Hugnot
Well-Known Member
Some picky points:
Good idea to assure that the action is aligned in the stock. Action screws having heads cut off can be used but that is pricy; I use whatever I can buy at a hardware store. HomeDepot supplied my 1/4 X 28 bolts for my last project. If no luck, go to Brownells and they have (or did) stock alignment screws. Contact gun maker or look up screw sizes needed. Home Depot has a bolt size/pitch gauge at store.
Epoxies & plastic. Epoxies sometimes don't bond well to some plastics. Plastics used in injection molded stocks are likely to not provide good epoxy bonds. The fix in this case is to provide a mechanical lock between stock and epoxy. This can be done by roughing up surfaces, cutting grooves into stock somewhat above bottom of gun part or making bottom of a surface wider than top or no parallel or inward pitching sides. If time is available, place a small blob of epoxy in the magazine well then after it cures test it for adhesion. If it sticks to surface, not needed, file it off. Action screws, recoil lugs and other features can provide mechanical locks to keep epoxy in place.
If the action is tightly & uniformly bedded into stock, it should support a barrel, no stock contact, without action screws. If not, bed under barrel shank. Unsupported barrels can exert lateral forces on action screws vs. straight up/down forces Action screws like 1/4X28 can exert up to 4000 pounds of tension and will make a properly & tightly bedded action & stock act as a single unit. Actions like the Rem 700 and others that have screw/bolt attachments behind the recoil lug may be free floated with little or no epoxy bedding below barrel shank. Quote " if the action rocks in the stock it is not likely going to shoot very well."
Good idea to assure that the action is aligned in the stock. Action screws having heads cut off can be used but that is pricy; I use whatever I can buy at a hardware store. HomeDepot supplied my 1/4 X 28 bolts for my last project. If no luck, go to Brownells and they have (or did) stock alignment screws. Contact gun maker or look up screw sizes needed. Home Depot has a bolt size/pitch gauge at store.
Epoxies & plastic. Epoxies sometimes don't bond well to some plastics. Plastics used in injection molded stocks are likely to not provide good epoxy bonds. The fix in this case is to provide a mechanical lock between stock and epoxy. This can be done by roughing up surfaces, cutting grooves into stock somewhat above bottom of gun part or making bottom of a surface wider than top or no parallel or inward pitching sides. If time is available, place a small blob of epoxy in the magazine well then after it cures test it for adhesion. If it sticks to surface, not needed, file it off. Action screws, recoil lugs and other features can provide mechanical locks to keep epoxy in place.
If the action is tightly & uniformly bedded into stock, it should support a barrel, no stock contact, without action screws. If not, bed under barrel shank. Unsupported barrels can exert lateral forces on action screws vs. straight up/down forces Action screws like 1/4X28 can exert up to 4000 pounds of tension and will make a properly & tightly bedded action & stock act as a single unit. Actions like the Rem 700 and others that have screw/bolt attachments behind the recoil lug may be free floated with little or no epoxy bedding below barrel shank. Quote " if the action rocks in the stock it is not likely going to shoot very well."
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