The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post

jmr40 · February 3, 2013, 01:51 AM

Bedding simply means "fitting the stock to the action". Most stocks today are made on CNC machines and are a pretty good fit straight out of the box. Most likely a new Boyds stock will simply bolt to your action and produce acceptable accuracy with no further work. In some cases the stock may be putting uneven pressure on the action or barrel and causing unacceptable accuracy. In this case some stock material may need to be removed to releive stress.

One issue with wood stocks, even laminates is that they expand and contract as environmental conditions change. This will often cause a normally good fitting stock to suddenly start putting pressure on the metal as the wood expands. This may cause the point or impact to change dramatically.

The fix is to remove enough wood for a generous gap between the barrel and stock and to fill in the recoil lug with an epoxy of some sort and place the action into the stock. As the epoxy hardens you get a perfect fit in this area and the fiberglass filled epoxy prevents the wood from expanding and placing un even pressure on the action or barrel. This may or may not impove accuacy, but it will help prevent point of impact changes.

Glass bedding is not hard to do. You can pay a gunsmith $50-$75 to do it, or do it yourself for under $6 in materials. There are several "you tube" videos explaining how to do it. The most important part is putting some sort of release agent on your metal so you can get it all apart afterward. I've had good luck simply using JB-Weld.

February 3, 2013, 01:51 AM	#3
jmr40 Senior Member Join Date: June 15, 2008 Location: Georgia Posts: 10,809	Bedding simply means "fitting the stock to the action". Most stocks today are made on CNC machines and are a pretty good fit straight out of the box. Most likely a new Boyds stock will simply bolt to your action and produce acceptable accuracy with no further work. In some cases the stock may be putting uneven pressure on the action or barrel and causing unacceptable accuracy. In this case some stock material may need to be removed to releive stress. One issue with wood stocks, even laminates is that they expand and contract as environmental conditions change. This will often cause a normally good fitting stock to suddenly start putting pressure on the metal as the wood expands. This may cause the point or impact to change dramatically. The fix is to remove enough wood for a generous gap between the barrel and stock and to fill in the recoil lug with an epoxy of some sort and place the action into the stock. As the epoxy hardens you get a perfect fit in this area and the fiberglass filled epoxy prevents the wood from expanding and placing un even pressure on the action or barrel. This may or may not impove accuacy, but it will help prevent point of impact changes. Glass bedding is not hard to do. You can pay a gunsmith $50-$75 to do it, or do it yourself for under $6 in materials. There are several "you tube" videos explaining how to do it. The most important part is putting some sort of release agent on your metal so you can get it all apart afterward. I've had good luck simply using JB-Weld.