Rifle stock question

[Mity2]

When you look in to any long gun(and aftermarket replacement stock), some would mention features like "fully inletted", "bedding pillar", "glass bedding".

I know that rifle barrel should not touch anything(free float) for accuracy, but donno anything about mentioned above.

Can someone educate me, since I'm in market for replacement stock for my 10/22?


Thanks in advance

[IronButt]

Basically, glass bedding involves removing some of the wood from the forend of the stock under the barrel & lining it with fiberglass. This prevents the wood from absorbing moisture (or loosing it), which moves the barrel & changes the point of impact everytime the weather changes. You usually do this to a sporting rifle to make it more consistent.

Pillar bedding accomplishes the same thing, but an aluminum block is fitted into the fore end of the stock, & the barrel rides on the pillar. I feel this is a better method of free floating a barrel, but it's usually only seen on aftermarket stocks.

When either method is done properly, the barrel is not touching the stock at any point except where it's attached. The barrel is "free floating."

Fully inletted just a fancy way of saying that the stock is properly fitted to the receiver/barrel.

[Bama Man]

Basically, glass bedding involves removing some of the wood from the forend of the stock under the barrel & lining it with fiberglass. This prevents the wood from absorbing moisture (or loosing it), which moves the barrel & changes the point of impact everytime the weather changes. You usually do this to a sporting rifle to make it more consistent.

Pillar bedding accomplishes the same thing, but an aluminum block is fitted into the fore end of the stock, & the barrel rides on the pillar. I feel this is a better method of free floating a barrel, but it's usually only seen on aftermarket stocks.

When either method is done properly, the barrel is not touching the stock at any point except where it's attached. The barrel is "free floating."

Fully inletted just a fancy way of saying that the stock is properly fitted to the receiver/barrel.

I glass bed barrels, but only bed the barrel end of the reciever and the free float the rest of the barrel, leaving enough space beneath the barrel to slide a dollar bill.
Pillar bedding is done by opening the hole through which the receiver screws go, and then using a "pillar" or a piece of hollow tubing through which the screws will go through that spaces the receiver and floor plate at the correct distance EVERTIME the receiver is tightened into the stock.
This should be done when your preparing to glass bed the receiver so that it is all accomplished at one time.
Mausers don't need this done at the front screw, as the recoil lug generally should lock into the floorplate already.
Most aftermarket stocks are 90% inletted, which means that a small amount of wood still needs to be removed for a very clean "like it grew there" fitting of metal to wood.
100% or fully inletted means that enough wood has been removed that the metal parts will drop right into the stock with no further work.
Fully inletted stocks are generally molded or nylon type stocks, and are not seen a lot with custom wood aftermarket stocks.
Fo a tactical or foul weather hunting stock, go with a fully inletted nylon stock and carve out a tad more material around the front of the receiver and bed the receiver and chamber area with Brownell's Acraglass system gel.
Pillar bed if your going for a tactical or target /benchrest rifle.
There are many books out there to help with this.

[Tomcat088]

Basically, glass bedding involves removing some of the wood from the forend of the stock under the barrel & lining it with fiberglass. This prevents the wood from absorbing moisture (or loosing it), which moves the barrel & changes the point of impact everytime the weather changes. You usually do this to a sporting rifle to make it more consistent.

Pillar bedding accomplishes the same thing, but an aluminum block is fitted into the fore end of the stock, & the barrel rides on the pillar. I feel this is a better method of free floating a barrel, but it's usually only seen on aftermarket stocks.

When either method is done properly, the barrel is not touching the stock at any point except where it's attached. The barrel is "free floating."

Fully inletted just a fancy way of saying that the stock is properly fitted to the receiver/barrel.

There's a bit of misinformation in this post that I wanted to clear up. When a rifle is "glass bedded" it's not filled in with "fiberglass". It can be filled in with lots of things, but it's usually some type of epoxy that hardens, and somtimes contains ground up glass or fiber to make it more rigid; but it's not really "fiberglass". It should also be noted that glass bedding an action doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the wood absorbing or losing water; although back in the day that was a big "theory" as to why to do it. Glass bedding isn't done only on sporting rifles anymore, but pretty much ANY rifle that you want to shoot more consistently.

While it's true that some woods will swell or shift with moisture, it's not usually much (especially not at most people's ranges they shoot at). If this was the only reason for glass bedding a rifle, there would be NO reason to glass bed synthetic stocks, and they get glass bedded all the time. Glass bedding causes a PERFECT fit (if bedded properly), between the stock and the receiver/recoil lug. Typically the recoil lug inlet is slightly larger than the recoil lug, so that it can drop in and fit properly. This means there's some "wiggle room" and that the stock doesn't always sit the same way in the stock. Sometimes the barrel will touch one side of the stock or the other, sometimes not at all; just because of how you lay it in the stock and move it around before you screw down the action screws. So it's a way to fill in any excess area around the recoil lug, action, etc so that the action sits EXACTLY the same way in the stock, remains free floated, and is more consistent. When trying to get an accurate rifle, consistency is EVERYTHING. It's pretty much all about fit.

Pillar bedding to an extent accomplishes the same thing, but it's still NOT. Pillar bedding is what Bama man said it is, you drill out the action screw holes and fill them in with a metal pillar. It allows for a consistent and more sturdy mount for the action to the stock, BUT it can still move around a fair bit. Typically when someone has a rifle pillar bedded, they ALSO glass bed it; rarely will someone pillar bed a rifle, and not have it glass bedded as well. "Pillar bedding" has nothing to do with a "block" being fitted into the fore end of the stock. That is even a different process that is usually called a "bedding block". Instead of just installing pillars, an aluminum block is milled so that the action can sit inside of it. Lots of synthetic stocks like HS Precision and Bell & Carlson come with aluminum bedding blocks made into the stock (not added in later), because the aluminum holds up a bit better than just the carbon fiber. The block is usually still inletted a bit too big, and my Bell & Carlson stock that has an aluminum bedding block is also glass bedded.

All the other information is correct about "inletting". A 100% inlet just means that so much material is removed so that you can "drop in" the action and barrel. There are some other threads in here about "bedding" and different methods of doing so. If you can't find them, I'll be happy to post up some links. I'm not trying to pick a fight, but did want to clear up a slight bit of misinformation.

[Bama Man]

Thanks for the added info Tomcat.
As soon as I hit "enter" I realized that I should have explained better about pillar bedding, and that the pillar needs to be bedded in glass to make it keep from moving any. It not only keeps the floor plate and receiver at the same distance everytime, but also helps the receiver stay stable during recoil and reduce it's flexing.
Another thing that will help stiffen up an action is a one piece scope base. I prefer either a Leopold or Redfield type, staying away from Weaver mounts.
Weaver isn't bad, I just prefer the others.
Anything you can do to stiffen things up during recoil will help with consistancy of bullet placement.
Bottom line though, is that the rifle is only as good as the shooter.

[Suburban]

10/22 Stock Bedding

In my experience, "glass bedding" like that improved consistency quite a bit. On a good day, with the right technique and ammo, my all-out target 10/22 will shoot 1/4" groups at 50 yards.

I have a Volquartsen pillar in the stock also. The pillar and forend pressure pads that come with it didn't seem to do anything. I kept the pillar and chucked the pads in the trash.

[Bama Man]

I spent the morning at my gunsmith friend's shop preparing a factory wood stock on a Remington 700 to be glass bedded tomorrow morning.
I cleaned out the barrel channel to free float it, and was very surprised to find that, as I cleaned out the wood, the stock kept moving further to the right in the channel.
In other words, as I cleaned out more wood, the barrel touched the left side of the barrel, and kept getting further away from the right side of the barrel.
The rifle was just rebarreled with a heavier contour in .270 Rem. from an original .270 Rem. It never fired well, and wouldn't keep a group.
We determined that, although the stock was fitted very well originally, over time the grain dried, and "pulled" the stock to the right.
I was finally able to get it to "free float", and I may bed the entire barrel trough, then free float it again to get a better, closer fit. It will be up to the owner although it doesn't look bad right now, and I can slide a dollar bill down the length of the barrel between the wood and the steel.
I have bought wood blanks before to inlet and make stocks, and, if the wood wasn't purchased in my area, it had to be "dried" or acclamated to my area a year or so before trying to carve it into a stock.
I have one in my basement I have been working on for a year right now. I have the shape carved, but will not start with inletting for a couple of months yet.
It is true that bedding a barrel the length of the barrel trough will not really help much, as Tomcat pointed out.
On a hunting rifle it will help some in inclimate weather, by nothing beats bedding the recoil lug, receiver front, and chamber area and then free floating the rest of the barrel trough.
The free float should be checked annually also, prior to hunting or range work, just to make sure that the wood hasn't "moved" or warped on you.