Fiberglass bedded M-1 care

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Citadel99

New member
Hey,

I've got a M-1 with a great fiberglass bedding job on the stock I shoot with. It's virtually invisible to an inspection. Herein lies my question: Does the bedding wear away as I break down the rifle? If so, should I just clean it as best as I can completely assembled? Let me know what you think.

Mark
 
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swampyMO

New member
citadel,

Conventional wisdom among Highpower shooters is to break the action of a bedded M1 or M14 from the stock absolutely as seldom as possible. This is to preserve the "tightness" of the bedding.

Some will say they take the rifle apart only at the end of each shooting season for a thorough cleaning.

Others say they will NEVER break the rifle down until the barrel is shot out and needs to be replaced. At that time the bedding will get a touch up as needed.

Routine cleaning involves doing everything you can without removing the action from wood. M1 & M14's have to be cleaned from the muzzle anyway, so no big loss in not being able to remove the bolt. The inside of the action can be cleaned from the bottom just by removing the trigger group. Lubing can be accomplished with oil and grease on a cotton swab.

I just recently had a Match M1 built up on an old IHC I received from the CMP. Maintenance is a bit more difficult with it but not so bad as you'd think.

You can see my beautiful new Match M1 and how it shoots at: www.swampworks.com/SwampysStuff-Home.html

Best regards,
Swampy
 
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1911Fencer

New member
The general theory with the M1 (bedded or not) is that the more you take it down, the looser it gets. In general, you do not need to completely strip the rifle and detail clean all the time. Cleaning the bore is the most important part. You can clean the bolt raceways without dissasembling, and you can also clean the gas cylinder without dissasembly, too. That's about all you need to do habitually. If you shoot a lot, the above cleaning will be fine for after shooting. Every couple months, a detail strip and clean might be needed. Remember lube when you do that, GREASE, not oil!

Happy shooting!
 
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Dave3006

New member
How do you clean the carbon build up on the op rod if you can not disassemble the rifle? Does the build up cause a problem?
 
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1911Fencer

New member
Dave, that's not something you need to do very often, however, if you just open the bolt, and take out the gas plug, you have access to the gas cylinder. You could probably remove the gas cylinder and thus have access to the oprod end to clean it. You don't have to take the receiver out of the buttstock then, but you risk loosening up the forward handgaurd.

Cleaning the carbon deposits out of the gas cylinder and off of the oprod is something you'd only need to do occasionally.
 
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Citadel99

New member
Thanks for the info. It's great to get some input from others. I'll refrain from breaking it down unless absolutely necessary.

Mark
 
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