How to determine if a stock needs to be bedded?

[chemist1]

I have been reading quite a bit about determining if your action needs to be bedded and from what I can tell the quick check is to place your action in the stock, torque it down and then loosen the front action screw. If the action lifts up this implies that the stock needs to be bedded. So I did this test with the original stock and a B&C medalist with the bedding block and in both stocks when the front action screw was loosened the action lifted slightly. So I bedded the original stock following this link http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1167022#Post1167022. After it was all said and done I repeated the above test and the action lifted out of the stock slightly. Does this mean that I need to grind it out and try again or is there a better test to determine if an action is bedded properly?

Thanks for the help.

[davemuzz]

I don't know where you read about the screw\lift up \torque test thing. I've never heard of such a test.....but I'm not going to say that I've read nor heard of everything out there on the internet, the Bible, or the world. But....that "test" would make me a bit skeptical.

The whole idea of bedding the action is to have the action fit "snugly" and securely to the stock, so that every time you pull the trigger, the recoil and the guns vibrations will act in the same manner and give each bullet the same barrel vibration upon it's travel and exit down\out of the tube.

So....with that....your action and recoil lug should be bedded. The bottom of the lug should be free from touching anything, as well as it's side and front. The tang in the rear should also be free floating, and the action should be sitting on a solid "mass" of smooth bedding compound with hopefully the bottom of the action just touching the pillar's or darn close to 'em.

The sides of the action can have bedding on it....but I prefer mine not to have it. I sand mine down about .5" so the sides of the action do not touch the stock. But.....that's just what I do.

I would make sense if you torque down both screws with enough torque (say 50in\lbs) and then loosen the front screw. I would not be surprised at all if the front of the action rose a little.....if the gun were not bedded, or properly bedded. After all, the rear part of the rear pillar is usually only half cut and supported on the front side.

MHO

Dave

[dcloco]

Simple check - is the action bedded to the stock now? Yes - good to go. No - time to bed it.

[normmatzen]

Ditto!

[darkker]

+1 to dave