Thread: bedding question

Originally Posted by Hunter_Nick

The most important thing to do to test your bedding is the 1 o’clock test. That will make sure there is no stress in the bedding. If there is, your best off doing the job again until it’s perfect. Removes bedding as a variable.

What's the one o'clock test?

Originally Posted by Steve123

What's the one o'clock test?

1. Assemble rifle without magazine spring fitted (for internal box mags)
2. Hold the rifle vertically with the recoil pad on the bench, and the barrel pointing to 1 o’clock
3. Undo the front action screw (while the rifle is held in the 1 o’clock position) and see if the barrel moves in relation to the forend when the screw is tightened and loosened.

Any movement of the barrel indicates stress in the bedding. It is possible to bend either the action or the stock very slightly if too much force was used to hold the action and stock together when the bedding was curing. Yes it’s possible, done it myself.....

0.002” barrel movement at the forend tip is acceptable. Any more and I would re-do the job. It can be measured with a DTI, but 0.002” should be detectable with your finger. If you can feel movement it’s probably no good, but if you can’t then crack on!

Originally Posted by Hunter_Nick

1. Assemble rifle without magazine spring fitted (for internal box mags)
2. Hold the rifle vertically with the recoil pad on the bench, and the barrel pointing to 1 o’clock
3. Undo the front action screw (while the rifle is held in the 1 o’clock position) and see if the barrel moves in relation to the forend when the screw is tightened and loosened.

Any movement of the barrel indicates stress in the bedding. It is possible to bend either the action or the stock very slightly if too much force was used to hold the action and stock together when the bedding was curing. Yes it’s possible, done it myself.....

0.002” barrel movement at the forend tip is acceptable. Any more and I would re-do the job. It can be measured with a DTI, but 0.002” should be detectable with your finger. If you can feel movement it’s probably no good, but if you can’t then crack on!

Cheers, I bedded a JW103 over lockdown. It didn't seem to make a difference to how it shot though. I'll try that test on it.

In my experience a bedding job can make a poor shooting rifle shoot a lot better, but it seldom makes an accurate rifle a lot more accurate

@gundoc cheers just what i was after. I even started to have a rush of blood to the head and was considering putting a piece of wood just in front of the rear action screw to give it a bit more support but i suppose the rear screw collar/pillar does that. @Hunter_Nick i have a 25-303 P14 that shot crap for the previous owner and amongst other things i have done to it, i found it does that-or is it the other way around?
Think if you let the rear screw go the barrel drops? Bloody sight more than 2 thou', more like millimeters so really doing it no favours
havent got around to fixing it and trying it out but i did get given 5 rounds to try it with when i do.

In addition to gundoc’s great advice, a very light draft angle on the sides and a few thou off the bottom will help with clearance and prevent chipping of the bedding when installing the action.