yet that that can be more than one way to do something?!

Mark,

For someone who has a drastic reduction in brain cells, Walter did realize that he cannot do either chambering or bedding.

We got him so worked up one day when he was threading a barrel. He took a break for a drink, so we changed the pitch on the lathe

He had the most awful looking threads on that barrel, we had to cut that part off and start again.

The best part was we almost convinced him that HE actually changed the pitch, not us.

Saeed, that is a nasty trick. Now you need to go back and make the action threads match it.

The way I do it is to bed the full recoil lug and then I relieve the material in front of and on the sides of the lug. I have also never had problems with that, although I have never done any bench rest competition. And wouldn't do well if I did.

Chic

Gentlemen,

I have some bench rest rifles built for me by my old friend Dwight Scott, and stocked by another friend, Tommy Meredith.

Dwight is a champion bench rest shooter - he won the Super Shoot a couple of years ago, and I know that all his rifles are stocked by Tommy, whose work is found on a lot of bench rest rifles.

I took the stocks off some of these, and guess what I found?

All the recoil lugs are bedded as solidly as possible!

Saeed,

I'd always read and heard one needs clearance under and on the sides of the lug. But on my 350 Rigby when I bedded it, I completely bedded the recoil lug.

I finally found a decent load for the gun, pushing a 250 gr hornady rn 2700 fps, and the day I was shooting it was very windy, so much so that the target backer would sway back and forth, and I had to wait for the target to come forward in the base for each shot. Despite that, a 2.5x scope and 2 stage mauser trigger, I was able to put 3 shots into 5/8" @ 100 yds. Last time at the range I put 3 into 3/4", perhaps the wind helps calm my nerves

I had debated creating some clearance around the lug, but don't want to mess with it now.

If so many of you are having such good luck bedding with no clearance, I may just have to try it. I've bedded 3 rifles now and the one thing they all have in common is that getting all those little bits of tape fitted is a major pain in my neck.

John,

If the Rem 700s you really need to polish of the edges of the recoil lug before reassembly.

Actually, I think the Rem 700 is the action that has been responsible for the whole idea of having the sides and bottom of the recoil lug clear and for two reasons.

Firstly, their recoil lug tends to have much sharper edges than other actions and this increases the likelihood of scraping of some bedding when reassembling th rifle.

Secondly, the lug is is deep and thin. Unless someone has an air compressor thsi can make it harder to get all the dust that can get in their after drilling out the holes etc.

One thing I am convinced of, is that the rails of the action should be free floated.

Mike

Speaking of bedding, where might I purchase a CD or video that makes the entire bedding process more clear to those like me that don't have a clue? Thanks, Jim.....

Saeed,
It's not suprising at all that you would find your benchrest rifles bedded with full contact on the lug. For the optimum in stability, that's the way it needs to be done. The only reason to relieve the lug would be to keep from getting dirt or debri under the lug, causing it to do a teter-totter effect. Since most bench rest rifles never get taken out of the stock, they don't worry about it. Most of them are glue-ins. While I'm not in favor of somewhat permenately attaching your receiver to your stock, it does work. Soon as you remove that action from the stock for the first time, you're taking the chance of screwing up the bedding. I suppose those guys like being more safe than sorry.

John Frazer,
No matter what you do, loose the tape. That process sucks in more ways than one. Just bed your rifle without the tape, then come back and relieve the lug with a grinder or sander, then polish on the wheel. Much easier and faster. Not to mention, there is a helluva lot less chance of screwing things up.