Bedding my Tikka M595.

[Big Al]

This long range shooting mullarkey is really taking a grip of me, so much so Ive ordered a Boyd's thumbhole stock for my rifle. I have this stock on a couple of CZ's in .22lr and .17hmr and I think its a far more comfortable design than the standard factory stock. I feel that the vertical pistol grip gives me a more comfortable trigger position and that helps in maintaining consistent trigger pulls.

 

So the question then arises, if Im going to the trouble of a new stock should I also go to the trouble of bedding it?

 

If so then should I bed the action, the pillars or both?

 

I wonder how much difference this makes to accuracy and would I notice it?

 

Would I be right in saying that the pillar bedding is to give a consistent means to torque the action into the stock and that the action bedding is to give a better fit of the action into the stock?

 

Do people do one without the other? if so which gives the biggest improvement? I would plan to do the work myself.

[pork chop]

all my rifles are bedded ,that's just the way i like it.it may make them more accurate but it usually makes them more consistent if you know what i mean.do a search as there was a good post on the 595 ,looks like an easy action to do

[gbal]

all my rifles are bedded ,that's just the way i like it.it may make them more accurate but it usually makes them more consistent if you know what i mean.bo a search as there was a good post on the 595 ,looks like an easy action to do

+1 .Once a rifle is shooting .2 moa or thereabouts,it's reached the effective limits of it's/your precision.For some it will be .5 ish etc.

Proper bedding will not make it worse,but as Pork Chop says,it should improve consistency esp if there have been 'flyers''.

It's also a 'feel more confident' factor (or one less excuse,if you are brutally honest).

 

Al,it will cost more than the Boyd's stock,probably,done professionally.....

g

[Big Al]

Thanks for the input so far guys.

 

Cost isnt an issue as Im more than competent to do it myself. I am in a position to be able to turn my own pillars and mill out the stock using a vertical mill. I have experience of working with carbon fiber/resins so I dont expect the bedding epoxy will be too complicated.

 

The main reason for asking was so that I could try and understand what the benefits are and how people have arrived at these, in other words what does action bedding and pillar bedding actually do to improve accuracy?

 

The rifle has already shot sub 1/4 MOA very recently with home loads. If I cange the stock and it still shoots the same then what if anything would be gained from the work? I dont mind doing the work but equally if its doesnt improve things I would rather spend the time elsewhere.

 

Ive settled on one home load so far which is 40gr vmax in front of 23.8gr of N133 with Remington 7.5 bench rest primers and my once used Hornady brass. Seeing this kind of accuracy at 100yds has really got me motivated to make my rifle the best I can so as to rule out the tools and let me concentrate on the workman!

 

[gbal]

Al,very few rifles will consistently shoot 1/4moa-though that is a decent benchmark for Benchrest Rifles at 100y-the podium is in reach,and the top of the podium only a few thou' away.

As I've suggested elsewhere, check your rifle for consistent good condition performance-lots of .25s,no .45s. If that is the data,it's doubtful that you can improve that platform at all.Or need to.

You might be better to put serious stock/upgrade money into an intrinsically 'better' action/barrel etc-but there is no guarantee of anything better than consistent 1/4 moa,over say 5x5 groups (just to use the Bench Rest format at,since you can then compare with vast competition data,almost all 6mm/.243 of course.

But if it ain't broke,don't fix it. There are actually remarkable few direct controlled tests on restocking etc-because you'd need hundreds of rifles to do it;but accumulated experience does eventually approximate proper experimentation,and thousands of groups shot allow some general conclusions-good barrels/stocks/bullets etc do shoot better....even if you need a good micrometer to measure it reliably!

There is little doubt that eg in bench Rest,the custom numbers beat the factory numbers (see results on here) at around a steady 1/4 moa to a more variable 1/2 moa.Statistically highly significant,but at a price-and probably more important,staring with silk anyhow,rather than pig's ear. ie custom barrel.

Gbal

[Big Al]

OK, thanks George.

 

I accept this was only a single 3 shot group as I had only loaded 3's of varying powder loads, however it was better but only marginally than I have shot with 55gr vmax factory stuff. Im not really interested in 100yd benchrest but I can see that is would be a useful yardstick, my thinking is if it will group tightly at 100 Ive got a better chance of it grouping decently at 300.

 

It seems bedding is the way to go when your looking to make things the best they can be, even if it doesnt have a significantly positive effect Im assuming its unlikely to have a negative one either if done well?