Gunsmithing Re-do of bedding job, due to recoil lug change...

[Wannashootit]

So the new Savage barrel arrives, and with it the Holland precision recoil lug. The lug said it would fit the the 700 or the Savage, but instead of a flat to engage the recess in the receiver it had a pin...found a punch with the correct dia. to center the pin in the recess and made it work...but do they have a lug specifically for the Savage with a flat, instead of the pin? Had to cut off the pin on the barrel nut side as well...

Anyway...

Figured that just grinding out the recess in the epoxy bedding for the fat ass lug wouldn't work, so I ground down everything from the magwell forward below the level of the front pillar as well.

Slobbed in a bunch of JB Weld (after the usual prep), and pressed the action down as tight as I could into the stock. I use long cut-off headless screws to center the action- and then wrapped electrical tape stretched tightly (I've used surgical tubing before as well) to get good consistent pressure along the length of the action/stock.

Well, pulled her loose yesterday (note to self- tape the barrel nut, as the nut recesses can be reverse- angled and lock the receiver in place) and found there was about an 1/8" or so of expoy above the front pillar.

Looked great otherwise, but I knew that since the front of the action was now sitting higher than it used to, it would have to be re-done as it was now out of alignment with the existing bedding that remained at the rear.

I've ground it back down, and re-done it this morning, with a bit more downward pressure to (hopefully) get the front of the action down tight to the pillar this time in the original configuration.

So to the question...

I initially decided to take the "shortcut" instead of grinding out the whole damn bedding job to save on some of the prep work at the rear of the action. Not sure I shouldn't have just done the extra work to begin with.

Seems like a lot of work to have to re-do an entire bedding job over a recoil lug change, but is that what you guys do?

Or, is there a "shortcut" that works?

 

[BradfromND]

Re: Re-do of bedding job, due to recoil lug change...

My guess is that the holland lug is taller and that is why it sits high in the stock now. Did you grind a bunch of material out from the bottom side of the lug? If not, I'm pretty sure that there is the cause of your problems.

 

[Wannashootit]

Re: Re-do of bedding job, due to recoil lug change...

Absolutely...
Hogged the hell out of it, including the bottom. Sides as well, since the lug isn't tapered like the factory was, and is the full width of the barrel.

Wondering if "SOP" is to re-do the whole rifle, or just the forward section of the action like I did.

 

[SJshooter]

Re: Re-do of bedding job, due to recoil lug change...

Could you take a picture of this? And what stock are you using?

I may need to do the same thing... I'm trying to learn from others experiences first.

 

[Wannashootit]

Re: Re-do of bedding job, due to recoil lug change...

SJ...

I made the stock myself, so not sure of what help the pics might be, though the inletting is of course the same as any factory stock.

Happy to post them if you want to see it, after I "clean up" the bedding.

Second shot was better, but still a very thin (less than 1/8") of JB Weld over the front pillar. Screw it, it's not gonna compress so I'm just going to leave it. Everything else including the new lug is tight as a gnats ass, so we'll see how it shoots.

It seems that to get a "perfect" job, "re-bedding" isn't going to cut it. But, I sure as hell didn't want to start from scratch, cutting the damn pillars outta the stock for a complete do-over.

Still curious about what others have done. I know there's a lot of Savage -or Rem 700- owners that have re-barreled and changed to a precision recoil lug. What did you do?

 

[2156SMK]

Re: Re-do of bedding job, due to recoil lug change...

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Wannashootit</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I sure as hell didn't want to start from scratch, cutting the damn pillars outta the stock for a complete do-over.</div></div>

If the pillar lengths are right, leave them alone.
Clearance around them and bed in a whole new layer of epoxy.

If you are ending up with epoxy 1/8" over the top of the pillar, you got a big problem.

Is there any chance that you cut away 1/8" of the pillar before re-doing the front end of the bedding?

 

[Wannashootit]

Re: Re-do of bedding job, due to recoil lug change...

Thanks for the reply.

No, no chance of that. I was very careful with the dremel when grinding out the original bedding. Didn't even scratch the top of the pillar, and took it down over around 1/4" all the way around it.

Odd thing is, that where the "new" meets the "old" at the front of the magazine, there is only a very, very slight lap mark.

But I guess, something must have held it "up" yet again.

Unlike doing it originally, where the pillars are mated up firmly to the action before being placed in the stock, there's no way to verify contact.

Since you say it's a problem, I'll grind it back out and try again. Maybe third time will be the charm...

 

[BK7saum]

Re: Re-do of bedding job, due to recoil lug change...

See if you can get the action to sit down onto to the pillar before epoxying. Put a small piece of clay or other compressible material on/around front pillar to make sure the action will sit that low.

My first thoughts were that the lug or something else was restricting the barrel from going as far as was supposed to

 

[Wannashootit]

Re: Re-do of bedding job, due to recoil lug change...

BLK-

Actually thought of a test like that last night.

After another round of grinding/sanding with the Dremel to remove the bedding again...

I took a piece of the blue painters tape I use for masking- very small, the size of the top of the pillar, and carefully laid it sticky side up on top of the pillar, and placed the action in the stock and pressed down.

It came out without the tape on the action.

Burned a few brain cells, then wondered if the internal box mag might be an issue. I have a staggered-feed Savage action, which has the mag attached to the action. To save a few minutes, and since I was only bedding forward of the action, I left the mag in place when I last bedded it...

I popped the mag off the action, replaced the tape, and tried again. BINGO. Tape stuck to the bottom of action- contact with the pillar.

Turns out, when I made the stock, I had failed to relieve enough wood at the bottom of the magwell, and the metal was hitting the bottom of the stock, and preventing the action from contacting the front pillar.

Not by much, but a couple of millimeters. The damn thing still shot sub-minute with the factory barrel...

Anyway, re-bedded it last night and just popped it out of the stock. Top of the pillar is exposed, all is right with the world again...

Funny how I never knew that the action was never in contact with the front pillar.

 

[2156SMK]

Re: Re-do of bedding job, due to recoil lug change...

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Wannashootit</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Funny how I never knew that the action was never in contact with the front pillar.</div></div>

I don't think anyone that takes bedding work seriously would consider it funny.

Before you bed, there should be free movement of the action while it's set down into the stock without screws.
If you can't rotate the action before bedding, something is hitting the action that should not be.
It's good that you figured out the problem and fixed it.

 

[Bloody_Tailgate]

Re: Re-do of bedding job, due to recoil lug change...

Now, don't forget to remove the excess wood from the bottom of the mag well.

 

[Wannashootit]

Re: Re-do of bedding job, due to recoil lug change...

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: 2156SMK</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Wannashootit</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Funny how I never knew that the action was never in contact with the front pillar.</div></div>

I don't think anyone that takes bedding work seriously would consider it funny.

Before you bed, there should be free movement of the action while it's set down into the stock without screws.
If you can't rotate the action before bedding, something is hitting the action that should not be.
It's good that you figured out the problem and fixed it. </div></div>


It was correctly bedded- without the magwell in place- originally.

It would be impossible to rotate that action in the stock with the mag attached to the action, unless you had a mile of clearance underneath it.

I had missed the fact that the mag was touching the wood at the bottom of the stock. The mag on the Savage staggered feed action is tapered- there was plenty of clearance at the rear, but it was touching ever so little at the front.

What was "funny" was that this wasn't obvious, and the action seemed to lie correctly in the action. Again- we're only talking about a mm or two here, and I suspect that when the action screws were torqued down, that the wood at the bottom of the stock compressed that small amount so that the action contacted the pillar. Doesn't seem likely that it could shoot a cloverleaf at 100 yards with the front of the action floating...

Thanks.

 

[2156SMK]

Re: Re-do of bedding job, due to recoil lug change...

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Wannashootit</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I had missed the fact that the mag was touching the wood at the bottom of the stock. The mag on the Savage staggered feed action is tapered- there was plenty of clearance at the rear, but it was touching ever so little at the front.</div></div>

The mag should not have been there during bedding.
Fill all the openings in the action with clay, then bed the receiver.
At this stage, all that's there is the stock, pillars, receiver, lug and barrel.
You SHOULD be able to move the receiver around and see that it's gonna set into the right place at this point.
If you can't then the inletting needs to be opened up more.