Bedding a Pre-64

[ColColt]

i have a pre-64 Model 70 in 270 caliber that's just not shooting as I know it can. I've decided, after correcting the trigger pull to 2 3/4 lbs and that didn't work for groups, to glass bed the action. The one area I'm not sure about is the tang. Should that area be bedded around the tang itself or just where the screw goes into the recessed area? I've looked for pictures everywhere to no avail.

[Bart B.]

The entire receiver area in the stock should be epoxy bedded except for the bottom of the recoil lug; tape it about 1/32" thick so the lug won't bottom out and the receiver flat behind it will be in full hard contact with the epoxy under it. But none in front of the recoil lug; keep the barrel totally free floating. With bedding under the tang and everywhere else, when the three stock screws are torqued to 60 in-lbs (about perfect for Win 70's), minimal compression of the epoxy and stock will take place.

[ColColt]

Apparently, according to a knowledgeable friend on another forum, someone has messed with this rifle before. The lug area should not look like it does with the step in it. I suppose I need to fill that in to raise it back up.




So, no bedding compound in the lug recess at all?

[hoghunting]

keep the barrel totally free floating

It's a pre-64, there is a lug on the barrel with a screw through the fore end.

So, no bedding compound in the lug recess at all?

Yes, you need to put bedding compound in the lug recess, you don't need to fill it up though as it will run when the action is placed in the stock.

[Bart B.]

It's a good idea to put O-rings around the barrel that hold the barreled action in the stock's fore end such that the receiver will "free float" clear of the stock about 1/8 inch all the way around it while the epoxy cures. The O-rings should be of a diameter to position the receiver where it fits properly up and down as well as left and right in the stock. With the reciever areas filled with modeling clay so the epoxy won't work inside of it, and the front and bottom of the recoil lug taped up, the barreled action should be in a good position after the epoxy's cured. A rubber band holding the barrel down into the barrel channel helps. Be sure to put release agent on the stock screws and screw them in only part way to let the epoxy set with the receiver held in place by rubber bands on the barrel with O-ring spacers keeping it in place.

The barrel lug that accepts a screw through the fore end is not needed nor should be used. Remove the screw from it and keep that area totally free of any contact with the stock. Otherwise, the barrel's not free floating and any pressure on the stock's fore end that even slightly bends it will be transferred to the barrel; not good for accuracy.

If you don't understand all the mechanics of what's involved when epoxy bedding a barreled action into a stock, I suggest you not do it, but instead get in touch personally with someone who does. Conveying all the issues via printed words on a web site forum is not all that easily done.

[Clark]

20 years ago I tried to start educating my self in gunsmithing by buying broken 22 rifles at pawn shops, buying parts for them from Numrich, and then selling them on consignment at pawn shops.

I bought this book 10 or 15 years ago:
http://www.amazon.com/Gunsmithing-Ri.../dp/0873416651
chapter 15 page 226 to 235 is Glass Bedding.
Armed with that book I tried to glass bed a Mosin Nagant into it's own military stock.
Some things went wrong:
1) Epoxy leaked out and onto my pants, onto my shoes, onto my chair, and onto the rug.
2) Epoxy leaked out and so the barreled action was not bedded to the stock.
3) Epoxy leaked into the small parts of the barreled action making things so stuck together that I had to saw the stock off the action.

Since then I have changed my act a little:
1) I use Devcon Steel putty, so I do not have to fight time or gravity.
2) I make pillars on the lathe. I learned a lot from Steve Wagner's website. http://www272.pair.com/stevewag/turk/turkbed1.html
But I now make pillars from either a) 3/8" 1010 Carbon Steel tubing with .060" thick walls from Granger or b) 1/2" round Aluminum 6061 rod. I don't use brass, G-10, nor stainless steel.
3) I pre compress the pillars against the receiver when bedding. Not for the reasons they do it on concrete, but for alignment.

The first uploaded image below is a pic of a pre 64 M70 made with epoxy/glass/graphite that someone else has already bedded. I will chisel out their handy work and re bed it.
It is a High Tech Specialties [Bansner]
http://www.hightech-specialties.com/stocks.html

The next pic is of a pre compressed rear pillar.
The last pic is of that pillar covered with Devcon, and about to be set over a barreled action that I have leveled in a barrel vise. The stock will then be leveled and then the epoxy will harden.

What does it all mean?
Glass bedding is a mess to start, but you will improve your own process after a few rifles.
I would not start on a Pre 64 M70, they are too expensive. I would start on something cheaper.

[ColColt]

Well, Clark-I didn't have much of a choice except to bed this rifle. It was the only sour shooting rifle I had and I knew it was capable of better groups than I was getting. I finally got it done and hopefully tomorrow will be able to try out the fruits of my labor. Since the pictures below I have cut out about an inch and squared up the bedding compound in the barrel shank area.

[Clark]

Fast learner.

[Bart B.]

If my Devcon plastic steel's been too runny for decent use for bedding, I've mixed some baking flour in it to thicken it up. Works just fine to get the epoxy thick enough to use easily yet thin enough to squeeze into tiny areas.

[ColColt]

Going to the range with it in a couple hours. I'll find out if what I did matters or not. I'm not going to torque down that front boss screw as it may void the reason I bedded it.