Bedding aluminum stocks

[jim hinkle]

I've bedded my wooden stocks myself for decades. But what is the deal on something like the Anschutz Precise stock? Do they need bedding, or do they have something built-in that accomplishes the same thing?

[KennyB]

Hi Jim,

as I've always understood it... the reason for bedding a wooden stock is to prevent the issues due to the wood swelling due to changes in humidity. The bedding provides a stable, hard, consistent point of attachment for the action.

An aluminium stock won't suffer from this problem so bedding with DEVCON or suchlike would be pointless.
The Precise stock comes in two varieties - one machined for round actions and one machined for the 20 series flat bottomed action. There is also the option of using an adapter plate to use a round action in the 20 series stock.

BTW, I have two rifles with wooden stocks, both bedded and both shoot well.

Regards,

Ken

[Tim S]

Ken,

some folks have bedded alu stocks (I think including several of the US AMU team). Most alu stocks have some form of flexible bedding insert to take up any slight variation in action tolerances. As I understand it, it's not easy to get the bedding compound to stick.

Tim

[jim hinkle]

I would think that the machining that Anschutz does on the bedding surface will not really be exact, and no 2 actions are the same. I wonder if a thin film of a soft pliable Teflon would work? This would solve the problem of hogging out the stock and the problem of adhesion.

[KennyB]

You could be right - the anschutz adapter certainly has a gasket between the receiver and the aluminium.

[dlinden]

So, Jim --- You thinking of going all metal? If you do something, I got dibs on your old rig.

Dennis L

[jim hinkle]

I see that Anschutz has copied my aluminum bedding blocks that I made in 1970 on a CNC machine at Lockheed when I was an attorney there. It has worked for me ever since as all my stocks are bedded that way, but I have used Devcon on the block as the bedding agent to the action with success. Of course, when I put one of my blocks in a stock, it is there forever.