Bedding the barrel?

[Ontario Hunter]

I have used JB weld in the past. I'm not greatly enthused about this stock anyway so I may just do enough to "get by" for this trip to Africa. Still waiting to hear progress report on the barrel. Perhaps it won't be going at all. I bought the stock for several reasons. It was "semi finished" a long time ago so it's obviously well seasoned. Has a bit of interesting character, but just a bit at the heel. The old guy selling it was also very interesting (he fled Czechoslovakia on the last train out in 1968 and spent a month living in Vienna train station before Canada granted him refugee status) and he's clearly in tough shape. We met to do the deal in a hospital parking lot. Turns out the stock was buggered a bit by carving machine on very end of the fore end. I made it shorter. And it had a notch carved out for trigger block safety. I already had Timney trigger installed designed for striker safety (3-position Model 70 style is in the mail as I write this). But it's a strong grained stocky stock (lots of wood to play with) so I knew I could make it work, for now at least. And he only wanted $120 US so why not help him out. Been a great learning experience that's prepared me for a really nice piece of wood down the road. The fit is so tight it will almost be a shame to cut more wood away around the box. But I understand what you're saying. Cut it away or it will chip away. So, at the tang I should try to make a recess behind the end of it but below the surface fit and fill with bedding? My daughter has some art pigments that might be useful for camoflaging areas where the bedding may surface. I'm already playing with that idea to fill the trigger safety slot. See how or if pigment affects the strength of bedding epoxy. Run a test first. Taping the box? Is that to space it from wood so there's a place for bedding material?

Thanks to all for enlightening me.