Re: M1A - Need opinions
OK, here's how it's done:
Glassbedding M1 and M1A Rifles
Most of us who own M1 Garands and/or M1A rifles use these rifles for Highpower Match shooting, and go to some lengths to get them shooting as accurately as we reasonably can. If you are like me, you’ve probably worked up a few handloads or found some accurate, albeit expensive, factory match ammunition that performs close to the accuracy limits of the rifles you use. The rifle we got from the DCM/CMP or manufacturer is most likely to be an issue grade rifle, or, at best, a “National Match Upgrade”, and probably lacks glassbedding from the original source. True National Match and “SuperMatch” rifles are usually glassbedded when received, and fall outside the limits of this article, unless the glassbedding has been damaged by moisture or long term wear. If your finances are like mine, you probably can’t afford to buy a SuperMatch, or send that rifle off to a professional Highpower accurizing firm, and have been just living with the accuracy limits available from a non-glassbedded rifle. Those limits are far from achieving the actual accuracy potential that these rifles are capable of, and probably are below the accuracy we shooters would like to believe we can achieve on that mythical “good day at the range”. This is not difficult to remedy, using modern commercially available glassbedding kits.
Let’s take a look at the accuracy potentials that are set as specifications for National Match rifles. As you will see, these specifications are not very demanding with regard to accuracy.
The NRA’s American Rifleman reprint entitled The M1 Rifle is an excellent reference for bedding these rifles. It indicates that acceptable accuracy limits are “3 1/2 inch average extreme spread for three 10-shot groups at 100 yds range, no single group over 5 inches extreme spread”. That’s really not a lot of accuracy, and most unmodified M1 rifles can perform in that range or better, using ammunition loaded to standard M2 Ball specifications. If one refers to Cartridges of the World, the accuracy specification for Government M2 Ball is “7.5 inch mean radius at 600 yds.” and “5.0 inch mean radius at 600 yds” for machine gun M2 ball designed for overhead fire (anti-aircraft) application. The specifications for .30 Caliber Match, M72, are “3.5 inch mean radius at 600 yds”. If one assumes that these specifications are intended for use in the M1 Garand, one can see that the ammunition is designed to perform to better than the accuracy specifications for the National Match M1 Garand rifle. (3.5 Minutes for the rifle, 1.66-2.5 minutes for M2 Ball, and 1.166 Minutes for M72 Match) The same specifications apply to M80 Ball, M80 Ball (overhead fire application), M118 Match, and M852 Match cartridges, respectively, and one can also make the assumption that these specifications apply for use in the M14/M1A rifle. I am not exactly clear on the National Match accuracy specifications for the M14/M1A, but I expect they compare pretty much the same as for the M1 Garand. One can also assume that Commercial Match ammunition is intended to pretty much duplicate the performance of Military Match ammunition, or improve on it slightly.
All this numerical mumbo-jumbo seems to tell us that the rifle, as issued, is not quite up to snuff in delivering the accuracy that Uncle Sam expects from the ammunition he provides for it, and that National Match accuracy specifications are not very demanding. As far as the M1D’s are concerned, I don’t really think they shoot any better than the regular National Match rifles do, and maybe not quite as good, even. I’ve fired a few of them, without the scopes, and I tend to be unimpressed. I imagine they just worked better than the standard issue grade rifles, probably because the average soldier was only an average shooter with the iron sights in combat, and the scopes made up for that a bit.
Lets try to understand why these rifles don’t perform so great, and how we can improve upon it.
Military rifles, and their civilian counterparts, are manufactured on assembly lines. Most manufacturers produce components with manufacturing tolerances that are pretty good, but these tolerances are designed to permit a working clearance between the receiver metal and stock wells which allows field disassembly without the application of undue force. The fit on these components ranges from nicely snug to woefully sloppy. The tighter the fit, the less motion occurs between these components during the firing cycle. When this motion is reduced, or eliminated, the rifle will generally shoot a tighter group. This is because the action comes to rest closer to the ideal location following each shot, and motion becomes more uniform during the firing cycle. If the fit can be tightened up to the point where this motion approaches nil, the rifle will perform in a more nearly identical manner during each firing cycle, and the accuracy potential starts to become limited by things like barrel harmonics, and other factors, which are more a factor of design limits, rather than any inconsistencies governed by the chance destination at which a loose receiver chooses to comes to rest.
The motions associated with the firing cycle are complex, being generated by recoil, barrel harmonics, and forces generated through the operation of the autoloading mechanisms within the rifle. Parts flex, bounce, rotate, twist around and vibrate like tuning forks. For those who have viewed high speed motion picture photography of these rifles being fired, this series of motions can be quite surprising, and even a little scary. The wood parts also swell and contract due to temperature and humidity variations, and metal parts tend to change slightly in dimension due to the effects of heating and cooling. The effect is that strong forces act on various parts of the contact areas between the metal and wood parts, causing them to dance, rebound, and rattle around. The good news is that these motions tend to occur rather consistently from each firing cycle to the next, and can be judged as a nearly identical whole for our needs.
The tight fits associated with better accuracy demand clearances which are incompatible with most manufacturing tolerances, and the ease of field disassembly for which these rifles were designed. To improve upon this, we can resort to glassbedding.
For our purposes, glassbedding is performed with the intention of customizing the stock well dimensions to improve the fit between the metal parts of the receiver and the stock’s bedding well, to decrease the clearances between those parts to the minimum necessary to permit disassembly for cleaning and repair. We do this by filling in the voids between the metal and wood parts with bedding compound, to achieve a more perfect fit. The proper fit is a tight one, requiring a judicious application of force to separate the major groups. Once bedded, it is a good idea to limit such disassembly to once a year for cleaning, with exceptions for repairs, etc. For the most part, the only significant wear encountered with a proper bedding job occurs during disassembly and reassembly. The idea is to marry the receiver to the stock in a manner which only occasionally permits separation. The lifetime of this marriage is subject to some dispute, but whatever you choose to believe, it’s not forever. For example, the Marine Corps Team armorers rip out the bedding compound and replace it every time the team ends up shooting through a rainstorm, which usually occurs several times each year. I’m not sure this is absolutely necessary, but the teams think it is.
Uncured glassbedding compounds vary in consistency from runny through gooey to pasty, and may or may not contain additives like powdered metallic substances. They usually share a common chemical base of epoxy or polyester (“fiberglass”) resin, and can be somewhat messy to work with. We can use some tricks to cut down on that mess. If you take a trip to the supermarket baking supplies section, you will find an area devoted to tools and utensils. A quick rummage will usually turn up an item called “disposable cake trimming bags”. These are small triangular sleeves designed to be filled with colored jellies or icing, and are used to pipe thin lines of the stuff for trimming the top of the cake. Be careful, there is a similar item used for making fake roses from icing, and these bags are designed for use with removable extruder tips. These are too coarse, and we can’t use them. We are looking for the ones that taper down to a small tip, about 1/16-1/8 inch in diameter. We use these bags to apply the bedding compound, squeezing out small quantities at a time like a fine toothpaste tube, allowing precise control. When we’re done with them, they just get tossed in the trash along with any unused compound still inside. If you can’t find the bags, you can roll a cone out of bond paper. This is a huge improvement over trying to spead the compound with those dinky popsicle sticks they give you in the kits, and is much more economical on compound. This is a fairly important issue, since there is no real problem with using too little compound. You can always make a second pass after everthing cures, and fill in the empty areas. When you use too much, it squeezes into the wrong places, making messes, possibly creating unintended glue-ins, generally wasting compound unnecessarily. To clean up excess bedding compound we can use an acetone-based lacquer thinner. Nail polish remover works OK. I have even used the “non-acetone” nail polish remover. It gets most of the junk off, but tends to leave a little sticky film. The acetone-based stuff is better. Be careful with the acetone around the finish on your wood, though, it may attack it. You can test it on an inconspicuous area. If it’s hazardous to your finish, skip the acetone cleanup steps mentioned later, and just try to do paper polishing.
Bedding compounds must be used in combination with a release agent, which is applied to all areas of metal which contact them, preventing permanent bonding between the wood and metal parts. The compounds we use are mechanically strong, once cured, and may or may not have a degree of flexibility in their final state. This strength has limits, dictating that they be applied in a certain minimum thickness. This minimum thickness usually tends to be more than the clearance that exists in the original bedding configuration, and requires that some of those clearances be opened up a bit to permit applying the compound in an acceptable thickness. The bond between the wood and compound is fairly reliable, but can be improved by creating small channels and indentations in the stock’s bedding areas, keying the final compound shape more positively into the wood. This improved mechanical bond helps to better distribute the forces generated in the firing cycle, and contributes to a longer life for the bedding job. It can also complicate the job of removing the compound, should this ever become necessary.
The following preparation instructions apply mostly to the M1 Garand. The M14/M1A is sufficiently similar that most of the instructions will serve as a guide, but I will cover the M14/M1A in some detail as I go over the M1 directions.
The most important and time consuming part of the bedding job is the preparation. We have several goals to accomplish in this preparation. The metal parts must be thoroughly cleaned, degreased, and will be treated later with release agent. The receiver should be field stripped, with just the barrel and receiver present. The upper handguard should be left attached, along with the barrel band, and the stock ferrule should be left solidly attached to the forward end of the stock. You can leave the sights and gas cylinder in place. All other parts like the bolt, operating rod, bullet guide, magazine follower, etc. should be removed. The trigger group can be left intact, or stripped, as desired, but the trigger guard and its pivot should remain attached. All remaining parts should be cleaned well, with no oil or grease remaining on their surfaces. Any voids or cutouts in the receiver or recoil lugs that might unintentionally collect bedding compound may be filled with modeling clay, if this concerns you overly much.
Place the receiver and barrel group into the stock, and assemble the trigger housing onto the rifle, locking it in place. Take a soft lead pencil or a sharp scribing tool and trace the outline onto the flat upper portion of the stock around the receiver where it contacts the flat area on top. Do the same to the bottom of the magazine well area where the bottom plate of the magazine well portion of the M1 trigger housing, or the wings on the M1A trigger housing, contact the bottom of the stock, just ahead of the trigger guard. Remove the trigger housing group and receiver/barrel group from the stock.
Examine the lines you just drew on the stock. Up on top, you can see the area that is covered by the receiver, and on the bottom, you can see the areas where the trigger housing clamps tight to the stock, front and rear. These are the contact areas that control up and down motions. Look into the magazine well. You can see the areas on the sides of the well where the receiver’s recoil lugs nest, controlling front to rear motion. It is in these contact areas that we want to customize the fit with bedding compound.
We need to remove some wood in these areas, permitting the bedding compound to be applied in proper thickness, and providing some mechanical shapes to enhance the bond. This wood can be removed by several means. I use a Moto tool for this operation. I prefer to use a small steel router bit in it, with a spherical cutting head about 1/16-1/8 inch in diameter. You may find that using a flexible shaft extension makes the task easier. Take particular care to maintain firm control of the cutter bit when in use. If you let it get loose, it can jump up and run across unintended areas lickety split. I goofed and ended up with some nasty deep scratches in a nearly new finish, the first time I used a Moto tool for bedding.
The amount of wood that needs to be removed is a matter of conjecture. On the upper flat of the stock where the receiver rests, some smiths choose to remove most of the wood inside the scribe line, to considerable depth, as much as 1/2 inch deep. Others choose to simply cut two oblong grooves near the front, two more in the center area, just behind the magazine well, and a “C” or horseshoe shaped groove in the rear, where the back portion of the receiver rests. Either approach will work. The drastic method probably adds a bit to the overall rigidity of the bedding job. It just seems to be too drastic to me, I favor the grooving method. If you do get drastic, try to leave some points on the top surface untouched, so the receiver and stock have some points of contact preserving the original alignment. Limit your cuts to the area inboard of the scribe line, so the bedding compound doesn’t show.
On the underside of the stock, in the areas where the magazine well bottom plate and the rear tang of the trigger housing contact the stock are the places where we will be applying bedding compound. In the extreme rear portion, there are recessed flats that contact the rear tang of the trigger housing. Cut in an oblong groove into the flats on either side of the central groove, forming small cups about 1/8-1/4 inch deep for the compound. In the magazine well area, the bottom flat surface can be cut with similar grooves in the area between the inner walls of the magazine well and the scribe lines. Whatever you do, try to leave some portions of the flats intact to preserve the original contact and alignment for the metal parts that mate to them.
Turn the stock upright and look down into the magazine well area. Just ahead of the trigger cutout, the magazine well forms a hollow, rectangular hollow box. As the front wall of the magazine well rises, it turns on a diagonal, rising at a slant to meet the barrel channel, making room for the parts associated with the operating rod, spring, catch, and guide. This slanted area needs to remain free from bedding compound. The front and rear recoil lugs are supposed to ride flush against the sidewalls of the hollow box, with the rear edge of the rear lugs and the front edge of the front lugs abutting against the adjacent ends of the box. As we look along the sidewalls of the magazine well, we see the vertical inside corners rising in the front and rear of the well. We run the router vertically along these corners, turning them from sharp creases into rounded, recessed trenches. Be careful not to cut through to the outer surface of the stock. Only the vertical creases need to be grooved, not any additional portion of the sidewalls, front or rear walls, or diagonal slope rising into the barrel channel. Don’t cut the grooves all the way down to the bottom of the creases, you can stop about 1/4 inch from the bottom of each crease. The grooves only need to be 1/8inch wide at most, and about the same depth, creating a semi tubular channel into which the bedding compound will be applied.
For the M14/M1A, the routing on the upper flats remain pretty much the same. The underside, on the bottom of the magazine well, differs in that the trigger housing has a small “wing” on each side, providing a contact area confined to the rearmost portion of the magazine well, rather than where the M1 bottom plate covers the entire magazine well. Inside the magazine well, there is a metal stock liner. Some smiths remove this after tracing the outline onto the inner walls of the magazine well. I simply leave it in place and use it as a guide for the router. The M14/M1A has smaller single recoil lugs extending down on each side of the receiver, which you can see fit somewhat loosely into the cutouts in the stock liner. By using the corresponding edges of the stock liner as guides, you can run the router up and down, cutting grooves in the areas that correspond to the front and rear edges of the recoil lugs. If you have a “double lugged” or “triple lugged” receiver, there will be additional cutouts in the stock to accommodate them. Rifles that have these features are usually already bedded. If they need bedding, treat these cutouts in the same manner as with the main lugs, providing channels for bedding compound that contacts these lugs only along their front and rear vertical outside edges.
Be particularly careful when grooving for the lugs that the contact areas are limited to the vertical surfaces on the lugs. If we apply any compound that prevents the receiver from being withdrawn vertically from the stock, we will prevent any possibility of disassembling the rifle, creating a “glue-in”. We need to take similar care to ensure that we don’t apply any compound in areas that might block the hooks on the trigger guard from withdrawing from engagement with the recoil lugs, or we will have created another reason for preventing rifle disassembly. Take a few minutes to assemble the trigger group to the receiver outside the stock, and study the action where the trigger guard locking ears engage the recoil lugs on the receiver. Play with it a bit, and study the areas inside the stock where all this activity takes place during rifle assembly and disassembly. Observe carefully where these areas are located, and make a mental note, in capital letters, to be sure to keep those areas free from bedding compound.
Let’s do a final review of our understanding about which portions of the bedding operation are intended to control which kinds of motion.
All vertical motion, when assembled. is controlled by the bedding on the upper flats of the stock, directly under the receiver flange, and by the bottom flats in the trigger and magazine well area, contacting the inside of the M1 magazine well cover, or the wings on the M14/M1A trigger housing.
All front-to-rear, and side-to-side motion is controlled by the bedding contacts with the front and rear vertical surfaces of the recoil lugs, preferably only along the outer vertical corners.
Any contacts that block the receiver and trigger housings from disengaging and being removed are to be avoided at all costs.
The next step in the process is to apply release agent to any and all areas of the metal parts that are even remotely likely to come in contact with bedding compound.
If you purchased a bedding kit, like the Accra-Glass kits put out by Brownell’s, there will be a container of release agent included. If not, the directions will make some suggestions about how to obtain this stuff. In a pinch, you can take a trip down to a plastics supplier and buy some mold release agent. It often goes by the names Vinyl Acetate or Polyvinyl Acetate release agent, and is exactly the same stuff you’ll find in the Brownell’s kits.
It is crucial that you use a reliable release agent, and that you allow the coats that you apply to dry completely. One of my older brothers tells me he always uses wax shoe polish as a release agent when he beds his bolt guns. That may be fine for him; I’ll stick to the stuff the manufacturer recommends or provides. Makes for fewer arguments over the phone when things don’t come apart like they should. I have been told that some bedding compounds can be softened by extended soaking in acid, like lemon juice, vinegar, and the like. I have also been told that bonds can be made to fail be placing the bonded objects in a freezer. I never had to try, and those are techniques I would prefer never to subject my Match Guns to.
I do, however, happen to own a wonderful shooting Winchester Model 70 in .30-’06 that has been permanently (and unintentionally) glued into the stock (by me, more’s the pity). So far, I’ve been able to clean inside with spray cleaner, and lube it with spray oils, but heaven help me if I ever have to repair or adjust something in the trigger group. I’ll have to buy a new stock, because the only way I’m going to get the present one off is with carpenter’s tools.
Use the proper release agent, and use it right.
In case you have any doubts about just how strong these epoxy resins are, let me tell you a little story. I tried to do an amateur job of reshaping the feed ramp on my Government Model 45ACP, and of course, I buggered it up beyond repair. I bought a new frame and spent a while refitting everything. Then, just for jollies, I tried to repair the old feed ramp with epoxy. I cut out a nice jagged pocket to receive the stuff, and filled it with some of that plumbers epoxy putty that comes in the plastic sleeves. It looked great, but shattered feeding the second round. I tried this three times, with always the same result. Then, one day, I spied some LokTite Epoxy Welding Alternative at the auto parts store. The blister pack said it had 16,000 pounds of shear strength. I reshaped the feed ramp with it, carving it with an Exacto Knife at the last minute before it set, matching it to the ramp on the new frame. Then I put it all together, and tried it out. I’ve put nearly 1500 rounds through it in the last three years, and the epoxy doesn’t even have a scratch to show for all those rounds. I later bought a builder’s kit from Sarco’s and built up a nice combat pistol on the newer frame and sold it for a reasonable profit. Those epoxies can be really tough. I still occasionally shoot matches with the repaired 45, and usually tend to forget there’s epoxy in there. I’m no great shakes with that 45, I perennially qualify as Sharpshooter, missing Expert by that same miserable single point, but it’s not the epoxy’s fault, that’s just old shaky me at the grips.
Back to the bedding bit. Pour some of the release agent into a shotglass. Take a medium sized, cheap brush and load it up good with the agent. Brush it well into the entire inside of the receiver, the bottom, up the outer sides, and all over the recoil lugs. Coat all the surfaces of the trigger housing and trigger guard that are even remotely likely to be in the general vicinity of the bedding compound. Clean up the brush, your hands, and any spills with rubbing alcohol. Let the agent dry completely. and apply at least two more coats in exactly to same manner, being sure to let each coat dry completely. Don’t rush this, if the agent isn’t dry it won’t work. Don’t be tempted to try thinning the agent with alcohol, it makes it less effective.
Clean out the areas of the stock well that will receive bedding compound with acetone, and/or rubbing alcohol, and allow these areas to dry completely.
Most of the articles I’ve read about bedding the M1 and the M14/M1A go to considerable length describing custom jigs and appliances for holding the barrel and stock in a precise alignment while the bedding compound cures. I’m not a machinist, and can’t afford to pay one to build up these dandy little items. So I examined the machinist’s drawings and the instructions for their use, and tried to figure out just what they were intended to accomplish. It appears that the horseshoe shaped appliance that positions the barrel in the front of the stock is intended to center the barrel laterally, and raise it just a tad higher than it would normally be when the rifle is assembled. This is to cause some upward tension in the barrel, pulling all the upward slack out of the engagement between the stock ferrule and the barrel band, thus eliminating any tendency toward barrel float. The other bent welding rod “U” shaped dohickey is used to position the trigger guard 1/4 inch short of full engagement, allowing the trigger guard to really crunch down that final bit of pressure and fully lock the receiver into the bedding.
I figured out how to do all those things with a wad of cleaning patches, some rubber bands or masking tape, and 15 or 20 cents worth of loose pocket change. I replace the horseshoe appliance with a stack of bore cleaning pads roughly 3/8 inch thick. I place the wad under the barrel about 2-4 inches back from the barrel band, nested between the barrel and the barrel channel, just before I lower the recoil lugs into the bedding compound. The intention here is to slightly flex the barrel, causing the cured compound in the recoil lug area to preload the barrel band upward against the stock ferrule. Experiment a bit before you apply the bedding compound, and find the right thickness of pads that allows you to apply a reasonable amount of upward pressure without causing the barrel to get a permanent kink. If you have to push the receiver down against the pressure about 1/8 inch to get it snug against the stock, that’s just about right. As for the coins, I take 3 or 4 nickels and place them between the tip of the trigger guard and the flat spot on the trigger housing that it engages into, creating the specified 1/4 inch gap between them. When everything is together, and any excess compound is wiped away, I wrap a couple of rubber bands or several tightly wrapped layers of masking tape around the whole receiver, stock and trigger guard, forcing the trigger guard into firm contact with the nickels.
Arrange all the bedding compound mixing paraphernalia where it can easily be reached. Get a roll of paper towels and tear a few off in advance. Take your prepared stack of bore patches, nickels, and rubber bands or masking tape, and put them where they can be also be easily reached. If it’s safe for your finish, open up the bottle of acetone and keep it handy but safe from spilling, otherwise skip the acetone completely for stock cleanup. You can still use acetone for cleaning your hands and utensils, etc. You want to get everything set up to allow you to move fast and smooth, once the compound is mixed. It might pay to rehearse the operations a few times, dryfire as it were, before you actually mate the resin components. It might help you prevent a few mixups before the big scramble begins.
Follow the compound mixing directions exactly, being sure to spend the entire time specified for mixing. Don’t take any shortcuts with the mixing. You don’t have to mix up the whole kit, two tablespoons or so is usually plenty for most rifles. Now, take one of the cake trimming bags and fold the top opening out and down until it’s inside out about half of the way down. Use the tongue depressor paddle and load all of the mixed compound down into the bottom end of the bag. Wipe off the paddle on a sheet of paper towel and clean it off with some acetone, if you intend to reuse it someday. Lift up the sides of the bag until they are straight, and start twisting the top end down to compact the compound into the tip and squeeze out any air trapped in the tip. Lay the bag aside on some paper towels. Recap and put away any remaining unmixed portions.
Take a few deep breaths, relax and get good and calm. Don’t try to rush, just remember not to waste too much time on anything insignificant. Remember that the compound has a limited working time. If we wait too long before spreading it on the wood, it won’t bond properly. The manufacturer’s instructions will give you a good idea about how much time you have to work with the mixed compound.
Ready? Let’s start.
Now study the areas where you will be applying the compound. You will start with the grooves you cut into the magazine well recoil lug areas. Apply the compound in an even bead, about 1/8 inch wide, along the two grooves in the rear of the magazine well, starting from about 1/4 inch up from the bottom, and extending up to about 1/4 inch from the top. In the front grooves, apply the compound in a similar bead extending from about 1/4 inch from the bottom, to nearly the top of the vertical groove, stopping before the well curves forward.
The compound is next applied to the area on the flat on the top of the stock. Fill any wells you cut and spread a very thin bead, about 1/16 inch high right down the center of the area between the scribe line and the inner edge of the flat. Put the cake decorator bag in a safe spot.
Pick up the stock and hold it upright and level, pointed butt toward you, and front away from you. Insert the wad of cleaning patches in the location you have chosen, and pick up the receiver/barrel group by the receiver, holding it upright and level. Push the stock ferrule into the barrel band, and slowly, carefully begin to seat the receiver into the stock. Squeeze the receiver against the pressure from the pads until it is flush with the stock and turn everything over, holding the receiver tight into the stock. Examine the magazine well carefully, looking for any excess compound that has extruded into areas that might block the receiver lugs from separating. Take a paper towel and wipe away the excess compound, finishing up with a paper towel that has been dampened in acetone.
Turn the stock over, holding it upright, continuing to squeeze the receiver flat and flush with the stock. Carefully wipe away any excess compound that may have squeezed out around the edges of the receiver. Finish up with a paper towel dampened with acetone. Turn the stock over upside down again and pick up the cake decorator bag. Apply a thin bead of compound along the lower flats of the magazine well, filling any router cuts and keeping well inside the scribe line. Apply some compound to the cuts in the flats at the rear trigger guard tang area of the trigger guard well of the stock, using just enough so it wells up just a little bit over flush with the surface of the flat.
Pick up the trigger housing, opening up the trigger guard completely, and carefully align it with the stock, so that all that is needed to insert it is a straight push inward. Insert the trigger housing and push it all the way down and seated, being especially careful to avoid getting any compound into the channels where the recoil lugs engage with the trigger housing. If any gets in there, immediately remove the trigger housing and clean out any compound that may be contaminating the engagement area. Be sure to finish off any cleaning with another paper towel dampened with acetone, trying to keep the acetone away from any areas coated with release agent. When the trigger housing is finally seated fully, close the trigger guard most of the way, stopping with about a 1/4 inch gap between the end of the trigger guard and the trigger housing. Take a paper towel and wipe away any excess compound that may have squeezed out around the edges of the magazine well cover, or the trigger housing wings on the M14/M1A. Finish off with a paper towel dampened in acetone. Insert several nickels to preserve the 1/4 inch gap and hold the trigger guard down firmly against the coins. Take some fairly stout rubber bands and slip them down from the barrel end until they bind the receiver, stock and trigger guard together firmly, holding the coins in place. Several layers of tightly wound masking tape will also work OK for this.
Place the rifle butt end down in the quietest corner of a room, and leave it there long enough for the compound to partially cure, but not harden beyond a rubbery consistency. For Brownell’s AccraGlass Gel, this is about eight hours. The compound cures slower below 72 degrees, and faster above this temperature. The reason we don’t allow the bedding compound to harden completely is so we can try to separate the parts while things are still soft. This is in case we goofed, and got some compound where it would block disassembly if it were fully hardened, or missed a spot with the release agent.
When you’re pretty sure the compound has cured to the soft rubber stage, pick up the rifle, remove the rubber bands, and slowly open up the trigger guard. Gently pull out the trigger housing, observing carefully to ensure that the bedding compound does not come away with the Magazine well cover. If the compound is still wet, or starts to peel away, stop and reassemble it back the way it was, and wait some more.
Once the trigger housing has been removed OK, slowly and gently remove the receiver from the stock, taking the same cautions as used when removing the trigger housing.
Examine the three assemblies. If there is any compound adhering to any of the metal parts, remove it gently with a sharp blade, and try rubbing out any small remaining traces with a paper towel and acetone. Acetone doesn’t usually work with cured compound, but it just may be soft enough for it still to work. In areas where the compound was sticking to the metal, clean up the area, and reapply some release agent. Check out the rest of the metal parts for peeled or missing release agent and reapply the agent where it’s needed. Allow the release agent to dry fully.
Look around inside the stock, paying particular care to the imprints left in the bedding compound. Trim out any excess blobs and sharp edges with a sharp blade, like an Exacto knife. Now is the time for trimming, this stuff can get as hard as glass when it’s fully cured. If you see places where the compound has pulled away from the stock and is missing, or gaps that weren’t completely filled, don’t panic. These areas can be repaired by reapplying compound in a second pass after the whole thing has cured up nice and hard. If you find areas where the compound is sagging and loose from the wood, trim them away with the blade. They can also be repaired later, after the main bedding areas have fully hardened.
Once you have the whole thing looking shipshape, gently reassemble the rifle, leaving the cleaning patches in place, and stand it back up in the corner for another couple of days.
If you find that the compound is not hardening up right, try applying some heat (gently, don’t roast it). If that doesn’t get it, you’ve probably got bad compound. Either it wasn’t mixed properly, or, more likely, it sat too long on the shelf before you bought it. I’ve had that happen to me. What I do is strip out the bad bedding, throw out the remains of the kit, buy a new (be sure it’s new) batch and start over.
By now, the compound should by quite hard, and nearly cured. Final curing is still going on a week later, but for now, it’s hard enough the handle normally, Wait out the full week before firing the rifle, just to be sure.
Carefully disassemble the rifle, and remove the cleaning patches. Clean off all the release agent. You can peel most of it off, then go after the rest with cloths and rubbing alcohol. Let everything dry off and check for any lingering agent. When it’s all off, the rifle will probably be completely devoid of any lubricating or preservative oil, as well; alcohol will do that. Completely oil and regrease wherever it is needed, and completely reassemble the whole rifle. Cycle the action a few times, paying attention for any binds that are new. If you find any, the bedding compound can be sanded down in the offending area. Find out now, rather than during the first relay of a Match. Once the week is up, that baby is ready for the range. Be prepared to sight in the rifle all over again, the zero will probably have shifted.
So, when we get to the range, what can we expect? Well, my M1 Garand regularly shoots groups that are 5 inches wide by 8 inches high off the rest at 300 yards using relatively inexpensive PMC Target factory ammo. This is just exactly what I was led to expect from it after accurizing according to the NRA American Rifleman’s M1 Rifle reprint, and I never did any of the recommended metalwork. I was right on the edge of breaking 400 for the first time with it this past year in the National Match Highpower Course. As for my Showroom stock Springfield Armory National Match Stainless Upgrade M1A, with an ART2 scope mount and a 8-25X40 Leupold, she shoots 2 inch groups at 300 yards, off the M2 bipod, with Sierra 175Gr. handloads copied directly out of Precision Shooting. It was the rekindling of an old love affair with the M14 that started for me back in Parris Island and I Corps, Vietnam, 1966. I was just a rear-echelon Engineer, but I loved that rifle. I fired Expert for the first time in my life with it at the Marine Corps League Pennsylvania State Service Rifle Championships this past September, shooting the course with over 275 other old Marines, cleaning the prone, and dropping one point in sitting. I will never understand why people insist on shooting the kneeling position. I guess that’s how them flexible young kids get over on us cunning old Jarheads. I met Jerry Kozuch there for the first time; I was doing his scoresheet on the relays while trying to keep dry during the squalls that kept blowing through while we were all firing. He looked vaguely familiar, then I suddenly realized that I had just finished reading about him and the Marine Distinguished Shooters Association in Precision Shooting. We had a long and pleasant chat, and I’d love to run into him again, someday. The world does indeed get smaller with each passing day, especially for us old Jarheads.
The first rifle I ever glassbedded, believe it or not, was a little old cheapo Chinese SKS. I bought the AccraGlass Gel kit, read the instructions, took a couple of wild guesses about where the compound should go, and had at it. A week later, that little dinger was shooting 1 1/2-2 inch groups off the rest at 100 yards, using cheapo Norinco Military Ball ammo. Made a believer out of me. I shot that little rifle in my first Highpower Matches, and earned my delightfully neat prewar DCM Garand that way. It’s a Springfield Armory M1 with the serial number in the 75XXX range. It shoots pretty much to the National Match Specs, better with handloads. I mostly keep it on the wall, now that I have the Springfield Armory National Match M1A Stainless Upgrade to shoot. I figured out that between the price of the SKS and the $215 the DCM charged me for the M1, the overall cost was still less than what I would have paid for a so-so Garand at Sarco’s. That little SKS shot pretty much even with the Garands all the way out to 300 yards. I gave it to my son-in-law, and it still shoots great for him, too. It cost me $8.00 for the AccraGlass Gel kit, and I bedded three more rifles with that kit before it ran out.
In our Marine Corps League Detachment, I do the Shooting Team Captain chores. Most of us now own M1’s and M1A’s. I can remember about six months ago when we had a “bedding bee”. We set everything up, prepped all the rifles, one guy doing the routing, another the release agent, and another mixing and laying out things; all of us just trusting our Marine brothers to get it right. We ended up doing an M1A and 2 M1’s in one shot. Everything worked out just dandy. The whole process took about an hour, and we didn’t even use up the whole AccraGlass Gel kit, either.
I guess the hardest part of bedding your first rifle is just getting up enough courage to try it in the first place. Having some friends along helps, too.
Semper Fi;
Greg (Joisey Gyrene) Langelius
OK, a coupla updates:
The article's document file has a creation date of January 1998. It appeared in one of the initial issues of <span style="font-style: italic">Tactical Shooter</span>. Apparently in those days they were so starved for copy they'd publish <span style="font-style: italic">anyone's</span> work.
Time flies, and in that time, I have moved to Central NY. and a good friend has remedied my M70 glue-in issue for me.
