An Experiment in Rimfire Bedding

Rimfire bolt action rifles, lever action, pump action and self loading rifles. Air rifles.

An Experiment in Rimfire Bedding

Post by Josh Smith » 08 Jun 2026, 3:43 am

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.

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

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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:

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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
Josh Smith
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Re: An Experiment in Rimfire Bedding

Post by No1_49er » 08 Jun 2026, 6:31 am

Not too sure about your image hosting service, but all that I can see is a request to "Upgrade to Premium". I'm not going to be doing that.
Proud member of "the powerful gun lobby" of Australia :)
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Re: An Experiment in Rimfire Bedding

Post by Wapiti » 08 Jun 2026, 7:04 am

Yes mate, just upload the pics to the site directly, we would be very interested in what you're describing but cannot see it.
"The only way to avoid criticism is to do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing."
Aristotle.
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AKA Dr. Doolittle
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