Pillar Bedding Boyds for Varmint action

[cgeorgemo]

Without a jig, a pilot bit or a drill press, how in the world do you ensure that you're drilling straight and perfectly on-center with the existing holes?

Truthfully I don't let it bother me at all if I'm not 100% centered with the holes.

The way I see it is this. I'm making the hole bigger than the pillar. I'm going to fill in the void with epoxy. If I'm off a little in any direction it will have slightly more epoxy on that side than the others.

To me these are the keys to a good pillar install/bedding job.

#1 Get the screws centered in the pillars with some tape around the screw so that it just fits inside the pillar. The tricky part here is remembering to get the body of the screw through the trigger guard before applying the tape.

#2 Apply release agent to both the action and the screws. Be sure to get the threads as well as the tape centering the screws. Don't forget to also get the trigger guard coated. I use Turtle Wax for my release agent...

#3 Mask off the stock all around the openings so the epoxy that oozes out doesn't screw up your finish. If you don't have a little epoxy oozing out you probably didn't use enough. I use painters tape for masking off the stock.

#4 Get the tang floated with a double layer of vinyl (electrical) tape and the barrel floated with the same. I put the tape on the barrel about 1" in front of the barrel nut and right at the end of the stock. For the tang I remove the trigger and safety and just wrap it around the tang.

#5 Apply your bebding epoxy from the bolt handle cutout forward to the back of the recoil lug. Fiddle with the positioning of the action until it's exactly where you want it in the stock and then tape it down to the stock until it cures. This is where you ensure that you don't can't the action one way or the other. I like to use my scope bases to place a level against while fiddling.

#6 Support the rifle in a horizontal position until it's completely cured. I use my rear bag and front rest for this.

Once it's good and cured unscrew the action remove it and clean up all the epoxy oozes, masking tape, electrical tape and release agent.

If you've got a center-feed blind mag stock now you get to install the magazine in the well of the stock. I only have stagger-feed stocks so I've not done this I just pop them off for bedding and then pop them back on for assembly.