[Unclenick]

Brownells Steel Bed is probably the best from the standpoint of withstanding repeated battering, as in match shooting. The % steel in the filler is much higher than in JB Weld or Devcon Plastic Steel. The 5-minute epoxies all have much lower tensile strength than the slow cure epoxies, so I would not be sanguine about their durability without some careful testing. Nor, given the heat evolved in the fast cure mixes, would I be comfortable assuming it has the same ability to hold shape against the metal being bedded. Same with polyester-based fiberglass. Especially not if the gun is doing both summer and winter weather duty. A well-filled, slow cure epoxy will exhibit very little change in size as it cures and will remain strong to pretty low temperatures. You may get away with less, especially if you only put a few tens of rounds through the gun each year, but you are better guaranteed good results if you get the right stuff.

By the way, there is a school that feels the rigidity of epoxy bedding is both too unforgiving of wood stock changes with humidity and a little too able to transfer recoil shock. A hard bedded rifle does punch you a little more sharply than a wood stock without bedding. One solution has been to go to a rubber-like bedding material. Devcon Flexane 80 is the most common one. It has a durometer hardness of 80, so it is pliant, but still contacts the gun the same way each shot and still prevents if from shifting in its stock, the main goals for bedding. Just an idea for you to play with.

Nick