To bed or not to bed, that is the question ...

[Ontario Hunter]

I'm wrapping up my 404 Jeffery build on 98 Mauser. The 24" barrel should be done this week. I'm wondering if I should full length bed it or free float. Seems most of the thumper guns are full length bedded. Is there a reason?

I picked up a nice piece of zebrawood today for a fore end cap. Local shop only had one small piece of rosewood and it had zero character. Didn't even look like rosewood. Anyone had experience working zebrawood?

 

[Inline6]

I pillar bed mine and free float the barrel.

That just me, I'm no expert.

 

[mdwest]

I pillar bed mine and free float the barrel.

That just me, I'm no expert.

Ive done the same with all of my M98 customs...

Glass bed and pillar bed the actions.. and free float the barrel...

the one exception has been my 416 Taylor.. I cut a thin channel in the forend and filled it with lead shot to add a little weight to the gun and bring the balance point just a touch forward (it was just barely too far rearward for my liking ).. I then glass bedded the barrel.. not really to improve accuracy or add structural integrity to the stock so much as I used it as a means of securing the lead in the forend for a couple of inches in front of the chamber..

 

[Hogpatrol]

I skim bed aluminum bedding block stocks. With wood or other non block stocks, pillars and skim bed. IIRC, full length bedding fell out off favor years ago.

 

[Nhoro]

I just bedded the 2 recoil lugs on my cz 458 lott and relieved the tang. Bedding on a large bore is more to stop the stock splitting than for long range accuracy. At least that is why i did it. Splits usually occur at the magazine or tang. Having said that, i have a .22 that threw 4 " fliers because of barrel contact. I think lug bedding, cross bolts,free float the barrel and relieve tang is standard. Full bedding will help prevent stock splits but not vital.

 

[nztimb]

I just bedded the 2 recoil lugs on my cz 458 lott and relieved the tang. Bedding on a large bore is more to stop the stock splitting than for long range accuracy. At least that is why i did it. Splits usually occur at the magazine or tang. Having said that, i have a .22 that threw 4 " fliers because of barrel contact. I think lug bedding, cross bolts,free float the barrel and relieve tang is standard. Full bedding will help prevent stock splits but not vital.

That has been my preference as well to bed on wood except to (devcon) liquid steel bed the the recoil lug (s) relieve the tang, rear of mag and drill out the rear screw pillar for clearance as well. Float the barrel ahead of the chamber but with proper blank selection there is no need to epoxy bead the whole of the action or the barrel channel

 

[Ontario Hunter]

That has been my preference as well to bed on wood except to (devcon) liquid steel bed the the recoil lug (s) relieve the tang, rear of mag and drill out the rear screw pillar for clearance as well. Float the barrel ahead of the chamber but with proper blank selection there is no need to epoxy bead the whole of the action or the barrel channel

Relieve the tang at top but not the trigger guard at bottom?

 

[nztimb]

Relieve the tang at top but not the trigger guard at bottom?

Yes I forgot to mention the rear of the TG.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Apologies to all re double posting essentially the same thread. I am having issues sometimes starting threads that appear to go into the Twilight Zone and then rematerialize later.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Dennis Olson put on the 404 Jeffery barrel from Lija over the weekend. He installed my iron sights and I left him my two screw taps from mounting same sights on my Springfield. He also straightened the bolt previous owner warped when welding on the bolt handle. He even dropped the action and barrel in the stock (arrived with 30-06 barrel). And he fixed the new 3-position Model 70 style safety that had some issues from poor quality control at manufacturer. Parkwest will be making good on that. They better. The 416 Rem mag bottom metal from Blackburn-Swift worked fine for 404 without any modification. Timney trigger was a bit if a pain to install but only because previous owner tweaked the cocking piece. Dennis replaced the cocking piece and all is well. It was up to me to make the gun feed properly. Nearly an all nighter but I finally prevailed. Remove a little bit of metal at a time from receiver, each time reassembling the gun to try cycling again. Requires a LOT of patience. Getting the last shell in the bottom of magazine to feed was the big issue. Finally required modifying the new magnum follower from New England Custom Gun. The iron sights are from eBay and same as those on my Springfield: 1990s Winchester Safari Express. There may not be enough time to get it blued before leaving for Africa. Have to see what my guy in New Brunswick has to say. But this gun is done. Some folks here said it couldn't be done but I did it.

 

[CoElkHunter]

Apologies to all re double posting essentially the same thread. I am having issues sometimes starting threads that appear to go into the Twilight Zone and then rematerialize later.

No worries. That's how we roll here on AH, which sometimes CAN be a Twilight Zone. Instead of Rod Serling narrating, we have Townsend @Bob Nelson 35Whelen as our narrator. LOL