Bedding my wifes Savage Ladyhunter 7mm08. Tips/tricks and what else to consider?

This rifle is a savage ladyhunter in 7mm08. For those of you not familiar, it is very much like the savage lightweight hunter OR the Savage 114s. It comes in a wood stock that has pillars already installed from factory. I believe this are likely press fit. Should I push on them to see if they are nice and snug? I have replaced the plastic bottom metal with real bottom metal. My plan is to grind/mill out about 1/8inch deep of the wood in all areas to be bedded. I am going to bed the recoil lug area back to the front of the rear action screw area. What tips and tricks do you all have that I should keep in mind? The gun is shooting less than desirable with factory ammo. I have tried several factory ammo and the best groups we get are 1.25-1.5MOA at 100 yards. Before I go working up reloads for the rifle, I want to bed it to rule that out. The goal is to find a load (factory OR with my hand loads) under 1 MOA. If after bedding, sub 1 MOA is not achieved with my reloads then I will be forced to rebarrel which means I will have to re-bed the lug area again since I will use a new competition grade recoil lug. Any other thoughts I should consider? Thanks!

Why not get the recoil lug before you bed the rifle?

I just posted all my tips and tricks here...

http://www.savageshooters.com/showth...-advice-needed

Most important thing...
MOLD RELEASE! and clay, lots of clay in the appropriate areas.

Tony.

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Originally Posted by Hotolds442

Why not get the recoil lug before you bed the rifle?

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honestly, this is my wife's backup rifle and I am hoping to not have to touch it (other than bedding). I'm pretty confident I can find a sub 1 MOA load for it when I work up some reloads. If I'm going to start replacing parts then I might as well go the whole way and buy a new barrel haha. Now if I bed it, work up some loads, and still do not find a sub 1MOA load then I will be overhauling it into a semi-custom (so milling out and re-bedding the lug area would be the least of my concerns). At that point I might even be buying a new stock anyways haha. I'm just hoping this works out since it is her backup rifle. We shoot out to 400 yards on deer so while we do not need the most accurate rifles, we keep sub 1MOA as our standard.

Good luck.

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Originally Posted by wbm

A few. I have a Savage Model 11 Light Weight Hunter in 6.5 Creedmoor. The only difference between it and the Lady Hunter basically is length of pull on the and cosmetics on the walnut stock. The groups you are getting with factory ammunition are acceptable for most hunting situations. The way I see it is you are going to mess up a good stock to possibly achieve .50" difference in three shot groups. Also milling out the stock and bedding the recoil lug area before working up hand-loads is not logical to me. By doing that you are going to void your factory warranty for the "possibility" of more accuracy. Makes more sense to me to work up hand-loads first. If they achieve the results you want then you have saved yourself a lot of work. Right now you have a 6lb light weight rifle with a "pencil' contour 20" barrel in 7mm-08 and have the expectation of sub MOA performance. To achieve that, you are planning on altering the stock before working up hand loads and if that does not work you say you will "be forced" to re-barrel, re-bed, and add a new recoil lug. All this for only the possibility of sub MOA. Does not compute IMO. Good review below.

http://www.chuckhawks.com/savage_11_...ght_hunter.htm

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I should have stated this is not my first rodeo. Every rifle I own is bedded (whether by me or a gunsmith). that being said I have never bedded a savage rifle. Bedding typically takes me 2 hrs prep on my remingtons. 2 hrs is MUCH easier than the time spent working up loads on a rifle. For me, I always bed my rifles before working loads, but again never bedded a savage. Yes .5in matters to me. No, warranty does not matter. if it does not shoot, I will re-barrel just like the other 2 savages I already re-barreled. Just wanted to ask advice here before moving forward.

Bed action at screws. Float tang and barrel. I don't bed along the sides of the action, except at action screw area.

Bed it. You will probably get you the results you want.

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Originally Posted by hereinaz

Bed action at screws. Float tang and barrel. I don't bed along the sides of the action, except at action screw area.

Bed it. You will probably get you the results you want.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

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Curious why you do not bed the sides?

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Just wanted to ask advice here before moving forward.

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Ah.

Sides are not really supporting anything. In my mind, just cradle the action at the action screws.

Stocks will move, and the sides are just a possible point of movement.

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