Cutting Bedding-Pillar Holes With Precision

Recently, as I was installing Charley Robertson’s "Score High" Adjustable Bedding Pillars High Gunsmithing I once again found e, neat, well-aligned holes can be a challenge. I decided there must be a better way to drill a perfectly aligned, clean-cut stock hole. In the past, I’ve always placed the stock in the padded jaws of my mill vise, and drilled down through the existing guard screw holes as best I could.

I’ve used a four-fluted end mill with good success, but achieving perfect alignment is a tedious job’and I cringe at the thought of using a spade bit. Yet, despite my best efforts, many of these holes were somewhat misaligned. Sure, there is some margin for error taken up by the pillar bonding material, but there is precious little room for error when drilling the tang hole in most actions. The wood is thin, and with the slightest slip the hole can really get messed up.

Basically the hole must be precisely in alignment with the action screws, with minimal clearance between the pillar and stock hole wall. This is particularly true of the stock tang area, where there remains but a thin shell of wood after drilling even a wellaligned, perfectly cut hole. Here the remaining wood serves as the required form to hold the pillar bonding material as it cures, keeping it from running all over. In my experience, doing one bedding pillar at a time allows me to do a better job.

I prefer to do a good job at the front recoil-lug area first. This can then serve as a perfect stabilizer as the rear tang area is bedded to perfection. It may take a Top of page: This is the countersink with endthreaded pilot used by the author for cutting bedding-pillar holes with precision. Note the short threaded section of pilot which screws into the action while the piloted countersink is used. little longer to bed the rifle, but the end result is worth the extra effort.

In the past, I’ve used an over-length screw through the stock into the ac-

tion tang to get a true visual alignment of things before cutting the hole with an end mill. I’ve used this method to sight align the end mill with the screw with pretty good success. But placing the stock in a mill vise isn’t always a pleasant task or totally effective. Then, one day, as I viewed the over-length alignment screw extending through the stock hole, I got the idea to use a countersink with a pilot as a guide while drilling the hole.

I already had a 5/8-inch countersink with a 3/16inch through-hole for the pilot. All I needed was a pilot of this size with a 1/4-28 stub thread to screw into the action tang or front action screw hole. So I turned a 3-inch, 1/4-28 bolt down to 3/16-inch diameter, leaving a 1/4- Precision work was made possible with the aid of special pilot and countersink. Above center: A bedding-pillar hole is being cut in a 40X Remington stock with the pilot inside the countersink.

With the stock held in a padded vise, any power drill can be used for this operation. inch length of threaded end. Then, with the barreled action bolted into the stock with the front action screw, I screwed the new tang pilot into place. After this, it was a simple matter of chucking the countersink into a handheld power drill and using the new pilot as a guide. The stock hole was drilled in perfect alignment without a flaw. (continued on page 21)

AGARAD4 Armorer’s Course Spread Ad, AMG Version (pick up from 5/04 issue)

AGARAD4 Armorer’s Course Spread Ad, AMG Version (pick up from 5/04 issue)

While drilling the hole, it is best to advance the countersink slowly, withdraw it a few times, and blow the wood chips and dust from the hole. As you approach the tang, be careful to avoid scratching the action metal with the countersink. Atrick I use here is to place a thin piece of shim stock, with a small hole cut in it for the countersink guide screw, between the action tang and stock. You can easily tell when the cutting edges of the countersink make light contact with the metal.

Conclusion Any way you look at it, the countersink guide screw takes all the guesswork out of drilling a neat, wellaligned hole for pillar bedding. And chances are, after using this method, you wouldn’t cut a bedding-pillar hole any other way. I know I wouldn’t. Errata In the July 04 issue, in the article titled "New Life for Remington 11-48 Shotguns," the wrong drawing was shown as Figure 3. The correct drawing is shown here, and is accompanied by your editor’s sincere apologies for the inconvenience. Figure 3. I