Knight DISC Extreme Bedding

Some time ago a hunter brought to me a Knight Rifles DISC Extreme muzzleloader that was troublesome. The 209 shotgun primers were showing erratic ignition. This was traced to faulty primer percussion and corrected by reworking the firing pin nose tip. The same muzzleloading rifle was also producing double groups with vertical shot stringing. Such problems can often be traced to poor action and/or barrel bedding. Close inspection of the targets brought in with the rifle strongly suggested this.

The barrel fit loosely in the forend with uneven bind along the sides. This prevented the barrel from settling uniformly into the stock channel shot-to-shot. There is but one action bedding hold-down screw with none at the rear, as typically used on similar actions. This tends to cause greater downward pull of the barrel to the front. The entire stock forend was channeled out as a place for the ramrod. This condition was pointed out to the owner and a remedial course of action was discussed.

Bedding Procedure Analysis The action is held in the stock on the Knight DISC Extreme muzzleloaders by a single 1/4-20 bolt threaded directly into the recoil lug. The recoil lug is welded to the barrel 4 1/4 inches forward of the rearward part of the receiver. Absence of a rear receiver holddown bolt tends to produce a weaker bedding system. This is particularly true where a free-floating barrel in the stock forend channel is planned, as was the case here.

A channel cut out for the ramrod its entire length didn’t really help matters either. Close measurements of the stock and action showed that a 4 3/4-inch span of bedding central to the recoil lug would provide a sufficiently solid action bedding resulting in a totally free-floating barrel in the process. This would provide a full 7 3/4 receiver bedding span with 2 1/2-inch laterally positional support pillars forward of the single action bedding screw. Strong enough.

Performing The Work I chose Brownells Steel Bed as bedding material. This is the most durable bedding medium that I have used in solidly bedding scores of rifles and pillar beds. It creates bedding that is virtually as strong as steel, as the name implies. I removed a thin layer of stock wood in all areas where Steel Bed would be applied. Ample release agent needs to be applied to the action where contact with Steel Bed is present.

A 1/8 inch spacer is attached to the barrel near the stock forend tip as a means of elevating the barrel while installing Steel Bed. This elevates the barrel at the front providing ideal free floating. Following installation of bedding material the barreled action is precisely lowered into the stock. The stock is held in a padded vise at this time. The action screw is then used to draw the action into the stock. Here we

This area of support along with the integral rearward bedding provide very solid bedding. Bedding support wings are bifurcated to make room for the ramrod. want to draw both the entire action into the stock, including its contact with remaining wood at the rear and the newly applied bedding material. Don’t over tighten the stock screw as it is slowly torqued, evenly dis- Rifle target at left shows erratic accuracy on shots one through five. The post bedding target shows two 50-yard groups with very good accuracy.

Proper action bedding along with a free-floating barrel commonly solves accuracy problem in a number of bolt action-style rifles. Far tributing the bedding material. Remove all bedding material that may ooze out along the barrel channel. I normally apply masking tape here which can be removed as the bedding is cleaned up. Allow at least five hours for the bedding to set up at room temperature, at which time I normally remove the action from the stock. The bedding material can then be trimmed, if required.

Later it will be fully as hard as steel. Following preliminary clean up, replace the barreled action to the stock and allow it to set for a full 24 hours. The barreled action can then be removed from its bed and the bed further cleaned up, if needed. The barrel-to-stock forend spacer can be removed to test for barrel clearance with the stock.

There should be sufficient barrel clearance so the weight of the horizontal barrel allows at least the thickness of a dollar bill to be slid between stock and barrel with the action screw fully torqued. Target Testing For testing, I returned the rifle to its owner who had all the paraphernalia for testing muzzleloaders. A most positive report ensued. The annoying vertical group stringing immediately disappeared. Groups were around minute of angle at 200 yards, which is good for a muzzleloader in this class.

The right decision was made as a measure to alleviate the erratic accuracy problems. AG