My first groups shooting a precision rifle
- Thread starter beaverpelt
- Start date
Tape job looks good. just be sure to remove trigger from action so that it doesn't get epoxied. I would also put a bit more tape round the bolt/safe switch inlet.
To preform the putty dam to your barrel (so that barrel/action sit at proper level position), put your action into the stock and tighten the action screws down to normal torque. It will contour the putty barrel dam a bit and keep barrel from "riding high" or nose up when set into the bedding material. Then tape down the barrel channel and forearm edges behind the tape so that you can remove any excess that happens to get forward of the barrel dam. Tape is your friend if you have areas that shouldn't be bedded and are hard to clean up (i.e rough or inaccessible)
Ok so you don’t need pillars if it’s metal at the action bolts. When you asked before I thought that was all glass.
Last edited:
Correct. It has "pillars" already installed by making the entire action block from aluminum. It's a good design as long as the aluminum frame is square true and/or bedded (which he is about to do). I bedded my Manners which is a pillar system and it definitely helped to ensure consistent contact with pillars.
Success! Action came right now with almost no effort which I'm guessing is because of the shape of the recoil lug. I'm going to put a little more bedding material around the space on the rear tang.
Congrats on a successful first bedding job!
Yes, Howa 1500 has a very thick, wedge shaped integrated recoil lug (one piece of metal including lug and receiver body) with integral action screw hole. It ensures that stress is applied to the "wedge"; while I'm not an engineer, the lug design keeps recoil movement to absolute minimum and its really chunky compared to some of the stock 700 lugs, meaning very little to no flex during recoil as its one solid assembly.
I still don't like the bolt throw feel, but it works well and multiple factory barreled actions have produced sub-half MOA rifles at $450-$500 each. Its a great action for first builds and costs less than a R700 action without a barrel.
what don't you like about the bolt throw? I was considering a Bergara HMR but bolt lift was notchy, almost like a second stage near the end of rotation. is this one similar?..
Its really nice.
Here is a ruger and a winchester just for a bit more variety. The ruger is easy to just bed but to pillar bed on that angle it a bitch as the bottom metal also has to be installed to make sure the spacing and angles are exactly perfect for a bdl set up to function. The Howa really is the easiest/best configuration imo.
Just to clean it up and fill in the gap?
Exactly as you described. It has a first stage (lugs disengaging) and second (cocking firing pin). It's not bad but it adds some force that can mimic a sticky bolt lift. Functionally, it's a fantastic action and would consider it one of better designs available for building, as far as stock actions go. Aftermarket actions are a different story.
The other is that they don't thread the bolt knob from the factory. A small detail but means that you are stuck with smallish round knob to cycle action.
I see. yeah, I didn't like that. the Tikka didn't have it, or at least to the degree the Bergara did. it was very difficult to operate smoothly...
Similar threads
