Bedding a 60's era 110

I've got a 110 from the 66-68 timeframe and am midway through refinishing the wood stock, and making preps to bed it. I'm looking at how to do pillars, but am running into some concerns.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...pslozzghha.jpg

My concern is that I need to enlarge 2 holes and keep them spaced with the hole at the rear of the trigger guard and indexed to the receiver. I think I need pillars that have a bigger hole than the ones currently in the wood, and which hopefully will provide me some room to wiggle. Does that sound about right?

Second. That stamped steel strap. I think it's sole purpose is to fix the bottom of the mag spring when all is assembled. I think I'm going to cut the ends off the strap and bond it to the floorplate because the holes in the stamped piece are cupped upward (i.e. the metal at the edge of the holes that would contact my pillars is not flat, but flared).

So what I'm picturing is this:
1. Enlarge holes for pillars. Countersink both ends of the holes a little. I think I need countersink at the bottom, at least for the front pillar, since the floorplate holes (and the strap for that matter) are very close to the dia of my action screw heads. That would have my floorplate anchored onto an epoxy pad.
2. Bed the receiver/pillars in place.
3. Then bed the trigger guard and floorplate in a second round.

Removing the strap thickness from the stackup may require me to grind the action screws back a tad.

Am I making this harder than it needs to be? The action screws are oval-headed, so maybe everything doesn't have to line up flawlessly (receiver, trigger guard and floorplate)?

If you drill the holes oversized a little, then epoxy the pillars in, and at the same time assemble everything the way you want it, it will cure without worry whether it will go together later with alignment of holes. Just use copious wax or other release agent so it comes apart. Be careful of mechanically trapping stuff in the epoxy.

Then come back later and bed the action to float the barrel. I think doing it last will serve you best to make sure it is exact.

Not sure what bedding the bottom would look like. You should get pillars that are they full length so you don't need to bed the bottom metal. At most a skim bed between pillar and action I think, as part of the epoxy bed for the receiver.

At least, that is what I would picture doing.

OK, I like that approach of doing the pillars first. That should work.

The screw hole at the front of the floorplate is really big, and I think it'll swallow (at least partially), the lamp-rod pillar. Countersinking at a 45 at the bottom of that hole, then bedding down there would give the floorplate (and thus the screw) a real foundation. Guess I can see when I check the fitup of the pillars.

I've bedded an M1 and and M14 before. Those are a nightmare of clay/dams/release agent in comparison.

This is one way to enlarge a hole and keep the location unchanged. https://www.grainger.com/category/ma...ts_optout=true

Order a counter bore with the correct pilot and bore dimension. Using a drill press makes it a bit easier.

Alrighty. I got holes drilled and pillars cut and fitted. I'm going to do the pillars and receiver all in one shot. If the holes end up spaced funny, it shouldn't be by much, and I'll just deal with it then. Going to leave the magazine sleeve in place as that seems to be the limiting issue as far as rotation and won't be easy to fix if I'm off. I do have some play rotationally with just the pillars hanging down.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...psfuudweot.jpg

Needs a couple more coats of tung oil, but that'll have to wait. Need to see how she shoots.

Boy this has worked out well! It's chambered in 257 Roberts Ackley Improved. Brass was a little troublesome at first. A. Making/fireforming and B. seating bullets without collapsing the shoulder consistently. The 40 degree shoulder is something I haven't worked with before, and there are definitely some new things I had to figure out.

So far, it's been a joy to work with. I've tinkered with 87gr Speer TNTs and 117gr Hornady Interlocks. Both shot inside an inch and a half across the board. The TNT bullet is a sweet, well-behaved thing that was easy to get down to a fairly consistent half MoA. The 117gr Interlock also shoots some groups just under a minute, but is more prone to throw some odd fliers from time to time.

I've got a 3-9x mounted on it now for opening day of rifle this weekend.