TargetTalk

Hi everyone. I am new to the forum and new at competition 3P competition. (actually it is my 14 y/o daughter who is the competitor). However, I have been playing with precision rifles for many years. Long range shooting 1000+ yards with big bore (mainly .338 cal) is my game.

All my long range rigs have had the action bedded either by myself or the smith who built the rifle. I mainly use Devcon putty. No long range shooter I know would think of having a rifle that did not have the action bedded.

In my limited experience hanging around small bore 3P shooters and on forums like this, bedding an action does not seem to be a common subject. Does no one bed these aluminum stocked precision .22s? If not, why not?

My daughter shoots an Anschutz 2013 in a 2018 stock that I am just itching to do a bedding job on...... should I?

Rick

I'd talk directly to anschutz or one of the specialist target rifle makers (HPS, Blieker) and see what they say. I understood small bore barrels are meant to be 'floating' but I don't know that much about it. Pretty sure someone had bedded the action in my 1813, but as I've changed stocks, its no longer bedded.

Rob.

The key in bedding is to have a solid consistant fit and foundation that does not change with heat and humidity.
Bedding a rifle does this and is absolutely needed for high power because it will heat up and can cook the humidity out of the wood stock.
Pillar bedding does the same thing as glass bedding but uses 2 or more metal sleaves that are bedded into a wood or glass stock to make a consistant foundation for the action. With the invention of aluminum stock and square action it is essentially already a consistant fondation and having the square action it is essential to use a torque wrench to ensure all 4 screws are consistant. I got the displeasure of watching a young shooter lose a high level match because the torque was not set on the rifle. There is a thin gasket type material between the action and the stock that may be replaced but I don't have any reason to thing it wears out. So to answer your question I would not attempt to do it unless it had a wood stock.

Thanks for the responses. Both precision rifles I have are aluminium stocked. One is a Anschutz 2013/2018 with a Lilja barrel the other a KK200 with a Hart barrel. The Kk200 was Troy Bassham's rifle used to win the world championship a few years back.

I always use a torque wrench fo the action screws. On my big bore rifles I use 65 inch/lbs. That seems excessive to me given the smaller screw sizes so I have bee using 40 inc/lbs. Should I go higher?

The reccomended torque is 5 NM or approx 45 in/p for the action screws on Anschutz. Some people I know have done tests as to what torque works best and around 5 NM works fine.

I shot a 1913 action in an aluminum stock that was bedded back in college, and it shot tremendous. My non-bedded 2013 action also does the same. Part of the issue is that bedding the aluminum reliably often requires excavating material and roughing up the surface on the aluminum stocks for the necessary adhesion, and there is very little area to do this on the square action rifles. I remember noting that the bedding was very thin on the aluminum stock even with the round action at the time.

I have a 260 Remington long range prone rifle which is in a Sinclair aluminum stock. This stock was available in 2004 and was never made again. At that time my chosen gunsmith bedded the action to the stock as he was not happy with what he felt when tightening the action screws. That rifle is amazingly accurate. So, I guess the question is, how well does your action fit the stock? You might find this out by using Plastigage, an item used for measuring bearing clearances when building an engine (see link below). As previously stated if you decided to bed I would think hogging out some aluminum from the stock would be necessary.

http://www.plastigaugeusa.com/how.html

I don't see where bedding an aluminum action could hurt the accuracy of your rifles. It would only help. I wouldn't spend too much time on it as ammunition is more of a factor than bedding. Your daughter has a great rifle and it shouldn't be a hard task to get ammo that would consistantly hold the 10 ring all day. Needless to say, your daughter will not have a 10 ring hold, especially in kneeling and standing. Coaching and practice would be my first and second priorities before you delve into the finer points of competition. I have a 16 year old son who is in the same process. You should also consider air rifle as a great coaching tool. Barrel time on an airgun is slow and shooting an airgun will reinforce follow through and technique. If you shoot an airgun well, you will shoot a 22 better. A coach that works well with your daughter is priceless to her advancement. Just my thoughts.
Chris

Levergun59,

You make a good point. The 2013 is very accurate, far more accurate than my daughter is capable of shooting at this stage. I am just a little fanatical about accuracy. I think your advice is good, though. Worry about other things right now and when she starting shooting upwards of 99% then worry about that last little accuracy tweak.

We are working with air rifle and we have a SCATT system we use for training. I have not found any 3P rifle or airgun coaches around here, at least not at the experience level she needs. I have made a few trips down to Dallas for sessions with Troy Bassham who won world championships in both air rifle and 3P small bore back in the mid 1990's to early 2000's. Mainly it has just been me trying to apply MEC's books Ways Of The Rifle and Air Rifle and lots of trigger time.