Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles DIY bedding M77 (pic heavy)

Bump! this needs to be on top.......Oh Rick.

Good job Dave. I've done several 77's myself. Thanks for the pics. Very helpful for those who haven't done it, and also those who have.

Well done Dave!! You make it look easy, I have been sending my guns out for bedding but I think will make a run at the next one myself.

+100000 on the sticky

Good job Dave, should help make it shoot.
On the ones I've had to add pressure points back into the forend, I've just cut small plastic squares(half of a finger from a shotgun wad come in handy) and add one or two till the groups come back. Then I'll add bedding compound over and under them to keep them in place and give a more uniform cradle to the barrel.
As to the tang mortise fit, I've always been told not to let the back of the tang bear against the stock. Something about being a secondary recoil shoulder causing accuracy problems as well as splits. Don't know that it's true, but have seen it in a couple gunsmith books.

Here's my bedded Ruger 77 VT stock :

Hornady One shot in a spray can makes a pretty handy release agent as well and is sometimes easier to make sure you have everything covered since you can spray.

Just a thought, I've used it twice and it worked great and most people already have it.

wow, very nice andre. That's a level above what I have shown with my acra glass gell progect

looks like someone did a full action fit & broke out the clay for bedding dams & everything.

Well, I tinkered again last night a little. I sealed up the wood inside the barrel channel with some linseed oil (it's what I had laying around)



I pealed the release agent clean from everything and re drilled the action screw holes.







Then I got looking at the trigger. I'm ok with a "hunting wieght" pull, but it had too much creep. So I fixed that problem while I had the action out of the stock. I did a little work to the factory trigger and I'm very happy with it now.



Then I put it all back together.







[img]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e364/northerndave/rifle%20bedding/Picture062.jpg[/img]

Now I'm ready for a range test.

Dave,

This is a great post and will prove to be a big help to me for sure. Going to be doing a Winchester Featherweight very soon so the step by step pictures really help. Thanks again. Keep the post going with your range findings & maybe some pics of before and after groups if you have them.

CLB

I am betting on things tightening up for you now. Great looking job on your rifle, and it is a very good looking set-up indeed. Are you planning another elk hunt this fall? If so, it would be a sin not to take this rifle with you.

I got a good friend (backwoodsbrian) posts here, he's talking about picking up a left over tag, coming along on our elk hunt & bringing his 257WBY. If Brian brings his 257WBY I'll leave my .300WBY at home & bring this 264 instead (assuming I can get it to shoot)

CLB, I've done a couple M70 FWT's. Be sure to keep a clear opening through your wet bedding for the recoil lug screw to be pushed up into place in the stock (with floorplate & hinge) have that clean screw poked up into place& bring the recoil lug to the screw, engage the threads before you let the lug down into the inletting full of wet bedding. That action screw hole in the M70 recoil lug is drilled all the way through up into the action. If you are not careful you can squish a bunch of wet bedding up into the action where the bolt lugs lock into the action.

I know this guy, that learned the hard way.....

One more vote for sticky status .
Great step by step and the pics really help.

Great thread Dave

Your trick with the tape on the barrel was worth the time it took to read your tutorial. That's exactly the problem I had when I bedded my first rifle this winter. You mighty large cojones to bed that thing without putting any tape on the stock to protect from splooge. Thanks Dave.

Thanks Dave, I'd love to boast about having done it myself, but it's not the case. I had the rifle bedded to host a new Lothar Walther SS Match bbl.

that's some quality work there Andre. reminds me of the bedding we would tend to on the old M40 A-1's when I was a weapons repairman in the USMC. Someone is using "the runny stuff"

which is a whole different bag of tricks & a whole new level of bravery.

I recomend the acra glass gel type of bedding for us hunters looking to do our own acurizing. much safer.


thanks Scorp & Phil, that tape band trick is pretty simple but very helpful for centering the barrel.

I picked up a new box of factory loads. Going with the green box this time, 140 gr soft points again. But the crimp looks perfectly normal on these. The crimp on those win power points looked like a pair of elastic waist band 44" pants on a 28" kid.


I'll send a few down the tube & report results as soon as I get a chance.

I use Birchwood Casey Gun Stock Wax as a release agent


it makes it easier to see where the release agent has been applied

Dave a lil knowledge is a dangerouse thing. I read this thread a couple times, and then decided what the heck lets pull the stock and check it out.

Next thing I know I have a chisel and am going to town....

Next thing I know I have Acraglass everywhere. I'm talking it looked like a kindergardner got into the fingerpaints. Got everything cleaned up I'll pull it in a hour or so and see just how big of a mess I made outta the hawkeye.

I really need to learn how to just skip over these DIY threads

Dave I would take a whisker out from behind you tang. just on the radious so you do not split that stock. About the thickness of a piece of scotch tape. Good job very neat. I would have had resin finger prints all over my scope. If I leave the scope on it gets taped up and cover with a wal-mart bag.

Awesome post Dave. Thanks for the info, very well presented.

LOL!! Was it a happy ending Bogger??