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

I set out tinkering with my 264 last night & decided to take some pictures to share here. The do it yourself bedding questions come up from time to time so I thought I'd share how I go about it with some photos.

I happen to be free floating the barrel on this rifle so the first thing I did was some relief work in the barrel channel of the fore end. I wish I had taken pictures of this but it's really quite simple. There are probably a thousand ways to do it but I actually use deep well sockets from my tool box as (sanding bars) since I have the entire range in metric & standard deep well sockets to choose from I can always find the right size for the barrel channel I am relieving. I select my deep well socket & wrap a piece of course sand paper around it (which adds more thickness so you must account for this) I don't like too much revile between the barrel & stock, in this case I was shooting for around 50 thousandths of an inch. Unfortunately my first photo is of an "after" shot, the idea of taking photos came after I completed this step. You can see where the pressure pad or contact area used to be in the end of the barrel channel though. I finish with 320 & I am very careful to not contact anything other than the inside radius of the barrel channel. This is important, you don't want to round the edges there the channel trough drops in from the top flat surfaces, plus you don't want to mess up the finish outside of the barrel channel. I will seal this exposed wood later with true oil.




here you can see some prep I have done in the action inletting. I have drilled small anchor holes in the tang, recoil lug & barrel chamber areas. These are the areas where I will be applying the bedding.







Next I dry fit the barreled action back into the stock & mark a spot for my barrel centering tape.... Yes tape, it's just how I do it. I select the furthest point in the barrel channel to locate & center the barrel in the stock. I wrap tape (in today's project I am using 3-M fine line automotive masking tape) I wrap the tape around the barrel until I have achieved the thickness of my revile in the relieved barrel channel.


Next I begin applying my release agent to the areas on the action that will be in contact with the bedding compound. I like to coat the action screws as well, I use a cotton swab.



forward area including recoil lug..

[img]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e364/northerndave/rifle%20bedding/Picture002.jpg[/img]

And the tang.
[img]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e364/northerndave/rifle%20bedding/Picture004.jpg[/img]



I'm using a brownells acra glass gel kit on this project. It comes with the release agent, resin, hardener & some color dies.

The release agent looks thick here but at it dries it shrinks down to a very thin film.

Ok, I'll give it a rest here before the next round of pictures.

This has sticky written all over it.

Thank you! Keep 'em coming.

Yep.

Great pics! Thanks for posting, and keep going with the detailed process. I've been thinking about doing this to one of my Rugers and was wondering how to handle bedding the front angled action screw area.....

I tried free floating my Ruger, and the groups more than doubled in size, so I know my gun likes to have the forearm pressure on the barrel.

Excellent Dave.

Those anchor holes you drilled, what are they for? Just to make sure there is enough glass in there?

Good stuff Dave. Thanks for taking the time.
Now finish the job...

And the Saga continues...

Here's a look at the Brownells acra glass gel resin & hardener bottles. It's a 1 to 1 mix, The kit comes with a mixing cup, measuring spoon & a mixing stick but I've never used any of it I find that one kit is good for bedding probably at least 6 to 8 rifles if they are projects similar to the M77 we are doing here today so I just make sure to put the caps back on the bottles nice & tight so it all keeps.



I use cotton swabs for a lot of this stuff because they are so cheap & disposable. I'll grab a couple & use them to scoop out a dab of resin. then I'll use a new pair doubled up to scoop out an equal dab of hardener. Like so:



then I'll Mix it up until I have a consistent color...



Next I'll add die, in this case we are bedding a black/gray laminate stock so I have chosen for my bedding compound color to be black. (A couple drops is all it takes)





Now on to the point of no return, I apply the bedding compound to the areas I have chosen. I start with the recoil lug area & the first inch of the barrel chamber. I use the cotton swabs again here to lay in the bedding. I snip the head off one end of a swab & use it like a stick to poke & work the bedding down into the anchor holes that I drilled. You can see in the tang photo that I needed to work some bedding into one of those anchor holes after I took the photo.



[img]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e364/northerndave/rifle%20bedding/Picture021.jpg[/img]

Looking back at the recoil lug area you can see I've picked my areas of application as follows, lug area, first inch of the barrel itself, and I have applied compound to the bottom corners on the inletting behind the recoil lug so I create a nice molded support for the receiver in this area, help hold everything true & straight in my little Ruger here.

Notice I have shied away from the action screw hole with the bedding and I have poked the action screw up into place. I do this to keep bedding out of the recoil lug screw hole. I bring the action carefully down into the stock lining the lug up with this screw, I try to engage the screw threads before I start drawing the lug into it's new squishy bed.

[img]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e364/northerndave/rifle%20bedding/Picture025.jpg[/img]



Coffee time, I'll be right back

Yup on the sticky.

I love the suspense building. I'm sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for the next chapter. Will Dave defeat the deadly accraglass or will he end up glued to his gun calling 911?

Got my money on Dave..........................

DAVE! DUDE!
Don't get any gunk on the Remington catalog!
You must have a Browning catalog that you can use for spills?

OK, now onto the "squish factor" although I have become better at judging the amount of compound to apply in order to fill the voids in the inletting for a nice mold yet not excessive enough to squish out all over the place when I draw the action in, I still expect to deal with a certain amount of "squish".

Here I have the action drawn down into it's stock with the action screws. I just snug them down, not too tight.

I knew I was going to squish out in the tang area but I'm cool with that. That's what the cotton swabs are for.







Looking up front I was happy to see I had no squish to attend to.







I left the mag box out of the assembly for initial draw down of the action into the stock so I can watch for squish out in the forward area of the mag box inletting. Good thing I did.



[img]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e364/northerndave/rifle%20bedding/Picture033.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e364/northerndave/rifle%20bedding/Picture034.jpg[/img]

Bathroom time, too much coffee.... be right back

Don't worry Skane, no Remington catalogs were harmed during the filming of tese Ruger improvements

Alright guys, who wants to see the money shot?

You got bigger stones than me keeping the bolt and trigger/sear installed during this!

Thanks for the pics. They're worth 1000 words to the folks who've asked me how to do this.

SOS

Dave,

Does any compound 'squish' into the recoil lug threads, or on that screw? Or the tang threads/screw?

That's the thing I'm scared of- is having the compound get into, or on, the action threads/screws once you squish it into place.....

I know you mentioned applying release agent to the screws, do you also put some of that agent up into the threads?

OK, I'll bite - as long as it's not the "money shot" from the 7-08 thread.....

+1. Maybe I'm missing it, but how did you keep the bedding compound from getting into the trigger assembly area?

First I better show what that band of tape was for on the barrel. See how it acts as a centering shim to hold the barreled action true in the stock while the bedding sets up?







Once I had the excess bedding (squish) cleaned from the mag box area I held the action firmly in place while I loosened the forward screw & tang screw at the rear of the trigger guard so I could install the mag box in it’s place. I then re-snugged the action screws & included the mid action screw this time. I did this to ensure that the floor plate would open & close properly, don’t want anything binding when the bedding dries.




Now we fast forward about 5 hours to where I pop her loose. Although the bedding is far from completely cured at this time it is well on it's way & will not break apart or lose it's shape when you crack it open. I do this so that I can tend to any unwanted bedding compound on areas such as the screw threads before the bedding is fully cured, at this point it is very firm but manageable for minor clean up & trimming tasks.

To pop it loose I'll hold the rifle belly down with one hand firmly grasping the fore end way up front, the other hand is at the grip area with my thumb hooked over the top of the tang.

I'll use a firm but padded surface such as the back of a couch or simply double over a bath towel & place it on a kitchen counter top or table top near the table edge. I'm going to pull down on the fore end with my forward hand gently striking the barrel just forward of the stock fore end on the doubled over towel that lays on the counter top or table. Gentle at first & increasing strength of the blow (within reason folks) controlled straight downward pulls until you feel it pop loose. then you can carefully wiggle the action out of the stock to revile your new bedding. The release agent will be hanging onto everything like loose sunburnt skin at this point. You can just peel it right off.

Here's the new bedding in my .264 M77





[img]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e364/northerndave/rifle%20bedding/Picture043.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e364/northerndave/rifle%20bedding/Picture042.jpg[/img]

I'll trim anything that needs trimming, peal the release agent & set it aside for a day to full cure. Once it is full cured I will chase the action screw holes with a drill bit to bring the screw holes back out to there original size, don't want that bedding hugging the action screws when we are all done.

There we have it, do it yourself free float & bedding.

hope it helps someone overcome fears of glueing there action into there stock

Dave

Disregard my question. I see now that there wasn't enough compound in the tang area to worry about it getting into the trigger area.

Thanks for the pics.

I really hope this makes it to a permanent sticky. I also appreciate you taking the time to do this Dave. I haven't yet been brave enough to try this.

Hopefully, you will be able to post before and after group size photos to show the benefit of the bedding.

Thanks again,
Joel