Anyone bed a rifle too high?

[mugsie]

I bedded my first rifle a few weeks ago and it turned out fantastic. Being as enthused as I was, and seeing how "easy" it was, I thought I'd do another one. Last night I sorta rushed through the process and when I removed the receiver, I noticed a couple of voids in the bedding because I rushed and didn't take my time in filling all areas with sufficient Devon. That's not the problem because they can be easily filled in. What I did notice however was I may have not pushed the receiver down deep enough into the bedding compound. This is a Savage 10FP in a Choate stock, which has the aluminum blocks. From the looks of it, the ejection port is maybe .020 - .030 higher than the cutout in the stock. Checking the block, the receiver sits approx that high in it because that appears to be the level of Devon in there (hope this makes sense). This may have been this way from the start, without the Devcon, but since my memory is so poor, and I didn't pay particular attention to it in the first place, I don't know.

I'm going to reassemble the rifle tonight, and take it to the range on Saturday to see if I need to dremmel out the Devon and redo it. Have any of you set one in too high? I don't think it will matter, because there's perfect contact on the back of the recoil lug, and the receiver screws should crank everything down nice and tight, but none the less - I still wonder.


Any of you had this experience and what was the outcome?

[leather5to1]

If it is bedded too high then your recoil can change. By changing the dynamics of the recoil you can also change point of impact. Most of the time the difference you can create in the same stock won't matter enough to worry about. I would only worry if the cosmetics were off. I always turn the gun upside down and let the devcon seep down to the action, then you won't have air bubbles against the action.

[rinodods]

You should be just fine. You are still making good contact just a little higher in the stock than normal. I wouldn't sweat it unless your range trip proves to go bad. As long as it still feeds fine got have a blast.

[gotcha]

Mugsie, Good advice above :) Just as important, chk that action isn't in a bind (stress free bedded) Lay the rifle on its side so barrel weight doesn't come into play. Alternately screw & unscrew action screws. If action lifts off bedding when unscrewing, the action is in a bind and probably won't give you best accuracy. Minor lift of a few thousands probably won't cause problems. Another sign is with bbl supported in vice the action screws should come to an immediate & sudden stop when bottomed out. No amount of hand torque should allow screws to turn more than 1/8 turn (definitely no more than 1/4 turn) past sudden stop. In other words, the action screws should NOT tighten gradually. I always strive to achieve the above results so I KNOW its done right. And, yes I've had to redo a few. ;D

[Matt]

I did the same thing one time. It was on a B&C Duramaxx. I realized my new recoil lug was a bit too deep for the stock. I didn't like the way it turned out so I dremeled it out and started over.

[Quickshot]

My Choate stock has a V-block in it. Why bed it? I bought the Mod.12 used in the Choate stock. The former owner had bedded it with some kind of black plastic and traded it in because it just didn't shoot good. I peeled all the plastic out of it and tightened her down into the V-block and proceded to print little clover leaves with 3 bullets @ 100yds. .02 Quick

[wbm]

Have any of you set one in too high?

Actually yes! More than once I might add.
+1 What QuickShot said. The Choates I have had with the V-Block didn't shoot a bit better when bedded them so I gave it up. What did help was skim bedding the area where the side rails of the receiver contact the stock.

[mugsie]

Well I had to remove the Devcon. It didn't stick well to the Choate (some type of high density plastic) and removed it from the V blocks too. When I went to tighten the action in, I only had 2 - 3 threads grabbing on the front screw - not enough to make me comfortable. Rather than take a chance on the .308 recoil breaking something loose, I removed it all.

Since the previous bedding went so well (wooden laminate stock) I thought this would too. I learned a lesson I guess. It shot well prior but I thought bedding would just be that much more insurance, I was wrong.

I'll take it to the range Sat and re sight the scope. Guess it's V blocks from now on in the Choate. Oh well - on to the next project, whatever that might be.

[pdog06]

Oh well - on to the next project, whatever that might be.

Thats the spirit!!!!! LOL

I have my choate skim bedded along the v-blocks only, not along the whole side of the action. It is still sitting on the v-blocks, but the bedding just fills in the gaps and provides a nice snug fit.