Stocks with aluminum bedding blocks or not

T

Tom Howell

Guest
I need to replace a stock on a Rem 700 and was looking at the HS Precision or Bell and Carlson with the aluminum bedding blocks. I called HS and they do not recommend bedding but I have read reports that some rifles shoot better bedded and other reports where there was no difference. This rifle has the potential to be a real tackdriver with a trued action and custom barrel. If you have to bed anyway, is there any advantage to using a stock with the bedding block? Looking for response from actual owners of various stocks if possible as we all have been told that a bedded stock is better but can anybody dispute that? Thanks for any help. Tom
 
It is my opinion that bedding block stocks will fit your action or the next guy's action, etc. and shoot pretty good. The barrel may or may not be centered in the barrel channel...

Once you glass bed on top of the aluminum, that stock fits your action... and no other action... and it certainly will not harm accuracy, it may improve it... and you can make it so the barrel is perfectly centered in the channel.
 
I have three HS stocks and all of them needed bedding. The bedding blocks only made contact with the action on the corners, less than 10% of the action was in contact. I bedded the skim bedded the stocks and they now have 100% contact with the action and should reduce the stress on the action, but honestly, I have not noticed any appreciable difference in accuracy. All three shoot very well with handloads, in the .25 to .4 moa range.
 
Tom,

Most people believe the hype and think these stock are the greatest thing since bottled bourban, eliminating the need for glass bedding. But I have yet to see an HS stock with the integral bedding block that made any sort of decent contact with the action. Any time I get one, I Prussian blue the action and bolt it into the stock to check for contact...and it is usually minimal. And anytime I've done the indicator check/test on one, it's made me ill. As the above does not lend itself to gilt-edge accuracy, I routinely skim bed them. I view them, as is from the factory, as being half pillar bedded...the bedding block being the pillars.

Now...having said all that, some of them really shoot...crappy bedding and all. I examined one that had overspray from the stock finish...clumpy black stuff that did nothing good for action/block contact, on the tang area of the bedding block, but it shot lights out. Go figure...the proof is on the paper. I'd go shoot it and see what happens.

Check your PM's.

Justin
 
Re:

To bed a rifle, means to bed the action and recoil lug. The barrel remains freefloating so nothing hambers the harmonic resonance of the barrel while the bullet is traveling down the barrel. I have heard of people bedding the barrel in some rifles, but I do not know the reasoning behind it. The cnc machined bedding block found in some of the new rifle stocks are made to achieve a positive contact with the action and recoil lug, however some rifles may benifit with a small amout of bedding compound to achieve a perfect fit.

Tommy Bahama Comforter
 
I've only got one HS Precision stock with the aluminum bedding but as I remember it came with instructions that it could be used as is but they recommended skim bedding the action at that time. It even came with a small bit of epoxy compound just for that purpose.....which I used. That's what the factory recommended two or three years back. I really prefer fully bedded actions in a laminate or synthetic but the bedding blocks do have their place. An aluminum bedding block requires 65 inch lbs. torque but a properly bedded action requires a lot less for the same stability. That should tell us something.
 
THIS?
P1010025.jpg



Or this?

beddingII.jpg
 
Chad, the first stock looks like something I would do! What is the second picture as it appears to be a laminated stock. Thanks. Tom
 
It's called "indian blanket". Stock is bedded for a Nesika T action.

Cheers,

C
 
whoo

Chad, i just saved your pic as my wall paper-someday, when i bed, it will be an inspiration:cool:
 
Nice

Chad do you bed rifles for other shooters? Ive noticed a couple of your bedding jobs on the forums. SUPER
 
Truth be told I can not tell a well bedded epoxy bedded stock from WELL bedded Aluminium bedded block stock. They both shoot fine to me. Twenty plus years ago I thought that machining and aluminium bedding block was better than a good epoxy bedding job, I have since learned the era of my way and no longer find it worth wasting MY TIME.
 
Had a HS stock in the shop...

a while back. It was part of a Remington PSS that was in for a full house accuracy job. The customer didn't want to have the stock "glass bedded" as part of the job. When I went to install the align reamed and trued barreled action into the stock, with the action screws tight the bolt was a "little sticky". With the screws loose the bolt worked fine. The action was the DBM style not the BDL and the aluminum bedding block was so far off and stressing the action that the .7035 bolt would not run in a .705 bore. I milled out clearance in the aluminum block installed pillars and bedded the action with steel reinforced epoxy. The bolt works, the rifle is very accurate and I will be doing more rifles for them in the future.

What you have to understand is that Remington 700 actions are heat treated after machining and the outside is hand finished after heat treating prior to bluing. No two are alike period. The aluminum bedding blocks are CNC machined and are very similar, I won’t go so far as to say that they are all the same but they are very very close. So how can you expect something that was hand finished with a belt sander and then polished or glass beaded to fit perfectly into a one size fits all bedding block?

Good Luck,
Nic.
 
Bedding note

NesikaChad said:
It's called "indian blanket". Stock is bedded for a Nesika T action.

Cheers,

C
Click to expand...


Chad,
Your bedding jobs are some of the most precise I have ever seen; absolutely a work of art!

Lou Baccino
 
To bed or not to bed

Tom, if you have to replace the stock you're going to need bedding for best performance alumiminum block or not. I see factory rifles in my shop every day, they all need bedding, free float the barrel a trigger job and a crown. I encourage my clients to shoot thier rifles before doing any modifications, a few are satisfied as is most choose modify, All clients have been happy with thier rifles performance after these modifications were done. The cheap injection molded plastic stocks are not worth bedding as it oil based and epoxy doesn't adhere well and the forearms are to limber to free float.
My own rifles with aluminum bedding blocks are all epoxy bedded, I do have some clients with unbedded aluminum blocks that are happy with thier rifles as is and shoot them pretty well.
Leroy Johnson
 
Nic,

Good post! Your thoughts re-affirm mine that the bedding blocks are probably machined to a tighter tolerance than the Remington actions. Hell...I took apart a 700 awhile back and found a big, fat, grind mark ala a bench grinder on the action face! Must have had a high spot. I had to re-evaluate my action trueing procedure...who needs a lathe when you have a bench grinder!

H&S recommends that the action screws be torqued at 65 inch pounds, which should be plenty of umph to straighten a crooked action or bedding block. I've tried the indicator/bedding test on a couple of these...the needle on my indicator looked to be spinning 10,000 rpm's as I tightened and loosened the action screws!

Unfortunately, at least I think so, this torque setting as filtered into the minds of some shooters as THE torque setting, no matter the bedding method. Probably a lot of smushed bedding out there because of it.

I did a bit of testing the other day with my properly bedded .308. I could tell no difference in accuracy at different torque settings from 35-65 inch pounds.

Justin
 
Tom
I have a couple of the H-S stocks from a 308 and 223 PSS and I've shot around a dozen of them.I have never seen one where the bolt handle doesn't contact the stock.I hogged out both of my stocks for extra clearance.
I live in santa rosa,california and shoot at sacramento with Mr Johnson and you can borrow one of my stocks if you want to try it out.I had the barrel channels opened up to accept very heavy barrels and they are both skim bedded and shoot lights out.
I have had alot of surgeries on my right hand and I don't like the palm swell on those stocks.
Lynn aka Waterboy
 
Consistency of flex might trump maximizing contact area

Zebra13 said:
Tom,

Most people believe the hype and think these stock are the greatest thing since bottled bourban, eliminating the need for glass bedding. But I have yet to see an HS stock with the integral bedding block that made any sort of decent contact with the action. Any time I get one, I Prussian blue the action and bolt it into the stock to check for contact...and it is usually minimal. And anytime I've done the indicator check/test on one, it's made me ill. As the above does not lend itself to gilt-edge accuracy, I routinely skim bed them. I view them, as is from the factory, as being half pillar bedded...the bedding block being the pillars.

Now...having said all that, some of them really shoot...crappy bedding and all. I examined one that had overspray from the stock finish...clumpy black stuff that did nothing good for action/block contact, on the tang area of the bedding block, but it shot lights out. Go figure...the proof is on the paper. I'd go shoot it and see what happens.

Check your PM's.

Justin
Click to expand...

The key to accuracy is more in the consistency of how the action flexes every time.
If the action is contacting the bedding all through, tiny variations in shot to shot might move the actual effective point of rear support for the action, where the action is being pushed upwards during the recoil. Where this point lies, decides how much the action flexes and how much the stock flexes in the space between the recoil lug recess and this rear contact.
By ensuring a well defined rear contact (small contact) we can ensure that the action flexes the same every time. actually the thinner this area (small dimension along the length of the rifle) the better it is (until the point where the stress begins to deform the action/bedding block contact).
Similarly a smaller contact area in the front minimizes the interference to the flex there and also helps to maintain a consistent starting point for the flex cycle.
If you read older material on accurizing a rifle, particularly from mother Russia, they shimmed the front and rear action screw areas until the action was lifted clean off the rest of the wood between the screw holes. This is what modern bedding blocks are doing too.
 
Bedding Aluminum Bedded Stocks

I own a few aluminum bedded stocks.......first one I got I was so proud of it I used Prussian bluing and hand scraped the block for the action that was going into it... I have bedded others with J-B.....shoot some bare.... finding no difference in performance... I do however make sure there is no mfg.residue between receiver and block.
bill larson
 
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