Add Glass Bedding to Your Stock, and Get an Accuracy Bonus

Glass bedding, also known as rifle bedding, acts as a medium to mate a rifle’s action directly to the stock with much tighter tolerances than any factory can accomplish.

The recoil from a shot has enough force that it can jar the action, causing a little movement where the action meets the stock. This movement leads to inaccuracy and can also wear the stock over time.

What we do is bed the action with a combination of fiber and epoxy, the same stuff that car bumpers are made from. The result is that the action has no room to wiggle around after a shot. This means that your stock won’t wear and become looser over time. It also means that you are taking one more variable out of the accuracy equation.

Stocks can be bedded in different ways. You can choose to bed the action and leave the barrel free-floating, the most common option. We can also bed part of the bore near the action, or dampen it to reduce harmonics in the tube.

Another possibility is pillar bedding, which essentially free-floats the action, as well as the barrel.

Depending on the weapon, the type of bedding you want, and the result you are looking for, this service can run anywhere from $150 to $350.

The Process

Bedding a rifle action isn’t easy. Anyone who has done any kind of fiberglass work can attest to the sticky mess of results that can happen when done improperly.

We start by completely removing the action from the rifle, and all of the screw holes are plugged to ensure that there is no chance of invasion and clogging later. We also mask the action, and any part of the mechanical side, to ensure it doesn’t stick.

This masking is a crucial step, and must be done in such a way that when the job is done, the action rests in the bedding comfortably with the tightest possible tolerances. If something sticks, then the firearm will be ruined, so making sure this part is done correctly is essential.

The bedding is laid down with it’s binder, and the stock is again mated to the (now coated) receiver. Everything is clamped in place carefully, and the binder is left to cure.

Once the bedding sets up, we strip the weapon again, clean everything up, and do some final polishing and trimming on the new bedding, to ensure a clean fit and finish. Your rifle will look the same when you get it back as when it arrived. We are simply removing the inherent slop.

Accuracy

You will notice the difference, especially if you are a competition shooter. Groups get smaller, and there is less drift from shot to shot or over time. All of the functional pieces and fittings remain perfectly usable.

Competition users bed their rifles, and if you want the most accuracy, you don’t have to buy a custom firearm. Proper bedding will make any rifle more accurate, from a cheap Remington 700 to a ragged out AK 47.

Considerations

A bad bedding job can actually be worse than leaving the rifle alone. Not following the curing guidelines, and trying to rush the job can have disastrous consequences. This isn’t a method of “gluing” your stock to the action. Everything should work just the way it did before the process began.

That’s why it’s important to have a competent gunsmith do the job. Just because someone owns a gun shop, doesn’t mean that they know how to do every gunsmithing job. Our guys have been doing this for a long time, and they know how to get it done right. If something is taking a little longer, we’ll tell you, but we aren’t going to risk harm to your rifle to try and get something done quickly. We do it right. The first time. Every time.