Gunsmithing Bedding a Howa action in a Hogue Overmold stock

[pklin1297]

Hello all,

Got a friend here who asked me to bed a Howa for him into the Hogue stock that came with the gun. First I would like to say thanks to Scimitar here for all the advice he has given me to help me with my first bedding job.

After I picked up the gun and gave it a once through, I noticed it already has pillars so I am happy for that, didn't want to have to attempt to install pillars on my first try also. Nothing really out of the ordinary until I saw the space between the sides of the stock and the sides of the action... There were none! I would be lucky if I could slide a piece of paper through.

Now of all the videos I've watched and threads I've read, there were always enough room on the sides of wood or synthetic stocks for the bedding compound to ooze through, either that or you made room, but how do I "remove" material from the overmold material?

If anyone has bedded an action into an overmold stock please educate me on what to do in this situation. I would love to suggest to the owner of this rifle to at least put it into a B&C synthetic, at the very least the forend will be stiffer than this Hogue and be easier to bed... Anyway, please help!

Thanks much!

 

[flyboy]

Re: Bedding a Howa action in a Hogue Overmold stock

When I did mine, I just skim bedded the action, meening you arent building much but just filling in void areas that the action may not be sitting just right in. As for the fore end, you can stiffen it up quite a bit by adding either carbon arrow shafts or like I did stainless steel rods in a hollowed out forend and bedding them inplace, it just depends if your looking to add weight or not. If that sounds like something your interested in, PM me and I'll try and walk you through it.

 

[pklin1297]

Re: Bedding a Howa action in a Hogue Overmold stock

Thanks flyboy! I'm not sure but I believe I have seen a thread before describing what you did to the forend, was that your thread? Since this rifle belongs to someone else, I will see if he wants to go through the trouble of doing this as he may just want to upgrade the stock to something else altogether. I will at least bed the action though... So what you're saying is not to worry about the sides, and just concentrate on the lug and flat bottom areas?

 

[flyboy]

Re: Bedding a Howa action in a Hogue Overmold stock

Yep, I belive you saw mine, although another guy on here did similar and posted his also. As for the friend. I'm not so sure I would do all that work unless it was for me on the fore end. A B&C stock is only like $200 and would be a great investment if he's on a budget. Otherwise have at it.

 

[pklin1297]

Re: Bedding a Howa action in a Hogue Overmold stock

Just sent mail, he is currently in the sand box repairing helicopters for the army I think so we'll see if he wants to upgrade the stock.

 

[phideaux]

Re: Bedding a Howa action in a Hogue Overmold stock

just bed the rear tang, front of reciever and backside of lug. don't worry about the sides. you'd have to cut that damn rubber off the side edges inside the stock. it won't matter if sides are done or not as long as the action isn't touching it. cut out the webs of plastic in the fore end and stick a piece of 3/8" all-thread in there and fill it up with fiberglass resin. it works great.

 

[Clark]

Re: Bedding a Howa action in a Hogue Overmold stock

The bottom side of a Howa action looks like the bottom side of a Mauser action.

My system for bedding this kind of barreled action is that epoxy is in 4 places:
1) behind the recoil lug
This epoxy is to be a "low compliance" [stiff] and consistent connection of the recoil force to the stock.
2) under the flat part of the receiver for the square inch behind the recoil lug. This is contiguous with behind the recoil lug epoxy.
This epoxy is to be a low compliance and consistent connection of the bullet spin reaction force to the stock.
3) under the first inch of barrel in front of the receiver. The epoxy only goes up 45 degrees from the bottom on the sides of the barrel.
This epoxy is to be a low compliance and consistent connection of the front action screw force to the stock. That force is already supported behind the recoil lug and needs to be supported in front of the front action screw.
4) around the pillar that supports the rear tang of the receiver. The pillar is pre compressed, perpendicularly aligned, and flush to receiver aligned, with a small diameter head action screw. The pillar is scored and the stock hole is tapped so the epoxy gets traction. I make pillars from 3/8" outside diameter 1010 steel tubing.
The rear pillar is to be a low compliance and consistent connection of the rear action tang force to the stock. The rear pillar acts as the 3rd dominant point in defining the plane of the barreled action to stock connection. The other two dominant points are the two sides of the flat epoxy for the inch behind the recoil lug.

After the bottom metal is bedded in front and the rifle is assembled, the rear pillar should support the bottom metal in the rear. The magazine engagement the receiver is checked for feeding. The bedding job is tested by banging the barrel with a palm while griping the stock wrist with the other hand. The sound should be high frequency with long sustain and no buzzing. That is because the barrel is floated in the stock and the two act as a tuning fork, while the wrist is at a node. High frequency with high mass implies low compliance. The sustain is from the low losses due to low compliance coupling. We want low compliance so the barreled action mass and stock mass are effectively summed in reaction to the recoil before bullet escapement. The higher the mass rifle, the easier it it to control recoil and get accuracy. The buzzing would mean there is not enough clearance some where.

Shoot the rifle. Then put some piece of dirt between the action and the bedding. It will not make the same sound and it will not give the same accuracy, as the compliance of the fit has been raised. Then clean that dirt out of there

What does it all mean?
Epoxy does not get on the sides of the receiver.

 

[pklin1297]

Re: Bedding a Howa action in a Hogue Overmold stock

Thanks much guys for the incredibly detailed inputs.

The owner of the rifle has been persuaded to go with a B&C medalist A2 stock with full aluminum bedding block, so I will wait when that stock comes and give it a look through.

Thanks again.