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kineticperformancellc · 8 years

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Rifle Bedding, Part 3: the GOOD.

Since we know what needs to be fixed from the last installment we will move onto what right looks like. This is not a how too (I can do that later), just an explanation of what you should keep and what should be returned if you have someone ship you garbage work. As stated before, an ugly bedding job may be functional but when you are paying at least $225 for the service from a professional the the job should look like it was professionally executed. What I mean by this is that everything should be tightly finished, without blemishes/voids, and should be straight lines or semi-circles; there was no mention of squiggly lines, arcs, etc because there is no place for them in fit, finish, or function.

The picture below shows a McMillan stock bedded with Devcon 10110 Steel Putty ready for clean up. A couple of things to note: 1) Flat pillars were used to avoid point loading and the bedding completely filled the void up to where the pillar sits tangent to the action. 2) The skin of the bedding is a good, tight, smooth fit because the substrate was properly fit prior to bedding which allowed for even thickness all around. 3) The barrel pad ahead of the recoil lug is blocked off for a finished appearance. You can see lines that run perpendicular to the barrel channel. Those were made by placing a strip of Gorilla tape under the barrel, sticky side toward the barrel channel. A second pieces gets wrapped around the barrel to oppose the one in the channel. This is done so as to create a fracture line where the bedding material can be easily cut and trimmed to give a finished look instead of an uncontrolled puddle look. Uncontrolled puddles are one of my biggest peeves from people who charge for bedding jobs. It looks unfinished and reflects their professional pride.

This is a Boyd’s stock I reshaped and bedded with Pro-Bed 2000 using brown dye to match the camo paint job I intended to apply. 1)Working top to bottom you can see a barrel channel that mirrors the barrel contour and this stock has .060″ of clearance even though it is relatively slim for an SML: rifle with scope weighs under 10#. 2)When you get to the barrel pad you can see how the tape I mentioned above was employed to create a flow stop and a clean line where the bedding stopped. 3)The biggest difference in this bedding job is the use of a straight glass epoxy compared to a steel epoxy and the use of radiused pillars instead of flat pillars. If you have radiused pillars installed look at the two high sides and see if they are flattened at all. If they are, you have improperly machined pillars that point load and it could have been avoided if they had been test fit and lapped. 4) All show-lines and and clean up cuts are either straight or semi-circle. Nothing was left unfinished or trimmed in such a way as to look like I was drinking beer and running a Dremel (friends don’t let friends Dremel gun stocks because they make ugly happen really fast).

This is another McMillan but this one used radiused pillars like the one just above and Brownell’s ACRAGLAS GEL. If you want a smooth, shiny, glass like surface in your bedding you want ACRAGLAS GEL. Nothing finishes as well. The takeaways: 1) The barrel channel closely follows the barrel contour but I didn’t use a barrel pad because you don’t really need to. 2) There is no uncontrolled overflow and there are no voids. 3) All clean up cuts are neat and straight.

Last but not least, a final McMillan with Pro-Bed 2000 but I went back to flat pillars because they are easier to make. 1) Closely fit barrel channel that follows contour with .050″ float. 2) The barrel pad was controlled and trimmed for a neat finish. 3) Epoxy dyed to match paint job and absolutely no voids in the bedding. 4) All clean up cuts are straight and neat.

If you have a blind magazine or a single shot your front pillar can be a stand alone point of attachment instead of hanging an exterior escutcheon like some smiths glue on. It avoids the weird button look if you countersink a pillar instead and fit it flush with the contour of the stock belly.

When properly executed a bedding job looks like it belongs to the rifle. It closes up any gaps that the in-let suffered but is even because you removed the unevenness before you applied epoxy. It matches the color scheme and offers clean transitions. A well finished stock is a happy stock.

#kineticperformancellc #riflestockbedding #pillarbedding #mcmillanstocks #boydsstocks #devcon #acraglas #probed2000

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kineticperformancellc · 8 years

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Rifle Bedding, Part 2: the BAD.

I almost labeled this section the ugly but that is not really what this is. An ugly bedding job can be functional, so it is not really bad except that it is unacceptable, especially from a “professional”. A stock that doesn’t fit your metal is ugly but, worse, it is bad. A rifle will never shoot to its full potential if the stock to metal fit is not perfectly stress free.

Never assume even the best stocks, whether factory supplied or aftermarket, are actually ready to go drop-in inlets no matter how they are marketed. With the exception of V-block chassis like the Manners Mini-Chassis (which I think is the cat’s meow but even then I have had to have them fixed a little) I will bed everything to ensure it has a good fit. Now I have to qualify that statement because even as a little boy doing something just because I was told to was never a good enough reason. What we are looking for here is, “Where is the stress in this system?” Without the answer to that question your bedding will never be as good as it should be because it will either not be properly centered, bedding will not be even and uniform, or you will induce stress into your bedding because you failed to eliminate it when you started jamming epoxy in the stock and bolted it down.

When you first buy a rifle the first thing you should be doing (new or used) is disassembling it, cleaning it, properly reassembling it, then testing function. Honestly, if you bought it at a store you should have identified a lot of this before purchase. If you bought it online you should be giving it a once over before filling out your 4473 and taking it home. If there is any bind you will feel it. If there is uneven or off-center inlet you will usually see it (barrel channel is most common). Sometimes an inlet is so crooked it shouldn’t be fixed, the stock should be returned but sometimes you can work around minor errors. If the inlet is off you will often have a hard time getting action screws into the action threads easily without finagling. You will also have to finagle the action into alignment if the in-letting is too large which is just as bad (unless you have ordered over-sized inlet for the purpose of epoxy bedding) as too tight in regard to performance potential. When you take it apart and when you put it together you are getting your first snapshot of how well the stock fits your barreled action.

Leveling the stock is like leveling sights and is where I start for general snapshot:

Level shows McMillan installed pillars are not straight and is the reason assembly was difficult:

I say I want the snap shot because it helps me figure out where to go next. I will usually deal with a barrel channel first because I am either going to free-float it or I am going to full-length bed it. Either way, I am taking material out of it. I am taking material out in either case (and from around the action when I get there) for the sake of uniformity and to relieve any torque the forearm may impart on the action by means of contact with the barrel. Free-floating it up front allows me a more honest assessment of how the action fits the stock in-letting.

I generally do this with emery cloth if the barrel channel is pretty close to where it needs to be. If there is a lot of work to be done I will use a cutting tool made for barrel channels (that you use like a plane), next clean it up with scrapers, then go to emery cloth. If I am working with a gun that already has a finish on it I tape the barrel with at least two layers of masking tape to prevent damage to the metal finish. As I remove material, I may add layers of tape to increase the diameter of the barrel channel until I have the amount of clearance I want. When using the emery cloth you must be careful to pull straight up and down and not at an angle or you will round off the top of your forearm inlet. I keep snugging up the action until it is sitting tight in the stock and the barrel has the desired clearance.

Some guys don’t like big gaps but I want enough to ensure there will be absolutely no contact with the barrel during normal use. I put that number at .050-.060″ ,as a minimum, and more is not wrong if you have enough forearm to support it and don’t mind the way it looks. Tom Manners of Manners’ Composite Stocks shoots for .100″ of clearance and on a beefy stock I think that is pretty ideal. I have never had an issue with a Manners’ barrel channel hitting the barrel no matter what I was shooting off of from bipod, to rested over logs and rocks, to steel or concrete barricades. Either way, that dollar bill you have seen guys slide between their barrel and stock to test float does not mean jack. It is nowhere near enough float regardless if you intend to leave it full-floated or full-length bed it.

Once I am certain that my barrel is not in contact with my forearm and that I have no other glaring issues, I will wrap the barrel with tape at the shank and the tip of the forearm to center it in the barrel channel. I coat the action with in-let black (a transfer ink) and bolt the gun into the stock and tighten it down. If your stock is dark, use in-let gold (or bright lipstick just don’t get caught). When I remove the action screws and pop the action out of the stock it leaves a black footprint in the stock in-letting where there is actually stock to action contact.

McMillan KS stock with in-let black showing actual contact with action:

Often you will see that there is very little, and uneven contact, as seen in the McMillan stock above. I then remove those black spots just like a stock maker would with a wood stock blank. I re-apply the in-let black and bolt the gun together again then repeat until I have even contact. Why go to the trouble you may ask? I want my bedding material to have an even thickness all the way around and that cannot happen if you have high spots in the substrate you wish to apply bedding compound to. If you allow the fit to remain unchanged you will induce stress when you bolt that stock on. It’s like trying to make a flat table with warped lumber; it might look flat and straight but there is a slight bow that is fighting to return to its original shape.

Stock with evenly floated barrel, action substrate fitted, and ready for epoxy:

Some folks have peddled bedding blocks as the solution to all bedding issues. Other people have bought that story and perpetuated that fallacy. I recently bought a left-hand Remington 700 Varmint as a donor to build my dad a Smokeless Muzzle-Loader. The 700 Varmint (and its long action brother, the Sendero) came from the factory with H-S precision stocks which have a molded in aluminum bedding block. The issue with the type of hemispherical bedding block used by H-S Precision and Bell & Carlson is they are surfaced (vice V-block which suck the action down into a wedge) but do not provide full contact. I am not saying that the blocks are not accurately made, just that they do not adequately fit the actions (the notable exception being the KMW IMB that uses a hemispherical interference fit).

The problem is that a lot of factory actions are slightly warped from heat treat processes. Polishing/finishing compounds the problem. Newer actions are often tumble polished and come out more even. Older actions were hand polished on a wheel/belt which left them a little more inconsistent in surface dimension (one reason the rear bridge often needs bedded in regard to a scope base). As a result, action to bedding block contact is severely compromised.

If you look at the H-S Precision bedding block below you will see there are exactly five points of contact where the inlet ink transferred: front receiver ring either side of the action screw (1&2), left side between mag well and trigger well (3), at the tang on the right sight, top by trigger well (4), and the left side of the tang where the guy who painted the stock ran a heavy coat of paint over the tang portion of the block (5).

It is also clear that contact is uneven and disproportionate from side to side if you look below at the close up of the front receiver ring. The left side makes contact for half and inch and the right side makes contact at single, small point. The recoil lug well also shows that the lug makes about 50% contact which means that either the receiver face or block is out of square.

A quick glance at the barrel channel showed that the barrel was not centered. Since the bedding block is molded into the stock you cannot really realign the bedding. I know I said you want more clearance than a dollar bill but if a dollar will not pass the channel then you most certainly need to remove material. I could not get a slip of paper to go past the tip of the forearm. A quick wrap of the barrel in tape and a five-minute job with emery cloth cleaned up the barrel channel enough to allow me to evaluate the factory barrel (had to decide if I was selling it or keeping it for a trainer action) but does not have a full .010″ float. I will fix that when I get the muzzle-loader barrel installed however, floating the factory barrel took groups from a little over three inches to half that with cheap plinking ammo.

This small sample demonstrates that even expensive stocks with good reputations (justifiably earned) are not perfect drop-in replacements that will be trouble free. You cannot expect what you do not inspect and you cannot inspect what you do not know to look for. These are some common areas that are problematic and things you should inspect on every rifle you purchase or build. Next time we will look at how proper bedding jobs fix these issues.

#kineticperformancellc #riflestockbedding #mcmillanstocks #mannersstocks #hsprecisionstocks #pillarbedding #glassbeding

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kineticperformancellc · 8 years

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Semi-Custom, Path 2: Centerfire

Preface: This was the rifle I built specifically for testing the Ballistically Optimized Muzzle-loader Bullet (B.O.M.B.). It is long, heavy, and wears high magnification optics like most of the SML rifles I see. My intention was to use it to proof my bullet concepts on the range and it has done exactly what it was supposed to. It is too heavy for my personal hunting use (due to the fact that I like to hunt ground mobile) but for guys who hunt from tree stands, tripods, or towers a rifle like this is a viable and popular option.

I had not actually intended to use a centerfire action to build an SML, it happened by opportunistic accident. I was starting to sort through how I intended to build a range gun for bullet testing as I launched into bullet making. Originally, I had looked at using a Savage Target Action because there was a replacement bolt head for them that used a 209 shotgun primers. I had looked at a few guys (Shurley Bros and DSS customs) that used centerfire actions and rifle primer systems but was not sold on the concept because I hate proprietary parts which you might not be able to replace later and I am not a fan of doing more work than necessary just for the novelty of doing so: I’m talking about priming modules which we’ll get to shortly. This build happened on a centerfire very simply because I called Pierce Engineering LTD about purchasing a single-shot action for a Palma rifle and when the conversation somehow turned to smokeless muzzleloading John said he had an action someone had ordered for an SML (made without an ejector so that you wouldn’t lose the stupid priming module in the field) and had backed out so he would be happy to turn loose of it. The price was right so I read him my debit card info. If you have never dealt with Pierce and ever need a custom action, I highly recommend them; great product with good prices and great customer support. That said, a Remington action would work just as well and more cheaply (especially since guys don’t blueprint them for SML builds). The only real advantage is resale: custom action vs used Remington.

The Pierce Action is similar to a Remington in that they share the same footprint. That is to say, a Pierce will fit a stock that is inlet for a Remington 700 of the same length. They also share common parts like triggers. A unique feature of the Pierce is the Pierce Firing Pin Assembly which makes lock time extremely fast.

This one was a single-shot configuration which adds to the rigidity of the action and was good since I planned on using a pretty heavy barrel. They are made of chrome-moly steel which I prefer for for rifle actions due to strength and durability plus stainless actions with stainless barrels can gall easily. I also like Melonite which is good on chrome-moly actions but can make a stainless action like a boiled egg which isn’t super safe (just say’n). In this case it does not matter because Pierce included Cerakote in the price of the action (careful with that when selecting your smith, more later). The recoil lugs are pinned (which cost extra from a gunsmith) and they have scope bases that can be pinned also.

Pierce Action:

No ejector on this Pierce action made it ideal for an SML:

That accident locked me into a centerfire (from here on referred to as CF) SML; if anyone believes that I couldn’t have actually used it for a Palma rifle since it was a single-shot .308 action for a sport where ejection is not important. That meant that I had to find someone to put a barrel on it for me. This is the single most import choice you will make in regard to ignition systems if you go the CF action route. I would say you generally have three choices with a CF action for SML: 209 shotgun primers, cut down rifle/pistol cases, or proprietary priming systems.

There are really only two options for a 209 shotgun ignition system in a CF action SML: Savage and a Remington. As stated previously a Savage is an easy platform to work with in regard to heaspacing which means you can do nearly everything yourself. All one needs to do is swap out the CF bolt head for the 209 bolt head and you are in business. If you are interested in using a Savage give Luke a call because he knows a lot more about that conversion than I do. If you are building on a Remington I recommend you find the cheapest used rifle you can that is in good condition because all you need is the receiver (sell the rest of the parts to help fund this build) because you need a 209 KashMyers bolt from CMC Firearms which, coincidentally, is made by Pierce Engineering. They are a direct replacement bolt body that works with your firing pin assembly and can be had with several fluting patterns, threads for bolt knobs, plain knobs, etc but have a bolt face that is cut to allow you to just drop in a 209 shotgun primer and works really well with Luke’s Arrowhead Breech Plug but will work with a standard/aftermarket Savage plug as well..

My bolt on the left (for a new project) with diamond fluting and threaded handle:

The shotgun primer keeps things pretty streamlined since there are only a couple of choices but if you choose the rifle primer route you have some decisions to make. Do you want just a proprietary breech plug that uses cut down brass case or do you want a proprietary breech plug and proprietary primer modules? In either event, it is more work to use a rifle primer system than a 209 shotgun system because you have to prime, de-prime,clean, and re-prime your case/module every time you use it. The cut down case method requires more work if you cut them down yourself or you can use a system that offers cut down cases similar to a Remington Ultimate Muzzleloader or the Ultimate Firearms Johnson Muzzleloader (formerly BP Express). Either way you can always make a case to work if they become unavailable from the rifle maker. The proprietary modules go away with that builder unless you can find someone to turn them on a lathe for you. The only advantage of the modules over the cases is longevity. Due to how those modules headspace and seal they seem to do better than cut down case systems do (this may not be gospel but appears to be a largely accurate assessment) and the ready made cut down cases are expensive. Shotgun primers are pretty cheap and don’t need special holders.

Rifle Primer Modules:

I elected to forego a fully built gun because I could not account for where all the extra money went (and this is true for DSS, Shurley, Hankins, Big Dawg, Ultimate Firearms, etc). You save quite a bit by electing to give up some less than useful features and doing some work yourself. It also allows you to upgrade other features (like a cheap laminate to McMillan or Manners). If you can’t figure out why you are paying for it, don’t. Invest it somewhere else.

Since this gun was going to be a full-time range gun used to test heavy loads I ordered a Brux barrel with a custom contour I specified that is close to a modified Heavy Varmint. The barrel was to be crowned at 28″, a Harrell’s Precision side port break installed and timed, and a ramrod ferrule manufactured and fitted (I would pass on this option since mine popped off during the first range session so I never put it back on). I payed the obligatory half up front and settled in for the wait.

The main difference between this barrel and the other I chose to use last time was bore dimensions. The barrel in Part 1 of this series was a pistol bored .442 land and .451 groove barrel. This Brux uses the standard rifle bore .450 land and .458 groove dimensions. I chose the pistol bore the first time because the only long range bullet was the Parker Match Hunter and if I used a rifle bore I had to shoot it smooth form instead of full form (more to follow on these methods at a later date). When I decided to start making bullets I decided I would swage them at .458″ so that I could draw them down to .452″ and offer them for either barrel style. A rifle bore on this build and a pistol bore on the other allowed me to test them full form and smooth form across the range of barrels.

The other difference is the McGowen is button rifled and the Brux barrel is cut rifled. There is a lot of voodoo out there about how one is better than the other. The truth is that good barrels are good barrels and the more you pay for them the better they tend to be. I’ve owned cut rifled Krieger and Brux as well as buttoned Lilja, Pacnor, Benchmark, Douglas, and MRC. All have shot well because they were made well and properly fitted. I think you can feel good about any blank that costs $300 right off the shop floor.

About five months later my barrel was fitted and shipped to me. I’m going to caveat by saying that this is not unique to one gunsmith as I’ve had it happen a couple times: they make mistakes. I’ve only ever had one gunsmith shop deny responsibility: once on my personal gun, and once on a customer’s gun. Always insure the item because you may; I needed the $18K I ensured the customer’s gun for. Regardless, contact the builder and they will usually fix it.

The first thing I noticed was just attention to detail. Ensuring you spell names correctly is important to most people. My name was misspelled on invoices and tags but more importantly his name was misspelled where he stamped it on the barrel.

Additionally, break was crooked (incorrectly timed) and had to go back to get fixed; side port breaks are critical to timing and it looks ugly if they get it wrong as well as defeats the purpose of the side ports.

The Cerakote from Pierce got buggered and the scope base was somehow smashed pretty good (just cosmetic, not functional but displaced metal just the same).

Smashed Rail:

Buggered Cerakote on floor of receiver and every hard edge:

Shroud scratched from careless disassembly:

If you want Cerakote have it done by whoever barrels your action so that if it also gets buggered the onus is on them to fix it otherwise you are at the mercy of how careful they are with your parts.

You pay for the work and it is your right to demand it is done correctly. If it gets damaged in shipment (happened to a custom sidelock of mine) you can’t blame anyone but the carrier and insurance will cover it. If it is workmanship hold the craftsman accountable. I got a correctly timed break back but still had buggered Cerakote and passed on the offer to get me a new base because I just wanted my barreled action back.

With all parts back in my possession I assembled the rifle for a test run. I always take a parts gun and shoot it as a “before and after” test. Not all parts, even high dollar parts, are perfect fits. The best bases do not always fit the reciver without bedding just like stocks from great companies are not truly drop-in. Sometimes you see drastic improvement and sometimes you don’t.

First range session for “Before” test:

I already had a McMillan A3 stock with a Seekins forearm rail (snagged it on sale so watch their site and sign up for e-mails) that was inlet for a Remington 40x with Krieger HV barrel so the fitting would be easy. With my barreled action returned to me I got busy bedding the stock. It is not an overly complicated process, just requires patience and attention to detail. It is a weekend’s worth of work knocked out here and there.

Pillar holes bored with Brownell’s piloted counter-bore:

Acton area roughed up and barrel channel fitted to custom contour barrel (notice I did not cut flute for ramrod as I wanted to shoot it without possibility of ramrod stress first):

Action dammed up and coated in release agent, barrel taped up to center it:

Secured for bedding compound to cure (notice there is no longer a ramrod ferrule):

Pillar bedded with Devcon Steel Putty (still needs clean up):

Cleaned up, trigger installed, optic mounted (now replaced by a Bushnell LRHS) , and ready for testing:

The Brux barrel took about 50 shots to get fouled to a point where it would shoot decent which I thought odd given how much more it cost than the McGowen I used on the other build which shot good right out of the gate. It actually required developing some new bullet sizing techniques which I’ll cover later. Where this Brux is better than the McGowen is consistency from muzzle to breech which I think is pretty key in regard to loading consistency. If your loading is not consistent neither will your precision or accuracy be consistent. It also cleans up more easily on the rare occasion I clean it. At this point it shoots very well with nearly anything I feed it using bullets from 275gn to 415gn and powders like H4198, H322, and IMR3031.

After fouling and learning that regular FF sizing didn’t work in this barrel:

Drop testing the 344gn BOMB at 505yds:

Rifle Parts:

1. Pierce Action with scope base, recoil lug, and Cerakote (SALE) $950

2. Brux barrel installed with plug $775

3. Ramrod, Jag, and Ramrod Ferrule $130 (save your money and get a take down rod and a range rod for the same price)

4. Thread muzzle, thread protector, and time break $185

5. Harrell’s Precision Tactical Muzzlebreak $45

6. Shilen Trigger $149.99

7. McMillan A3 Drop-In, with Seekins forearm rail (SALE) $650

8. Bedding Pillars $Free with barrel job

9. Devcon Steel Putty $36.92

Total: $2921.91

The total is a little breath taking at first glance and is most certainly not worth nearly twice what it cost to build the Remington 700ML in Part 1. You will not see any discernible difference in performance. Where I consider it a good price is when you compare it to the standard build from any of the smiths that offer these: $2650 on the low end to $3400 on the high end.

Those prices for standard builds do not all include breaks, ferrules, scope bases, metal coatings, trigger upgrades, stock upgrades, and none include custom actions. Just the stock upgrade alone (and I got it on sale for nearly $300 off full price) over a cheap laminate takes us from the cheapest standard full build at $2650 to passing my cost of $2921.91 and it is built on a Remington action and does not come with a break, rod, or any rod accessories. By no means am I disparaging guns built on Remington actions (I own a bunch) or laminate stocks (I used one in the last build and own several others) but do be discerning how you spend your money on a custom gun because it could be used to upgrade some parts that matter (say an optic) or buy quite a lot of bullets which makes you better because there is no replacement for trigger time.

#pierceengineeringrifles #mcmillanstocks #bruxbarrels #bushnelllrhs #kineticperformancellc #bombbullet #smokelessmuzzleloader

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