1913 glass bedding project

[Telecomtodd]

Here's the results of my 1913 glass bedding project. The young man who did the work is an outstanding local smallbore/service rifle shooter and budding gunsmith. We both learned a lot from this project. The reason for looking into bedding was due to a forced-humidity (99%) situation at an indoor match in October where two 1913 shooters both ended up moving 30 clicks right due to warpage, while two other shooters with glass bedding had no adjustments and fine scores. I own one of the affected 1913s.

1. I concluded that the 1913 really needs a bedding job. We found that a strip about 11mm wide at the bottom of the action was touching wood - that's it, besides the pillars and multiple washers. The rest of the wood was very close, but not touching the action. With warpage, it most certainly would change the physical dynamics of the channel.

2. The barrel is not completely free floated. halfway up the forestock, the inside channel steps up and with slight warpage, will most certainly touch the barrel. The distance from the barrel to the end of the forestock was 1.85mm, while the distance from the barrel to the back of the forestock was practically nil. Note that the interior wood is bare and unfinished, so moisture can certainly gain entry to he stock there. When the action area was enlargened for the bedding, the forestock was also milled out to just under 2mm and allowing for a perfect free float. The "new" bare wood is now coated with tung oil to prevent moisture from absorbing into the wood.

3. When the action was being set up for the bedding, it became obvious that the stock actually turns in slightly back towards the action, kind of like a cradling effect. If the rifle was bedded like that, the action would have effectively been mechanically locked into place. The only way to solve that problem was to mill down the sides of the stock to match the scalloped edge just ahead of the action. This trimming does not affect anything yet ensures a good impression with the action. The action was then mated to a specially-made aluminum spacer to mate to the pillar, and then torqued to 5.5 NM.

I shot some video of the stock before the bedding job and the resulting testing I did today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YjbizXsk08

I'm very happy with the results and suggest others with this rifle consider having similar work done. Note that the temperature was about 35 degrees F and there was a shifting 10+ MPH wind. Everything (including the shooter) was stiff from the cold weather. Ammo was SK Standard Plus - nothing expensive.

Later this week the temperatures are supposed to be in the low 50s, so I may go give it another whirl to compare temperature differences.

I hope this note will be helpful to someone someday!