bedding a stock

kevin01041961

Well-Known Member
Hi, i'm buying a sythetic stock made for my Tikkat3 in 308 its not a new stock so should i bed it? and if so how or is there any books or any material i can read to do the job whats the pointers to look for what should i do and what shouldnt i do when bedding the action?

Thanks
 
I'm no expert on bedding, but wait and see if it shoots well first, being 2nd hand doesn't matter, what matters is if there's any movement of the recoil lug and hence if the action stays put when you fire a shot..

apparently factory injection moulded synthetic stocks don't bed nearly as well as wooden one's for a couple of reasons, so before you go and start cutting away, check if it shoots according to your expectations.

out of curiousity, why the synthetic over your (I assume) wooden stock?
 
Well i bought brand new a Tikka T3 wooden stock brand new , well i had a road traffic accident and the Tikka unfired stayed in the cabinet. Anyway i recovered traveled to a frieds house to "shoot" my new Tikka at the range the heavens opened i fired and cleaned fired and cleand but the rain was torrential by now so we packed in. Took the gun back to friends dried with a towel but the lugg to remove the bolt had swelled so much that i could extract it i didnt put next to a radiator but the stock had warped GMK didnt want to know so i've not shot it and thats why the stock. can you explain the difference betweeen injection or composite i think its moulded but give me any adice please
 
Hi Kevin, two main ways of making plastic rifle stocks. The version that a factory prefers is injection moulding.
These stocks are made of thermosetting plastics. Plastic at well above melting temperatur gets injected into a warm or cold mould
at pressures which can be as high as a shotgun cartridge firing ~ 1000bar or more. The plastic hardens in the tool upon cooling
and is then ejected. You could possibly produce two stocks per minute in this method. Disadvantages, plastic has no reinforcement
fibers or if so only short milled fibres which are around 0.2mm in length. The plastics are just a harder better version of candle wax.
They often or mostly flow under pressure and therefore mostly don't hold the pressure of action screws. Of course some injection mouldedstocks are better than others. T3 and Sako are way better than say Howa or Remington....but still somehow candle wax...
Then there are composite stocks which are hand laid glass, carbon or Kevlar long fibres or woven cloth into a mould with epoxy or polyesterresins. Similar to fibreglass boats. Depending on quality of materials which range between cheap tank materials right up to aerospace quality.Production times are much longer and most steps are hand made. Not all fiberglass or composite stocks are automatically good. Some manufacturers choose to cut corners with their production process which leads to decrease in quality like increased weight or lack of compression strength in the inletarea so that metal pillars are required.

Bedding a fiberglass or carbon stock is not so problematic because the epoxy bedding material glues well. Different story with the injection moulded stocks. Most of the plastics used are waxy and epoxy bedding materials don't glue well. I have bedded several injection moulded stocks as a quick fix.
Best is to sand and key the surface of the plastic well. Be prepared the bedding material might fall out at some stage.
Normally the T3 plastic stock fits quite well and should be ok for normal stalking ranges without bedding.

edi
 
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Just remove the lug from your wooden stock and fit it to the new stock. Beware when fitting that the lug is really
in the little slot of the action before tightening up.
I mostly hold the action up side down, insert the lug into the action and then fit the up side down stock from above
so that the lug can't leave the action.

All T3 stocks are made the same, no calibre differences.

edi
 
IMG_2755.jpgIMG_2758.jpg

Wish i'd taken more photos when I did!
First pic is while i was masking off, the recoil lug was dug out shortly after when I was removing material from the stock.
I super glued the lug to the action when I set it into the wet compound.
Second pic is after I released the action, the lug then released and is set in the stock in the correct position.
You can then trim off the excess compound from the magazine well and trigger.

Some good stuff on youtube, I also found these good,

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1167022&page=1

http://www.6mmbr.com/pillarbedding.html
 
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