Gunsmithing Bedding - haven't seen this happen before

[mdesign]

My friend decided to bed his own rifle (skim bed HS stock) and after a few questions (and a lot of reading) does what looks like a very good job. No voids or messy stock, on the surface it looks great. He was very pleased but I noticed that when one tightens the front guard screw, the front of the barrel really picks up. I do not have a way to measure how much it moves but if you place your fingers out on the for-end of the stock you can definitely feel it happen.

If the front screw is tight, nothing moves when you loosen/tighten the rear screw so I'm thinking the problem is in front of the front screw. The barrel is totally free floated back to the face of the action and he used the same method I've used when bedding stocks by basically laying the action into the epoxy and letting it cure stress free. I've done this many times and never had one act like this so I'm not sure what he did differently that could have made this happen. It does not shoot well IMO and I told him I would help the second time around but I wondered if there is something to learn not to do when skim-bedding like this. I have never seen a barrel move like this one does.

Thoughts??

 

[6brshooter]

I bedded a savage, after bedding 20+ rifles, and put epoxy between the front and rear bedding pads. Basically along the ejection port. That rifle showed movement at the barrel/forend also. I knew that it was stress free, just let the action sit down in fresh bedding with studs in the action and black tape wrapped around the stock and action. It looked great. Ended up dremeling out the bedded areas on each side of the ejection port and problem solved. If u are going to help ur bud redo it might dremel out that area first and then see if movement is detected.

 

[SSC]

Can you move it when you set the action in the stock or is it just when you tighten the screw? If you can move it find the fulcrum point and that will tell you where it is binding.

 

[damoncali]

Is the lug bottoming out, creating a pivot point?

 

[glassbeaver]

Is the lug bottoming out, creating a pivot point?

I would guess this

 

[mdesign]

It is a Wby Mk V so the bottom of the lug is bedded as the front action screw attaches there. I've done a number of Wby's this way and never had an issue. I quizzed him a little on how he held the barreled action in place while the epoxy was drying and I wonder if he stressed it a little going together. He used Devcon Steel Putty and said it seemed stiff so he had to push on it pretty hard to get the action into place.

SSC - The receiver fits real nice into the bedding, just falls into place with no binding and is snug (not sloppy) when it is in place. Only when you tighten the front screw do you feel the barrel move.

6br - The action is fully bedded, not just the tang and lug areas, and I wondered about the this so I plan to test this as we work to rebed the rifle.