doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Thoughts on glass bedding a custom Rifle

Probably a dumb question to some of you, but wanted to get some thoughts from custom rifle builders on what is acceptable on custom rifles.

Building my first custom bolt rifle for myself, Winchester Model 70, in 7 mm Mauser, tapered octagon barrel, decent wood stock with some crotch figure in the butt. Eventually it will be engraved by a friend of mine (Pauline Muerrle, former Winchester Custom shop engraver).

So thoughts on glass bedding the action/barrel, is this cheesy /sign of poor workmanship on a custom rifle. I know wood moves, and I want this to shoot as well as it looks.

Before you slam me too hard, keep in mind that I focus on restorations, where glass bedding is non-existent… except for making fixtures to hold parts.

Thanks

Mike Hunter
Hunter Restorations
http://www.Hunterrestorations.com

Glass bed your pattern stock before duplicating your crotch figure blank.

I don't do it for a living, never have, but have been building custom rifles for a long time in several styles plus restoration work. I can only answer for my own opinion and here it is. On a new rifle I always glass-bed, on a restoration I use epoxy when gluing broken stocks back together.

Further clarification: if it's visible as a gap-filler then it's unacceptable; on a new bolt rifle I always pillar-bed for several reasons and install stock strengtheners of various sorts but the glass is invisible from the outside. The proper procedure is to first inlet with absolutely no gaps (or in my case as few as possible, G) and then cut out room for the glass & pillars below the wood line.

On a repair I always mix lots of sawdust & wood chips from the original stock into the glass, using the glass to create a matrix with the wood as the primary filler material. I get the matching wood dust and scraps when I drill the holes for the internal wooden or metal dowels that hold the pieces together.

JMOFWIW, plenty of others differ.
Regards, Joe

Mike, What I often do, especially for a serious hunting rifle, is inlet to the best of my ability, then wet the inletting and raise the grain. Apply a very light coat of acraglass with an acid brush, paint on just enough to coat the surface. When dry you can see the well sealed wood right through the glass.
I also do this on the head of a shotgun stock to insure it will never get oil soaked.
The pic shows what it looks like when I'm just about there; 90%+ wood to metal. (I do remove most of the inletting blue.)
Steve