👍An Experiment in Rimfire Bedding

For various reasons I don't want to glass bed my Savage MkII. I'm not sure I'll stick with this stock, and, in my work with Mosins, I find that minimal receiver to stock contact provides the best repeatability. I'm experimenting to see if that'll carry over to rimfire; I think it should.

https://i.postimg.cc/wMNCQykm/Savage-Mk-II-800px.jpg

Self-locking pillars are, from what I can tell, my own invention. They should provide the rigidity of epoxy-secured pillars without the epoxy.

https://i.postimg.cc/9fGwKJFx/1-front-and-rear.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/cL3vtXYv/2-rear.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/dQS3WzjZ/3-front.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/SKqx2qkT/4-front-bottom.jpg
They're made of two parts, allowing the pillars to clamp to the wood when the action screws are tightened. Length sizing is critical so as to clamp the wood without crushing it.


As critical as securing horizontal movement is securing vertical movement. On centerfire rifles, I do this by shimming the vertical surface of the recoil lug crossbolt to ensure firm contact with the recoil lug.

The Savage MkII has no recoil lug, so I used the rearmost nut which happens to secure the trigger housing to the receiver:

https://i.postimg.cc/HWKW0bTF/5-rear-shim.jpg
This little bit of shim stock provides a nice, tight fit.

This design has been an evolution, applying lessons I've learned from playing with Mosins and M.95s and modifying them a bit for this application. I think this is its final form, but maybe not. We'll see.

Regards,

Josh