What's the standard clearance between the top of the magazine box and the bottom of the receiver on a Swedish Mauser?

I have measured one at .018" but need to know what standard is for the 6.5x55mm.
I have Kuhnhausen's books and as good as they are he never bothered with an index...

A small amount;;; how's that for an answer? As long as the metal does not touch metal, and the mag will feed, it is good. You don't want the box to touch the receiver as then your action screws might not tighten up. Same in the rear with the bushing, which you should not use in a sporter. .018 is good.

Why not use a bushing in a sporter stock ?.
I thought the rear bushing was there to prevent
bending the action.

NOOOO; the bushing does prevent bending the action but only in the military stock. It was designed so you would not compress the wood but only to a certain point; not a valid concept for sporters. If your receiver is bedded solidly and you bend the tang down to meet the bushing, you have still bent it. Bed your receiver in glass the full length and leave out the bushing. You can put in the bushing but never use it for it's original purpose. Now, pillar bedding is another situation....

That leaves me with more questions; Why would
a military stock compress and not a sporter stock ?, and why is piller bedding different ?.

I will make it as short as possible; sporters are usually glass bedded and not subject to years of abuse and oil soaked wood. Pillar bedding; you are starting out with the goal of making your receiver sit on a pillar of usually aluminum. The military bushing is a default, safety thing that only comes into play once your wood has compressed. Which in a sporter, is always a bad thing. You can certainly install one if you are determined to, but hope it never gets used. You want your receiver to sit EVENLY in wood, or glass, not unevenly on wood and bent down and stopped by a bushing.

So by your definition a bushing is shorter than a pillar and does not make contact until after the wood compresses?

Personally I think it is a matter of semantics, but the way I do it is to cut the pillar, (or bushing) to the proper length and install it before glass bedding. That way once the bedding cures the pressure is distributed evenly and there is no possibility of bending the receiver when it is torqued down.

It's worked fine so far...

P.S. The material I use for pillars/bushings is one I picked up on a post here - the threaded hollow steel tubing used in lamps. The inside is smooth, and the threads on the outside provide more surface area for the epoxy to bind to. You can find it at almost any hardware store.

quote:

Personally I think it is a matter of semantics, but the way I do it is to cut the pillar, (or bushing) to the proper length and install it before glass bedding. That way once the bedding cures the pressure is distributed evenly and there is no possibility of bending the receiver when it is torqued down.

If you fully bed it what purpose does the bushing then serve? Kind of a belt and suspenders?

With a good bedding job in my opinion they are not needed. Can't say they would hurt as part of the bedding either.

So each his own. I for one don't use them.

quote:

Originally posted by ramrod340:

quote:

Personally I think it is a matter of semantics, but the way I do it is to cut the pillar, (or bushing) to the proper length and install it before glass bedding. That way once the bedding cures the pressure is distributed evenly and there is no possibility of bending the receiver when it is torqued down.

If you fully bed it what purpose does the bushing then serve? Kind of a belt and suspenders?

With a good bedding job in my opinion they are not needed. Can't say they would hurt as part of the bedding either.

So each his own. I for one don't use them.

It may be overkill, but it certainly doesn't hurt anything.

I see bedding as a gap filler, to prevent movement and accuracy robbing vibration. Unless there is something like a pillar that runs through vertically through the stock there is really nothing preventing some compression of the wood.

Think of a piece of plate steel sitting on a mattress... unless it is blocked up you would still be able to squish it down.

Again, plenty of accurate and durable rifles out there with neither pillars nor bedding, but if you are building something yourself why not?

OK, if you use the military bushing, or any other bushing for the receiver to seat on during glass bedding, that is pillar bedding, and is a good idea. The main thing is that you don't want to have the receiver sitting on a bushing without it also being tight on the wood.