As promised, here’s a bit more info and comments on my pillar bedding and glass bedding job.
The rifle is a Remington 700 in stainless steel with a laminated wood stock. It has an opening floor plate (BDL) and the two screws that show on the bottom are the action screws. There is no wood screw to just hold the trigger guard in place, the trigger guard being in one piece with the metal frame surrounding the opening floor plate. The rifle as delivered had a 26 inch varmint contour barrel, which contacted the fore-end of the rifle. I cannot say how much pressure this had, but it was not free-floated. I installed a Jewel Bench rest trigger and a Leupold 45X scope. It consistently did ½”groups at 100 yards. I even won two or three home grown bench-rest competitions with it. So why mess with it? Because basically I bought it to experiment and learn with, and I’m a tinkerer. Best score ever was 396/400.
I first cut off 4”off the barrel on the theory that shorter barrels are stiffer barrels and will vibrate less and with more consistency. Besides I hated the looks of the 26”barrel, which is another good reason. The shortening did NOT make any difference in the accuracy, for good nor for naught.
So I decided to go for the glass and pillar bedding and also to free float the barrel.
Like I expressed earlier, I decided to do the pillar bedding first. The pillars I had were contoured on one side to fit the round Remington receiver. I drilled the screw holes in the stock with a 5/8”spade bit, to which I had added a bit of cylindrical plastic on its point to serve as a pilot through the roughly ¼”screw holes. Slow and easy in a drill press, all nice and square, and from the bottom of the stock towards the top. Had I not had the BDL I would have used a ¾” hole saw instead, but more on that later. Once drilled it was a matter of figuring out how much to cut off the pillars. I attached the action (minus trigger nor scope) to the stock with surgical rubber bands and presented the pillars from the bottom for a rough cut with a hack saw and then, little by little, with much trying them in, cutting in a lathe, until I could assemble the bottom metal flush with the bottom of the stock. As I was using Brownell’s Acra-glass, and I bought a kit, I used their release agent on the action and the screws, as well as the bottom metal. I also put grease on the action’s internal threads . Put masking tape on the outside of the stock, and a couple of modeling clay dams inside the stock to limit the Acra-glass to migrating to where I didn’t mind. Took everything apart and laid it out for easy re-assembly once the epoxy was in place. First hassle. The Acra-glass GEL is fairly thick. It is also sticky. Trying to get a bit out of the mixing cup to put on the pillars, while holding a pillar in one hand, the popsicle stick in the other the complete cup would come up, and/or skate all over the workbench when trying to get the epoxy out. Get something heavy or non-slip to mix this stuff! Second, even though I filled the holes where the pillars went in, when pushing the pillars in a lot of the epoxy came out the other end. Once the action was rubber banded in place and the pillars pushed in I made sure to force epoxy from the bottom into the gap between pillar and stock. Then attached the bottom metal, put the screws in and tightened it about ¾ of how tight I would normally do it (45 in/lbs.) . Let it sit overnight. If I do this again, I’ll used WEST System epoxy which I’m very familiar with and can adjust the filler on the epoxy to any desired consistency. Maybe the regular Acra-glass (not gel) would be better for the installation of the pillars, as it would flow easier around everything and fill in all the gaps easier. This is also why I say, if my rifle had had a blind magazine or no magazine at all I would have made a ¾”hole. I think the bearing surfaces would be better. However, I’m satisfied that, using my thumbs, I pushed epoxy into every nook and cranny and there were no air gaps. It just took more effort and mess than expected.
Next day I removed the action from the stock and got rid of all the excess epoxy, even in areas where I would eventually glass bed, as I had not removed any wood nor the finish from those areas yet. I ground maybe 1/16”off the wood on the inside of the stock around the areas of the pillars all the way to about ½”forward of the recoil lug. The back side of the recoil lug trench(?for lack of a better name?) in the stock was ground quite a bit for it to end up with a lot of epoxy. Again, release agent was put on the action, bottom metal, and screws. Grease on the threads, tape on the stock and action where possible. One layer of electrical tape on the front, sides, and bottom of the recoil lug, but not on the rear. Modeling clay dam about ¾”in front of the recoil lug trench (I’m liking that name!) as well as filling in the trigger trough and bolt handle through with the clay. The magazine box also got a layer of masking tape around it. Here the sticky GEL works very well. It doesn’t run off anywhere and stays put until you press the action into place and assemble it. Clean the excess that oozes out. Better to mix too much than too little, as it is easier to clean the excess than to pull the action out to add more mix or to do it twice. Let sit overnight.
Here in Puerto Rico the temperature the days I did this was in the low 80’s during the time I was working and maybe down to 68 in the middle of the night, so it was what we call COOL. (Hello, Minnesotans!) So I tried to work fast, not being familiar with the Brownell’s product. But having everything ready and laid out I had plenty of time.
Pulling out the action THIS time was a bit unnerving. For a moment I thought it was stuck for good, but it really wasn’t. Once I clamped the stock firmly in a padded vise, a firm pull up on the barrel released it. Again, cleaned off the excesses and filed off the sharp edges. Main hassle was getting out all the modeling clay, which in the 80 degree heat was very soft and stuck on everything. Had to use some old bore brushes to get it all off. Removed all the tape and release agent, assembled the trigger back on the action and sanded down the area of the stock where the barrel used to rest in the fore-end to free-float the barrel. Assembled everything using 60 in/lbs. on the actions screws, checked that the barrel doesn’t touch the wood (other than the first ½”) and inserted the bolt and tested for operation. Everything seems fine, now I just have to shoot it! Hopefully it will shoot even better than before. Joke on me if it does worse!
One important note for anybody else doing this. The front action screw comes up into the area of the action where the locking lugs go when the bolt is in battery. Due to the mess of epoxy everywhere, the screw (so did the rear one, but there it didn’t matter) pushed epoxy ahead of it and one ended with a screw thick epoxy stick inside the action. Now this is a place where you wouldn’t normally think of putting release agent. With the GEL, it was like a little pillar sticking up from the screw not touching anything else. It was easy enough to break off when hard and was no trouble. But, had it been smeared, or a less viscous epoxy gotten there it would have been very difficult to clean. So keep it in mind if anybody does this. Also, the hole drilled though the pillars I had was .30 caliber. An “M”drill bit was used to clean off the excess epoxy from inside the pillars. For those still with me, I’ll let you know how it worked out in the end.
Luis
