I was cahtting with a friend on the phone earlier who is thinking of pillar bedding a rifle.

I inderstand the basic idea behind pillar bedding but he asked something which had not occurred to me before.

As most actions are round, does it matter that the top of the pillar is "flat" so when everything is screwed up you have a flat against a round surface so to speak?

I though that the minute difference might be compensated for once the area around the pillar is glassed up.

Any thoughts?

Regards,

Pete

If you look at the "pillars" that Brownell's sells for the Remington 700, they are dished at the top to mate with the round bottom of the action.

If you cut the pillars 20 - 30 thou short of the top of the stock, then glue in the pillars into the stock with epoxy. After this is cured, epoxy bed the stock as normal with a skim of Devcon or similar material. This way ensures a perfect flush base for round actions and no torsion emparted onto the action when the stock screws are torqued down. I believe that this is the recommended way to pillar bed flat based actions as well due to the fact it is extremely difficult to get the pillars on a parallel axis to each other in a stock, if they are only a little way out of line, any torquing of the stock screws will try to twist the action.

Might want to check out this post...... Bedding Thread

Pete,

Has he checked the prices out? A skim bed is a LOT cheaper. It may be that Venom can do it but I had a small heart attack when I checked out Precision Rifles. �180 to relieve a barrel channel and �250 for the pillar bedding, ie 90% of the cost of the rifle.

With regards to glass bedding, I cannot see how these people can charge what they do for this work. It is a relativley straightforward task, requiring at the most a dremel, some suitable epoxy, release agent and common sense. Anyone with basic diy skills should have the ability to do this and improve their own rifles accuracy.
Pillar bedding is a little more complicated, but again not out of reach of those with the aforementioned skill.
Check out this site for step by step instructions, http://www.varminthunters.com/tech/pillarbedding.html
I have used this as a guide to bed my rifles which are manufactured by Tikka and Remington, group size on all has halved.

pillars are NOT made to bear the stress of recoil!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they are made to hold the action at a perpendicular angle to the stock while keeping it floated. This floats the barrel,..and allows the bedding to fill in the entire area around the action and the stock. If you have ever noticed,..the pillars allow a flex tolerance for the action screws. Once the epoxy is placed in the stock,..it simply holds the action and barrel away from the stock. the recoil lug is ALWAYS what bears the recoil pressure. Vibrational frequency is uniformed by the floating and epoxy as well as the action being perfectly bedded by the epoxy. ALSO,..a good gunsmith will mill the top of the pillars to MATCH the bottom of the action. This is how all my pillars are,..and I can honestly say,..the difference is evident on paper once the distance is pushed out beyond the average paper shooting length.

If you pay more than $150-$200 for a good pillar job,...you are probably apying too much. remember,..a good gunsmith MAKES his own pillars,..and that labor intensive work is not free.

Gents,

Thanks for the responses. I suspect my mate will end up going to a smith to get his rifle bedded, but I would like to have a go myself and this thread has certainly helped.

I am not sure whether to go the skim bedding route or for the pillars as yet; in my case the rifle will be probably be a CZ 550 which i am in the process of ordering. I have never seen the bottom of a CZ action out of the stock, so a lot will depend on what it looks like and how confident I feel about the project...

Regards,

Pete

Let me start be saying I am not a real fan of metal pillars except in some cases and the only place I use them on my own rifles is under the tang of Mausers. I fooled around with different techniques over the years and have decided there are some things which are true regarding pillars.
I've never seen any evidence that contouring a pillar to a round action has any certain positive effect.
It seems that it works better to allow for some bedding compound on top of the pillar. I have had some success with flat bottomed actions sitting right on the pillar however.
On my own target rifles. I prefer to cast glass pillars into the stock and bed over them. I do OK in competition so the system works well enough to suit me. I have two rifles on aluminum bedding blocks and they work too but no better. Regards, Bill

I have bedded many of my own rifles in both wood and synthetic stocks; these are both commercial Mausers and Pre-64 Mod. 70s. It is not a difficult job, but, can be nerve-wracking when you start to worry about what can go wrong.

I have done several Brnos, 21 &22 styles. ZG-47s and ZKK actions which are the same as the CZ550 series. The thing to watch for is to make absolutely certain that you fill every void in the barreled action with clay, putty, wax or whatever. there are more pinholes in these things....Also, fill in all of the stock mortises that you do not want to bed, trigger well and so on, because the epoxy can migrate and it's a pain in the posterior to remove.

BTW, I live in B.C. and have worked as a pro in resource management where my rifles were subjected to harse use in extreme conditions. ALL of my using rifles are glassbedded because it does improve function. It is one of these things where you want to take lots of time, think about every step, carefully prepare and go slowly, you may surprise yourself.I have both pillarbedded and epoxy-non-pillar bedded rifles and cannot see ANY benefit to pillar bedding in hunting rifles or stocks.

I might add that Bill Leeper is a gunsmith here whose work I have seen; I have owned rifles by some of the most famous gunmakers in the world and Bill is a guy whose advice I would take without reservation and trust implicitly. Actually, I have several actions of the rare and valuable type that I am saving money to have him build rifles on for me-and I can go to any smith, but, after 40 yrs. and about 100 hunting rifles, I know good gunsmithing.

Phew, I have one pile of expensive gun parts at Bill's right now .

Chuck

I see no use for piller bedding a hunting rifle, a simple glassing of the tang, action, and chamber area suits me fine...I have done it both ways and never could tell any difference...I agree with Bill, too much is made of this...It belongs in the world of competition, then I want my gun bedded on a steel or aluminum block. But not to say if one wants his hunting rifle piller bedded and it gives him uphoria and happiness then that is fine with me.

Ray,

Thanks for that...we (more properly me) are just considering the different ways at present. I know the easiest thing would be to send the gun to a smith, but I would like to takle some of this stuff my self...

Regards,

Pete

I agree with Bill, poured pillars are the way to go. If you insist on using aluminum pillars, the they should be set slightly below the surface and epoxy bedding allowed to contour to the bottom of the action and top of the pillar. I also don't see much need for pillars normally, but they do solve some problems if poor stock fit is a problem. I am currently fooling around with Savage's new varmint rifles. They are floated on pillars with the action and barrel not touching anything except a little wood and around the pillars and the pillars themselves. They shoot pretty good, but I wonder if they would shoot better with the balance point of the barreled action bedded.