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| One of Us |
Some folks on the varmint hunting forum mentioned the use of RTV Silicone as a bedding material. I would think that would be too soft. I have heard of "hard rubber" bedding compound somewhere. Surely there is something more appropriate than silicone if one wanted to try a non-rigid bedding compound. Thoughts? | ||
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Flexable bedding sort of defeats the whole purpose...IMO. | |||
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Probably true, but might be fun to play with. One theory is that softer materials are better for dampening vibrations than hard ones. | |||
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You might as well use window calk. It smells better when you're removing it! | |||
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My definition of soft bedding is MarineTex. Hard bedding is SteelBed. Don't think it really matters, though. Don_G ...from Texas, by way of Mason, Ohio and Aurora, Colorado! | |||
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This is one of those subjects where there are very strong opinions, but equally strong in both directions, pro and con. The only way to find out if it will work well in your gun with your specific chosen bedding material is to try it. I have personally bought and used extensively a rifle which was previously owned and used used in competition by a former multi-time champion of Great Britain...and that rifle was bedded in/on thin strips of foam rubber which had been inletted edge-wise into the wood stock. It still shot very well all during the few years I owned it. That doesn't prove anything except that there are different ways to succesfully skin a weasel...and it doesn't matter if you call it a musteline mammal or an ermine. What matters is how well the pudding prooves out using YOUR ingrediants, in your turn at the table. My country gal's just a moonshiner's daughter, but I love her still. | |||
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As Alberta Canuck said, try it and see if it works. Personally, I’ve always considered bedding as something to give the receiver, and in turn the barrel, a good solid platform that stays the same from shot to shot. | |||
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The idea for RTV was not bedding, it was barrel vibration damping. Bedding around action and recoil lug was not discussed with respect to soft bedding. It all started out with me dangeling a pound and a half roll of solder on my CZ 527 in .222 to study the effect.  rogerOld age is a high price to pay for maturity!!! Some never pay and some pay and never reap the reward. Wisdom comes with age! Sometimes age comes alone.. | |||
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The Mellenium action made by Hastie and Halberg in New Zealand uses a bedding block with polymer strips and complete isolation from metal to metal contact. Works for them, don't say it won't work if you have never done it!! Like that saying, the man who says it can't be done should not interupt the man that is doing it! | |||
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I have 2 .308Win MRC 1999 SA'S barreled actions that I'm putting into take-off Winchester tupperware stocks. I briefly flamed the first one to improve bonding and used Devcon Steel Bed. The second is going to get Devcon Plastic weld, a quick drying 2 part epoxy specially formulated for adheringto plastics, I've used it for years making repairs on PVC piping and the stuff is great. It dries hard, but not as brittle as SteelBed. I'll report when done. | |||
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While it might work, I would be afraid it would change dampening characturistics with temp. changes. Soft polymers by their nature change resiliancy with temp. as for barrel dampening there was an experiment I witnessed: A tube of steel about 5" long and 2" in diameter with a hole that closley but not tightly matched the barrel OD, say .060 clearance. With only three set screws arrayed at 120deg on a line around the middle it worked very well. But the thouoght was it must be vibrating on its own due to this arrangement. afterall one could grab the tube and rock it around its center mounted screws. So 6 new holes were drilled and tapped at both ends so the dampener could be secured so it wouldn't rock around a center ring. Very rdigidly mounted now... Groups fell apart. Next the ID was grooved at both ends for o-rings, so no steel contacted the barrel and the dampner. groups were better than previous, but not as good as the first, "shakey" mount. I guess where I am going is that if I had a gun that I just couldn't make shoot after doing everything by conventional wisdom, what the hey mount it in "marshmallows" and see what happens. It just might work, stanger things have happened. Rusty's Action Works Montross VA. Action work for Cowboy Shooters & Manufacturer of Stylized Rigby rifle sights. http://i61.photobucket.com/alb.../th_isofrontleft.jpg | |||
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I wouldn't worry about automotive silicone changing character at any temp you SHOULD be operating a bolt action rifle's barrel at. My thought on the subject is that a resiliant mounting method would cause the action to "float" back to where it wants to be while rifles and parts can't resist "bouncing away" from firm surfaces... Ever shoot a rifle from a rest without a sandbag? I think if Using RTV in a tupperware stock the rifle should be "full length" bedded. In other words bed the action and the barrel all the way to the forend tip.... The object being to soak up ALL the vibration you can... Hey, it's probably easy enough to peel it back out if it doesn't work... AllanD If I provoke you into thinking then I've done my good deed for the day! Those who manage to provoke themselves into other activities have only themselves to blame. *We Band of 45-70er's* 35 year Life Member of the NRA NRA Life Member since 1984 | |||
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Winchester has been putting some kind of flexable hot glue under the recoil lug of their M70 for some time. I`ve replaced it with accu-gel on two different rifles. ------------------------------------ The trouble with the Internet is that it's replacing masturbation as a leisure activity. ~Patrick Murray "Why shouldn`t truth be stranger then fiction? Fiction after all has to make sense." (Samual Clemens) "Saepe errans, numquam dubitans --Frequently in error, never in doubt". | |||
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Ol'Joe, Ain't that hot glue on the heavy M70's just about the cheesiest thing you've ever seen? Don_G ...from Texas, by way of Mason, Ohio and Aurora, Colorado! | |||
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pretty much along my thoughts... flexible bedding .. well.. aint bedding jeffe opinions vary band of bubbas and STC hunting Club Information on Ammoguide about the416AR, 458AR, 470AR, 500AR What is an AR round? Case Drawings 416-458-470AR and 500AR. 476AR, http://www.weaponsmith.com | |||
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You're right, it is cheesy! In fact they could probably save time and money by spraying the action with PAM and using Velveeta!  | |||
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Does RTV crack apart when impact loaded? Urathane shatters when hit with a hammer, but I don't know about RTV. There is just a host of problems I can see with this. Recoil lug setting back into the RTV over time. Stock screws constantly loosening do the relative movement between action and stock. The recoil lug searing the RTV on most any center fire round except the smallest of varmint calibers. I guess it could be desinged to work like a vibration isolator under a machine. Then the action bolts would be bonded to the polymer and the stock bolts would be bonded to the same chunk of polymer, but not attached or touching. I'd be afraid that over time the rcoil would sear the polymer and the shooter would be wearing the scope as monical. Maybe on a .22LR. It would be the ultimate stress free mounting system provided the scope and mount dropped on perfect. Maybe it's time to pick up a dirt cheap .22 bolt gun and play. While I don't know if it would work, it just might be the next Olympic small bore wonder gun, or it could be land fill fodder too. Either way it would be interesting. Rusty's Action Works Montross VA. Action work for Cowboy Shooters & Manufacturer of Stylized Rigby rifle sights. http://i61.photobucket.com/alb.../th_isofrontleft.jpg | |||
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Well, I'm playing with a Savage 223 that I slapped into a Choate stock, with the alum. bedding block. First time out, the thing grouped worse than the tupperware stock. Took the action out, and noticed a rub mark on the left side of the recoil lug bedding. Since I wanted to play with it in the next hour, and no time for devcon to cure, I thought, what the hell-put in a tiny dab of butyl rubber greenhouse glazing I had left over. Sort of a glue-in/vibration isolator. Well the groups went down to 3/8" at 100 with the same ammo-cheapo Black Hills reloads, 77 gr moly coated. I'm tempted to bed the whole bottom of the action with the stuff, instead of just the back of the recoil lug. Little messy getting the action out, now though-sort of like half-melted pizza cheese. I do use a coat of Lee liquid alox grease on my 3 target rifles that have devcon bedding on aluminum blocks, and it seems to dampen vibrations on these. I know these rifles will hold the x ring at 1000 yds (10") if the wind don't blow. Put me in a sling, and let the wind blow, and all bets are off! Hippie redneck geezer | |||
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When I bought my M70 375 H&H they had put the flexible hot glue in both the front and rear recoil mortises. Before I shot it I noticed that the action was not sitting square in the stock so I pulled the action off the stock and found that when they put the hot glue in they had dribbled glue between the two mortises and left a 1/8" string of hot glue down the left side of the barrel channel. Needless to say the gun got re-bedded before I ever shot it. Frank "I don't know what there is about buffalo that frightens me so.....He looks like he hates you personally. He looks like you owe him money." - Robert Ruark, Horn of the Hunter, 1953 NRA Life, SAF Life, CRPA Life, DRSS lite | |||
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Very interesting thread.....and I'm all for experimentation.....that said, I'm a very happy camper with Brownell's acraglass gel...there's no question but that this stuff really works. Someone mentioned bedding the barrel in marshmellows....and in jest I suspect but that isn't a bad experiment. I've tried orings around the barrel in places but didn't gain or learn anything. I still believe that vibration uniformity is the key....but dampening could be a big help as well. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." Winston Churchill | |||
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As posted in the priviously mentioned thread; The CZ .222 now has a compressed strip of 1/8" high density foam rubber between the length of the barrel and the stock. Later today the Stevens Mod. 200 in 22-250 will get the same treatment. Both are light free floating barrels. Next Wed. they will be tested and the results posted.  rogerOld age is a high price to pay for maturity!!! Some never pay and some pay and never reap the reward. Wisdom comes with age! Sometimes age comes alone.. | |||
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Two very good points, Allen. Ultra Black Permatex has an operating range of -65ºF to 500ºF (-54°C to 260°C) intermittent. If your rifle is past this range on either end, you’ve got bigger problems than the RTV failing, IMO. Remember the old packages of silicone, back when it was “new†and rocket science? (early 70’s) They had little “Hershey kiss†dabs of silicone on them. We used to peel them off and try to kill them (well, the package said virtually indestructible). We hit them with hammers, squeezed them in vises, etc. Nothing. Heck, real super balls are made from a polymer very close to silicone. How tough are they? JUST A TYPICAL WHITE GUY BITTERLY CLINGING TO GUNS AND RELIGION Definition of HOPLOPHOBIA "I'm the guy that originally wrote the 'assault weapons' ban." --- Former Vice President Joe Biden | |||
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