I have graduated from shooting to reloading and now am trying my hand at basic gunsmithing to improve accuracy from my hunting rifles. Damn addicting hobby! Anyway, I have a Model 70 in 300WSM, stainless action and factory synthetic stock. I niticed that the recoil lug pretty much hangs in the air when the stock is bolted it, and that can't be conducive to good accuracy. I decided to try bedding it. If I fail I have lost a stock I don't like anyway.

Will the bedding hold in this stock? My first attempt didn't adhere well to the stock, and in chipping epoxy out with a woodworking chisel, I found the stock material to be pretty soft. I had some Marine Tex around from boat repairs, and used that. If I upgrade to an expensive stock, I would use better materials, but cheap stock=cheap materials IMHO, esp. given my limited experience.

Anyone have any experience with the factory Winchester synthetic stocks and bedding them? Suggestions for my next attempt? Thanks!

Usually, it is recommended to create a mechanical lock for the bedding (cut upside down T channels in the stock). As far as the Marine Tex, it may or may not adhere. I've used nothing but Acraglas Gel and Devcon Aluminum (love that stuff), and they are "ok".

The biggest bleepedy-bleep problem I had is that both the cheap wood factory stock and the cheap Ramline Cadet stock compressed enough in one year that I had to skim coat both again this week. I suppose that is what pillars are for, but it's easier just to skim a coat on when it needs it ...... FWIW, Dutch.

MarineTex is generally considered to be a good bedding material. Make sure you remove at least 1/8th" of material behind the lug to fill with epoxy, or it won't be strong enough. I find that drilling shallow 1/8th" holes at various angles helps acheive the mechanical bond mentioned and is easy to do. Rough up any surface that the epoxy is expected to stick to with coarse sandpaper, and clean with denatured alcohol or something that won't leave a film. Don't forget the release agent. I use wax. Good luck
Greg

Mostly I am concerned with the stock being rigid/strong enough. I have heard (for what that's worth) from a local gunsmith that the factory synthetic stocks will flex and the bedding cracks out of them. So, he tells me, I need to let him put on a McMillan and go the high $$ route. I can buy my rifle again for what he quoted me......

I've bedded several tupperware stocks and to my knowledge the bedding material has held in all of them. For certain in some I still have.

There IS a lot of flex in the forend. In all but one, the barrels were free-floated and enough hogged out of the barrel channel to keep the forend from flexing into the barrel when resting on it, or flexed with sling pressure. (I learned this was neccessary the hard way.) I drilled bosses into the sides of the stock to provide a mechanical lock for the bedding material, plus I drilled two quarter inch holes at 45� holes at the recoil lug for a further mechanical lock. Additionally the entire inside was roughed up with a Dremel. I've used both AcraGlas and Marine-Tex and it seemed that the Marine-Tex adhered a bit better. It's also much harder.

For a fully bedded barrel channel you would add considerable weight since the forends are quite hollow. In a similar discussion some time back, one guy overcame that problem by sticking an aluminum tube in there and glassing around it. According to him, it was light, prevented flexing, and the hollow tube alleviated some of the weight of the bedding material. I used styrofoam as a filler around the bedded area of the chamber to help hold the weight down.

Just noticed you have the long action M70. I have such a stock, bedded as above with AcraGlass, that was on a 338, same description. You can have it for $5 plus shipping if that will help. It's free floated with glass under chamber area only. When I got enough ahead I put the gun in a Brown Micro Precision stock. It's cut to a 13 5/8" pull. PM me if you're interested.

Well, the results are in. The bedding set well, and 20 full power 180 grain loads didn't shake anything loose.

It didn't help accuracy with 180 grain bullets a damn bit though! I will try some more better loads later, but 180's have been my achilles heel with this rifle so far. More on that in another post....