Question on Bedding Savage Factory Stock

[bsnedeker]

So I'm bedding my first stock. I've got two rifles I want to bed, a Savage 270 and a Tikka T3X in 300 WM. The factory stock on the savage is a joke so I'm starting with that one because if I mess it up I'll just go buy a Boyds or a Hogue or something else so it's a pretty low stakes operation unless I manage to bond the barreled action into the stock which I think I have covered...planning to use clear shoe polish as a release agent.

My question is this: In my googles I've seen a couple of threads on other forums about guys who bedded a factory el-cheapo savage stock and they talk about only bedding behind the recoil lug, not in front of it. I didn't really understand why that was the case. My plan was to bed the rear tang just around the action screw and the front from the action screw up to a couple of inches in front of the recoil lug. There is no material in front of the recoil lug today so it's going to take a good amount of epoxy to get it done, but I've got a full container of devcon and only 2 rifles so I'm not worried about that, just worried about potentially detrimental effects on accuracy.

Anyone here ever tried this on one of these stocks or have any advice on things to avoid when bedding one of these guys?

 

[Lelder]

they are saying that to maintain the "free float" of the barrel. I bedded all 3 of my rifles a few inches past the recoil lug with no problems. I even bedded a rem 700 injection molded stock all the way to the end (i did dremel it out a little to get a small gap) of the stock, i put a piece of masking tape on the underside of the barrel to give it a space between the devcon and the barrel and when it was finished my poi only changed 3/4" at 100yds.

 

[bsnedeker]

That's good to know, thanks! I've been prepping everything and I do have some tape wrapped around the barrel at the end of the stock to ensure it's floating out there and evenly spaced along the length of the stock. It's basically completely hollow until you get to the very end so the only places for any potential contact would be the sides and the very end of the stock and I've got good even spacing there. My thoughts were that a little extra support in front of the recoil lug couldn't hurt anything.

 

[Wapiti1]

Tape the recoil lug on the front, sides and bottom so it releases easily. If you don't it can shave bedding compound during reassembly and cause issues.

Instead of filling in front of the recoil lug entirely with epoxy make a small wood block to fill that area and bed it in. There is no reason to waste bedding compound filling large voids like that.

If you want to stiffen the forearm, bed carbon arrow shafts into the hollow there.

Rough up every surface with 60 grit paper and thoroughly clean with acetone or brake cleaner.

Just a few comments.

Jeremy

 

[Lelder]

Everything that Wapiti1 said i also did and it makes life easier and you get a better finish product

 

[bsnedeker]

The tape idea makes a lot of sense, I'm glad you brought that up! Obviously no tape behind the recoil lug because that would defeat the purpose of bedding it but the spacing on the sides, front, and bottom would make it much easier to reassemble and not damage my bedding compound...I never would have thought of that!

I'll play around with a wood filler and the carbon arrows as well and see what I can do with those. I have a bunch of old arrows laying around that are way underspined for me with my new setup so I could make some use of those.

Thanks again for the tips and advice!