Thanks. Just trying to help. No expert here, but I've done a half-dozen or so, learned from my mistakes.
I've bedded a couple of rifles with JB, but as you've seen it's a bit lacking in consistency. Makes it tough to get it on vertical surfaces, and have it stay there long enough before getting the action seated.
Hey- if your groups tightened up to where you're happy with them, don't screw with it. If not, I would grind out the area behind the recoil lug.
Don't be afraid of removing too much wood-especially behind the recoil lug. This area is critical. At least 1/8"- 1/4" of epoxy is fine here. Too thin, it will be unable to absorb the stress and will crack.
As recoil stress is induced into the action, ALL of it goes into that lug. Any gap, between the wood, and the lug, results in movement- which is what we don't want.
You would grind out the wood directly behind the lug- make a big azz hole- that part doesn't have to be pretty, as the epoxy will fill it all. Place two pieces (layers) of blue, painter's masking tape on the front, and the sides, of the lug. NONE on the rear. Leaving the thickness of the tape on the front and rear will leave just enough play to get the action out of the stock. Now, the rear of the recoil lug will be firmly in contact with the epoxy bed, and unable to move rearward under recoil.
I don't know what you used for release agent, but a tin of Kiwi (neutral color) shoe polish for five bucks at K-Mart will last you forever...
Installing pillars is, really, at least as important as the bedding job- especially for wood stocks. When you tighten the action screws, you're compressing the
wood- and the wood will also change dimensionally in response to temperature and humidity. When you install pillars, you're tightening steel to steel- and this results in much greater consistency.
I just made this one from scratch, bedded the action, and used the pillars from the factory stock (7mm-.08). One hole at 100
Happy shooting!
