Rifle Bedding
Bed your rifle at GunCraft in Cape Town. Our gunsmiths have years of experience bedding rifles and recommend that all rifle stocks be bedded for added consistency.
What is Bedding?
Bedding is when a rifle stock is perfectly molded onto the rifle action and barrel knox. This ensures the action is supported all over and has a glove-like fit into the stock. Bedding is the foundation in the rifle stock where the rifle action will sit on.
Benefits of rifle bedding
- Increases accuracy.
- Prolongs rifle stock life.
- Relieves rifle action of unnecessary stresses.
How it's done
At GunCraft you can choose from 2 types of bedding:
- Aluminum block bedding
- Glass bedding
Aluminum block bedding
When we do aluminum block bedding we machine away parts of the stock to make space for a block of aluminum pre-machined to fit the action perfectly.
All parts of the action are coated with a release agent to ensure it will come out after the epoxy adhesive has set, but the aluminum block is permanently glued into the stock.
This is done in the front and back of the action depending on the locations of the action screws and critical surfaces. Other custom actions will be bedded on one continues block of aluminum.
We use Epidermix 372 epoxy adhesive when we do bedding because of it's perfect viscosity, almost no shrink factor and high strength properties.
Aluminum block bedding is more expensive than the traditional glass bedding. At GunCraft we recommend the aluminum block method because it is much stronger.
Glass Bedding
When we do glass bedding we fill all the cavities in the stock with epoxy adhesive and then install the action into the stock.
The action has been coated with a release agent to ensure it can be removed again after the epoxy adhesive has set.
After the epoxy has hardened we remove the action and clean up all the unwanted leftover epoxy.
We use Epidermix 372 epoxy adhesive when we do bedding because of it's perfect viscosity, almost no shrink factor and high strength properties.
In the case of a synthetic rifle stock we will machine grooves and holes into the stock to give the epoxy adhesive maximum grip and to ensure it does not chip out.
With any bedding job we do at GunCraft the barrel channel will be free-floated. It is of extreme importance for accuracy that the barrel does not touch the stock.
At GunCraft we bed the parallel part of the knox approx 50mm for added support, and the rest is free-floated.