Hart LRT bedding question...

[sgt_jamez]

So I have a Hart LRT on order. The web site states that pillars must be installed. I ordered the pillars as well. But thinking about how best to install them, it begs the question of should I just epoxy the pillars in or do a full bedding job? The stock will house a Hog Hunter action and a Shilen 20 VT varmint contour barrel.

What's the best way to proceed?

Also on a different topic... I ordered the satin birch LRT. It's out of stock and the web site says 12-16 weeks. What's the most common timeline from this company for an out of stock item? I've only ordered in stock items from Stocky's Stocks.

Thanks for the feedback!

[barrel-nut]

Sgt, first off thanks for your service to our country. I just received a couple of the Hart LRT stocks from Stocky's. I also ordered the pillars, because as you stated the website specifically states that you will need them. However, on inspecting my new stocks, I found that both already had a nice set of pillars installed at the factory. I was very pleased that I would not have to do this myself, but not so pleased that I just bought two sets of pillars, for nothing.
A few notes about the stocks: both of mine were absolutely great looking pieces of work, with the exception that one had a slight gouge in the spacer on the recoil pad, but not bad enough to send it back. Both of mine were in-stock items, and shipping was very fast. I test-fit both actions, and both fit very well. In my case I will have to clear out the barrel channel a bit as I will be mounting bull contour barrels (when I receive them..). Also if you are going to use a heavy duty recoil lug, you will have to do some dremel work here too, but for a standard lug it fits perfectly. I'm not sure which trigger guard your rifle has, but these are inletted for the "old style" guards, and these fit perfectly as well. Mine will require some sanding in the tang area in order to achieve a free float, but this is nothing major. I'm gonna give mine a try without bedding them at first, since they already have a good set of pillars, and overall the action fitment is very good. But being the OCD perfectionist I am, I'll probably end up bedding them anyway. Also the action screws ended up being a little short on mine, I could only get a couple of threads into the action holes, so I decided to find some longer ones, and cut them down as needed. All in all, not a complete drop-in fit for my specific applications, but very close, and well worth the sale prices I paid.
Hope yours works out well.

[sgt_jamez]

Thank you sir! I served just over 21 years. Sometimes it seems it went by too fast.

Pillars - Hmm, ok. I wonder if mine will have them too? So if I don't bed the action into the stock, where in the stock does the action make contact?

Recoil lug - I am going to use the SSS recoil lug. I have no experience with this lug so I don't know how much thicker it is. As for the dremel work, is that to relieve the muzzle side of the lug recess?

Trigger guard - My intended base rifle has the new style, but I have an old style on my buy list.

Great info and thank you for taking the time to share! If I could ask you to take some photos of the stock with the blind mag installed that you be great!

Thanks!

[barrel-nut]

I hope yours comes equipped with pillars, and I think it will. The action should contact the top of the pillars, which should be flush with the channel that the action mounts into. Contact with the wood will not be perfect unless you do a good bedding job, but perfect contact is not necessarily required to have a rifle that shoots very well. The main benefit of the pillars is to maintain consistent action screw tension, as the pillars are not compressible. Without the pillars, the screw heads would bear down into the wood to achieve tension, and the wood is rather easily compressed, and subject to expansion and contraction due to temperature and humidity changes. This contributes to inconsistency. I would try it first without bedding it and see, you may find it shoots well enough that bedding is unnecessary.

I have no experience with the SSS recoil lug either. I'm using one of Northland's lugs. It's .250 thick, and slightly wider at the base than the stock lug. Dremel work will be required on the muzzle side of the recoil lug recess, also on the left and right bottom corners, and possibly the base of the hole as well. The goal is to only have contact on the action side of the lug, and to have that contact be as uniform as possible.

The trigger guard part #'s are 105417 for black steel or 105928 for stainless steel. These can be ordered directly from Savage. They ship very quickly.

I don't have any pictures of the blind mag installed in the stock, because the action I'm using is a single shot, so there is no mag. I can say that the inletting is very good and you should have no trouble at all installing the blind mag. Just don't forget to reuse the L clip that acts as a spacer over the rear pillar, and holds the mag in place.

Sorry my response is belated. Things have been hectic the last few weeks over here.

I do have a few pics that may help

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/14/ehy9a9y4.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/14/5eqydady.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/14/edyheted.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/14/ge6adesy.jpg

[sgt_jamez]

Great pics! My stock is supposed to arrive this Friday and my rifle has moved to the shipping phase. So I should be able to assemble my rifle very soon! I'll be sure to post pics as it comes together.

[barrel-nut]

Please do. We'd love to see it

[sgt_jamez]

So I have the stock now and there are pillars in the stock. I ordered pillars, so I'm not sure if they installed them for me or what but the only pillars I received are the ones already in the stock. So I'm good to go with that. The SSS heavy duty recoil lug is huge in comparison to the area inletted on the stock. I have removed material from the muzzle end of the recoil lug channel but the sides need to be widened out as well. This is my first time trying this and it's slow going. I will pick up the action on the 2nd of Jan and having the barreled action to check fit will help. I'm considering bedding the recoil lug area with JB weld.

The BVSS trigger guard fit well, but the depth of inlet was just a tad deep. I bought a pair of washers that bring the trigger guard just flush with the stock. Purely cosmetic, but my OCD will rest easier now. :). Pics to follow soon! Merry Christmas!!

[barrel-nut]

Merry Christmas to you too! Sounds like you're well on your way. The "extra" pillars were included with mine, but were in a very small ziploc bag with no other packaging to identify them, so they would have been easily missed. You might want to look closer, especially if they charged you for them.
I haven't been able to work on mine just yet because my little gun closet has been "Santa's workshop" for the last few weeks, so I couldn't even get to anything in there. Getting it cleaned up and back to normal now.

[sgt_jamez]

I went through every crumpled piece of paper. there are definitely not any additional pillars in my package. Not a huge concern though. I finished relieving the recoil lug area for now. I need the barreled action to check the fit and see how it all comes together. Do you find the stock to be slippery?

[barrel-nut]

Not particularly slippery. In fact another coat of gloss wouldn't hurt it, but it's fine the way it is. And mine's only gonna see range duty, so I wanted it glossy, with no checkering.

[medic08]

I personally installed my own oversize pillars and then bedded the entire action. I shoots crazy good. I would go with a full bedding job personally. It is easy to do and doesn't take long. Also I think mine is kind of slippy too. I may add a little skateboard tape to my grip area. I dunno yet. Let us know how she shoots. Here is a pic of mine. It is a 6br on a Stevens action.

http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/391377_3937196224072_1946407004_n.jpg

[barrel-nut]

Nice looking rifle. I do plan to bed mine. Should be an easy job as the action has no magazine cutout, just a smooth bottom. Probably going to fill in the magazine cutout with wood and then bed over it. Can't wait to get started on it. Is that a varmint contour barrel, or bull?

[sgt_jamez]

I get to pick up my action tomorrow, so I'm pretty fired up. I'll be posting pics soon.

[barrel-nut]

Can't wait to see 'em

[sgt_jamez]

Ok so here she is at long last! I haven't done any bedding to it yet. Just one quick range trip is all she's had so far.

http://i841.photobucket.com/albums/zz334/sgt_jamez/20%20VT/EB4E5A76-79D1-4477-8628-77795DFA8E1B.jpg (http://s841.photobucket.com/user/sgt_jamez/media/20%20VT/EB4E5A76-79D1-4477-8628-77795DFA8E1B.jpg.html)

[sgt_jamez]

I made a few rounds just for initial function testing. This still needs more load development obviously, but I think she's off to a good start!http://i841.photobucket.com/albums/zz334/sgt_jamez/20%20VT/E070A26B-8E25-458E-8D57-D7E04FAA3FE1.jpg (http://s841.photobucket.com/user/sgt_jamez/media/20%20VT/E070A26B-8E25-458E-8D57-D7E04FAA3FE1.jpg.html)

[barrel-nut]

That looks awesome Sarge! Love the stock and the bolt body. Not to mention that group!

[sgt_jamez]

Thank you barrel-nut! I can't wait to shoot it again! Weather is turning rainy and windy here so it may have to wait a few days. The 20VT on this heavy gun is very mild to shoot with very little barrel heat.

Now that I have the rifle together, the same setup in 223 would be awesome too! I need a few more jobs to pay for my addiction! Haha...