Bedding a Benchrest stock

E

eww1350

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When bedding an action to a benchrest stock should the action set square/level with the fore-end bottom or ???
While bedding a round action to a flat bottom stock I have levelled the fore-end using the surface that rides on the front bag, but it isn't level with the top of the tock or the flat just in front of the trigger guard..:mad:
Which method or which surface do you guys use to get the action setting square.???


Eddie in Texas
 
Eddie,

When I bed any stock, I try to have the center line of the receiver / barrel in line with the top edge of the stock. I wrap either masking tape or blue painters tape around the barrel in two places, around the barrel at the end of the forearm and just ahead of the receiver, about three inches or so. The number of wraps of tape will dictate whether the barreled receiver is level or not. You can adjust the number of wraps accordingly. The tape also helps to center the barrel up in the barrel channel. I also use the ejection port in the receiver and the stock as a rough guide making sure they are as even as I can get them. Prior to applying any bedding compound I check the dry fit and get it just right. If using pillars, I bolt them to the receiver and bed everything all at once. To date, it's all been good, no problems.

Dont worry about the bottom of the stock too much, most are designed so recoil is slightly down and back. The top and bottom the stocks are rarley on the same plane. The bottom of the butt anyway.
 
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Eddie

In the machinist trade, there is a phrase, "square with the world".

So yes, if your stock is constructed correctly, the action should be "square" when the bottom of the forearm is dead level with the world. That will mean it is perpendicular, and square, with every thing else.

That is, if you stock is constructed properly.........jackie
 
Thanks for all of the input...I have been checking all of the surfaces on this BR stock I am bedding..and none of them agree..:(
It reminds me of my days in the machine shop I worked in,
when given a raw casting and told to make a finished housing for a pneumatic press..finding the first reference point was a "B****"..:eek:
 
Eddie, when bedding a stock for BR use, the sixty four dollar question is: "What's square/in line with what?" :confused:

-The side(s) of the forearm can be out of line with the bottom of the butt.
-Each individual side of the forearm can be out of line with each other.
-The bottom of the forearm can be off-kilter to the sides.
-Any and all of these combinations.

I've made some jigs to check stocks with..lots of work. A really quick way to give a stock the once over is to level the bottom of the forearm and then use a dial type angle guage to span between the top edge of the forearm and the bottom of the side of the forearm. If both sides are the same, you're pretty good.

Then, with the stock turned over, measure the exact center of the forearm at the very tip of the stock and make a mark. Now, do the same thing at the bottom of the butt at the very end. Take some heavy cotton thread (think your wife's sewing stuff, here ;)) and tape one end exactly on one of the marks. Extend the thread tightly to the exact center of the other mark and tape it in place. Now you can visualize how the fore arm and the butt line up. Even if the thread comes over the grip area, you can center it and get a pretty decent idea.
 
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