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snake284
Posts: 22,429 Senior Member
Did the Scope Swap and Stated Bedding Rilfes
snake284
Posts: 22,429 Senior Member
Well, I meant to say Started bedding not stated. Woops!
Well lately I've been doing a good deal of shooting and reloading, but haven't done anything but talk about bedding work and details of my rifles. Well I finally did something. First, last night I swapped scopes with my 7 mag and my .223 Stevens model 200. When I bought the .223 Rem. back in when was it, May or June, I can't remember now, I ordered a Nikon Buckmaster 6-18X 40 with BDC reticle, which I had been wanting for awhile and put it on the .223. I was excited about it until my first range trip. Then it popped my bubble. It strewn bullets around in a three inch circle and wouldn't group for anything. I tried other loads and all kinds of things before I bit the bullet and decided it needed bedding and possibly a pressure point out near the end of the fore end.
Also, I thought maybe it was the scope so I took the 4-12 x 40 Leupold VX-1 off my Remington 700 ADL Synthetic which I knew was shooting good and swapped it with the Nikon. Well next range trip the .223 was still throwing bullets around in a three inch group and my ADL Synthetic with the new Nikon on it shot better than ever. It will shoot < .5 moa now. But the .223 is still slinging its group around in a three inch circle. So I did a couple of things after talking to beartracker and some others. I saw that it appears the recoil lug was bottoming out in the stock and I know this can have detrimental effects on accuracy. So I relieved that with my dremmel. Then last night I bedded the action just to the rear of the lug. I am probably going to go back in and bed the first couple inches of barrel in front of the barrel nut. Then I'll see if it shoots better. If not I'll try a pressure point on the end of the fore end.
Last night I did the initial bedding just behind the recoil lug. When this cures a little more, I'll take the barreled action out of the stock and get it ready to bed the first couple inches of barrel in front of the nut. The reason I say in front of the nut is because the barrel nut has notches in it all around that can lock the barreled action into the stock if you arent' careful. So I'm doing it one step at a time and i put putty around the nut so it won't stick to anything. That's the only negative I can see with the Savage action, but there's ways of getting around it. I think this will help and maybe adding a pressure point according to the article either Jerm or Jb ohio found and put up in the forum showing how to put four pounds of pressure on the fore end pressure point. They said that 4 pounds was about right, I think, so I'm going to try it.
Also, when I bought the 7 Mag off Gun Broker, I bought another Nikon 6-18x 40 Buckmaster. The first one was a BDC reticle and this one is a Mil Dot. I like em both and so last night I figured the 7 mag didn't need this much magnification so I swapped the newer Mildot Nikon with the .223 and put the Leo VX-1 4-12x40 on the 7 mag. Now the .223 has another 6-18 x 40 Nikon Buckmaster on it, this time with a Mil Dot. Now if i can get this thing bedded and maybe install a pressure point, it should settle the groups down. The trigger is a dream now and it breaks clean as glass at about 2-2.5 pounds.
First of all, I'm not a gun smith. If any of you decide to try this, you are on your own. However, I was very careful and I have done successful trigger work before. But if you decide to try this like I said, you're on your own. I'm not suggesting anyone do this. And if you do, be very careful and don't do it unless you feel very confident in your work with triggers. They can be very dangerous. Now, here goes with what i did.
These Savage triggers are not bad at all. In fact this one responded really well to treatment. First I stoned the seer and the trigger to make the trip point of the trigger closer. I mean the distance between where the trigger lets the seer go. There's a little step in the seer where the trigger sets and when you pull the trigger it releases it and lets the firing pin fall. If any of you try this you need to be very cautious here. a little dab taken off at a time and check your work to see how it's going frequently. This stoning needs to be almost perfectly level and even. I do this very slowly. I use an old stone I've had for 30 years or more that's fairly course and removes a good bit of metal with each stroke.
Then I polished the seer and trigger mating surfaces with my dremmel tool where I had used the stone with the little pack of Jewler's rouge that came with the dremmel kit to get the stone marks out and make it glass smooth. Then I lightened up on the weight of pull spring til it would go off when you slam the bolt (yeah I know not good). Then I tightened back just enough where it was safe and where it won't go off slamming the bolt but is still notibly lighter than in factory form. If you have a pull weight gauge try it. I think it can be safely let down to below three pounds, but that's all I'm claiming.
This made a really nice trigger. Then I painted the screw that adjust weight of pull on the spring with fingernail polish to insure it won't move. Before I did this I cleaned it well with non chorinated break cleaner and let it dry well. Now I'm going to finish bedding it and see what she'll do. I believe that if the bedding and possibly the pressure point correct the grouping problem, with this trigger this rifle will be a one holer.
This rifle I have grown to love and am growing to love even more. It's so sweet and the trigger is the best one in my safe. I think it is capable of extreme accuracy. We shall see.
Well lately I've been doing a good deal of shooting and reloading, but haven't done anything but talk about bedding work and details of my rifles. Well I finally did something. First, last night I swapped scopes with my 7 mag and my .223 Stevens model 200. When I bought the .223 Rem. back in when was it, May or June, I can't remember now, I ordered a Nikon Buckmaster 6-18X 40 with BDC reticle, which I had been wanting for awhile and put it on the .223. I was excited about it until my first range trip. Then it popped my bubble. It strewn bullets around in a three inch circle and wouldn't group for anything. I tried other loads and all kinds of things before I bit the bullet and decided it needed bedding and possibly a pressure point out near the end of the fore end.
Also, I thought maybe it was the scope so I took the 4-12 x 40 Leupold VX-1 off my Remington 700 ADL Synthetic which I knew was shooting good and swapped it with the Nikon. Well next range trip the .223 was still throwing bullets around in a three inch group and my ADL Synthetic with the new Nikon on it shot better than ever. It will shoot < .5 moa now. But the .223 is still slinging its group around in a three inch circle. So I did a couple of things after talking to beartracker and some others. I saw that it appears the recoil lug was bottoming out in the stock and I know this can have detrimental effects on accuracy. So I relieved that with my dremmel. Then last night I bedded the action just to the rear of the lug. I am probably going to go back in and bed the first couple inches of barrel in front of the barrel nut. Then I'll see if it shoots better. If not I'll try a pressure point on the end of the fore end.
Last night I did the initial bedding just behind the recoil lug. When this cures a little more, I'll take the barreled action out of the stock and get it ready to bed the first couple inches of barrel in front of the nut. The reason I say in front of the nut is because the barrel nut has notches in it all around that can lock the barreled action into the stock if you arent' careful. So I'm doing it one step at a time and i put putty around the nut so it won't stick to anything. That's the only negative I can see with the Savage action, but there's ways of getting around it. I think this will help and maybe adding a pressure point according to the article either Jerm or Jb ohio found and put up in the forum showing how to put four pounds of pressure on the fore end pressure point. They said that 4 pounds was about right, I think, so I'm going to try it.
Also, when I bought the 7 Mag off Gun Broker, I bought another Nikon 6-18x 40 Buckmaster. The first one was a BDC reticle and this one is a Mil Dot. I like em both and so last night I figured the 7 mag didn't need this much magnification so I swapped the newer Mildot Nikon with the .223 and put the Leo VX-1 4-12x40 on the 7 mag. Now the .223 has another 6-18 x 40 Nikon Buckmaster on it, this time with a Mil Dot. Now if i can get this thing bedded and maybe install a pressure point, it should settle the groups down. The trigger is a dream now and it breaks clean as glass at about 2-2.5 pounds.
First of all, I'm not a gun smith. If any of you decide to try this, you are on your own. However, I was very careful and I have done successful trigger work before. But if you decide to try this like I said, you're on your own. I'm not suggesting anyone do this. And if you do, be very careful and don't do it unless you feel very confident in your work with triggers. They can be very dangerous. Now, here goes with what i did.
These Savage triggers are not bad at all. In fact this one responded really well to treatment. First I stoned the seer and the trigger to make the trip point of the trigger closer. I mean the distance between where the trigger lets the seer go. There's a little step in the seer where the trigger sets and when you pull the trigger it releases it and lets the firing pin fall. If any of you try this you need to be very cautious here. a little dab taken off at a time and check your work to see how it's going frequently. This stoning needs to be almost perfectly level and even. I do this very slowly. I use an old stone I've had for 30 years or more that's fairly course and removes a good bit of metal with each stroke.
Then I polished the seer and trigger mating surfaces with my dremmel tool where I had used the stone with the little pack of Jewler's rouge that came with the dremmel kit to get the stone marks out and make it glass smooth. Then I lightened up on the weight of pull spring til it would go off when you slam the bolt (yeah I know not good). Then I tightened back just enough where it was safe and where it won't go off slamming the bolt but is still notibly lighter than in factory form. If you have a pull weight gauge try it. I think it can be safely let down to below three pounds, but that's all I'm claiming.
This made a really nice trigger. Then I painted the screw that adjust weight of pull on the spring with fingernail polish to insure it won't move. Before I did this I cleaned it well with non chorinated break cleaner and let it dry well. Now I'm going to finish bedding it and see what she'll do. I believe that if the bedding and possibly the pressure point correct the grouping problem, with this trigger this rifle will be a one holer.
This rifle I have grown to love and am growing to love even more. It's so sweet and the trigger is the best one in my safe. I think it is capable of extreme accuracy. We shall see.
Daddy, what's an enabler?
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
Replies
Well the only way to find out is to go shoot it. You got a lot of time invested in this.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
Here's the barreled action in a clamp I use for a rifle vise. You can see the plumber's putty I put in the grooves in the barrel nut to keep it from gluing it in. I live in fear of that happening because believe me I've been their done that and it just ain't fun!
After I bedded the Recoil Lug I went back and bedded about 3 inches out from the barrel nut toward the barrel Muzzle. This is the mold I made to do that. I use plumber's putty. That's my favorite to use for this. It's cheap and easy to work with, but ugly. However, nobody's going to see it.
It looks rough but some of that is the putty I used and scraped most of it out. But you can see the bedding. One thing, after I mixed the Acraglass with the atomized stainless steel it was almost a perfect match with the stock color.
Here's the finished job.
Here's a closer shot of the finished bedding.
It doesn't look real pretty but it's solid and precise. This should tighten the groups up on this rifle. If it doesn't, I'm confident that a pressure point will. I'll take an old credit card and some sissors with me to the range and if the groups are still 2-3 inches wide, I'll loosen the stock and cut me a piece of credit card and place it under the barrel out toward the end of the forend and see how it shoots. If the credit card works, I'll bring it home and try the procedure Either JBOhio or Jerm found, now I can't remember which one did and use that to get close to a four pound pressure point. I really think this rifle with the trigger as it is and the 18X scope should be close to a one holer with the proper load. I'm not expecting that tomorrow, but I am expecting sub MOA. If I can get that tomorrow or close, I'll go to work on the load and try different OAL with bullet seating.
Notice there is nothing that touches the front of the recoil lug. I leave the front and sides of the lug expoced and not touching any part of the stock. Then I wedge the barrel in to keep the lug tight against the bedding. Also, it's hard to tell from the pic but the receiver precisely fits into the bedding and when you tighten down the action bolts it is secure in its place so that the stock absorbes the vibrations. I didn't need to do it on this rifle because it has stainless pillars made into the stock. But on some of my rifles that aren't pillar bedded at the factory, I make pillars out of epoxy. All you need do is drill the front bolt out to about 3/4 inch diameter, and the back bolt about 1/2 inch and fill these holes with epoxy. Then after it cures and you can machine it, drill it out just a hair bigger than the action bolt. You don't want the bolt touching the sides, so give it a little room. Then after the pillars are cured, grind a little off at the top to rough the area up and spread epoxy across the top of the area. This ties it all together. When you get through you have one solid bedding block that is pillar bedded and a solid platform for the barreled action to rest upon. I'm not the bedding guru by any means, but I learned a lot reading Warren Pages bench rest papers back in the 80s. That's when I started bedding rifles and I've probably done about 30 or so now. I know that most any rifle that is having accuracy issues will benefit from a good bedding job.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
But anybody doesn't like my nail polish I'll hit em with my purse, :rotflmao::rotflmao::rotflmao::beer:
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.