Thread: Pillar bedding

Originally Posted by ebf

Interested to hear some views on what you use for pillar bedding

Do you prefer pillars with a concave top ?

Do you have the tops of the pillars bare and flush with the action, or slightly lower and covered with epoxy ?

What do you use to make pillars ? Alu, stainless, which grades ?

Any other lessons learnt or tips you want to pass on ?

I should point out that pillar bedding is only needed on soft wood stocks (eg; beech, American walnut) to prevent wood compression which can cause the action screws to loosen up. English/European walnut (juglans regia) is usually OK with just standard bedding. Synthetic stocks generally do not benefit from pillar bedding, except for those that have foam cores. Most plastic synthetic stocks show an accuracy improvement with standard bedding when the first 2-3" of the barrel are supported and floated from there forward. Dams need to be used to prevent wasting bedding compound in the fore-end cavity.