Clem Bronkoski
Well-Known Member
This is only the 2nd rifle I ever free floated the barrel AND bedded. The first was a Remington 700 which wasn't too bad. That rifle shot great. I had my gunsmith do a couple for me but he takes forever to get to it.
So I watched some videos by competent smiths on YouTube and got to it. This rifle was a custom Win 70 that I got for a song and I was a bit nervous. You may recall I posted a previous thread on this rifle not shooting very good. This even held true after I had free floated it. So I decided it was time to get it bedded.
I soon found out that the original bedding job (probably by Winchester custom shop) was terrible. The material they used for bedding was the same consistency as rubber! Not solid at all. It took me forever to remove all that junk. The recoil lug recess was the worse. After that I coated the action with Johnson's paste wax as a release agent, filled all the the nooks and crannies with plumbers putty (after removing the trigger assembly) and masked the stock with 2" masking tape. The bedding material I used was Devcon 10110. Expensive but good stuff. I also wrapped some masking tape around the barrel so I had a snug fit to the barrel channel to keep the barrel aligned with the stock. Then roughed up the wood a bit with a dremel tool where I wanted the epoxy.
Another even coating of release agent then mixed the epoxy per the directions. I only bedded the bolster where the tang screw went, a tiny drop on the tang area, the area where the action set around the front action screw, the recoil lug recess and about 3" in front of the recoil lug.
I set the action in the stock and tightened down the action screws then wrapped electrical tape around the stock/receiver really tight about 20 wraps. After 10 mins I backed off on the action screws then back in just until snug. Then again after 1 hr. Job came out nice.
So I watched some videos by competent smiths on YouTube and got to it. This rifle was a custom Win 70 that I got for a song and I was a bit nervous. You may recall I posted a previous thread on this rifle not shooting very good. This even held true after I had free floated it. So I decided it was time to get it bedded.
I soon found out that the original bedding job (probably by Winchester custom shop) was terrible. The material they used for bedding was the same consistency as rubber! Not solid at all. It took me forever to remove all that junk. The recoil lug recess was the worse. After that I coated the action with Johnson's paste wax as a release agent, filled all the the nooks and crannies with plumbers putty (after removing the trigger assembly) and masked the stock with 2" masking tape. The bedding material I used was Devcon 10110. Expensive but good stuff. I also wrapped some masking tape around the barrel so I had a snug fit to the barrel channel to keep the barrel aligned with the stock. Then roughed up the wood a bit with a dremel tool where I wanted the epoxy.
Another even coating of release agent then mixed the epoxy per the directions. I only bedded the bolster where the tang screw went, a tiny drop on the tang area, the area where the action set around the front action screw, the recoil lug recess and about 3" in front of the recoil lug.
I set the action in the stock and tightened down the action screws then wrapped electrical tape around the stock/receiver really tight about 20 wraps. After 10 mins I backed off on the action screws then back in just until snug. Then again after 1 hr. Job came out nice.
memtb
