Bedding screws

Just have a Question for you guys about bedding screws.

How tight should the rear screw be? A freind says the rear screw shouldnt be very tight as this torques the action, does this make sense to guys? I tighten all screws as tight as possible, and dont seem to have any issues. What is everyones experience with this?

Regards Chris

Hi Clock,

8 shots that's my understanding as well, that's why I tighten both the front and rear screws the same. The action can't bend if it's on a flat surface.

Regards Chris

I'm a little confused whether you mean action screws or bedding screws. As I've used them, bedding screws are headless screws (I've just cut the heads off 3" screws) like this:



While the rifle is being bedded, they're just meant to be used for alignment. The action and stock are not meant to be tightened together much. Otherwise the bedding compound will just ooze out and stress will be induced. When I've bedded rifles, I've just rolled tape around the barrel up on the forend of the stock until there's enough thickness to have the action resting on the end of the tang.

As for action screws, you don't want to overdo it. The most I've heard for any stock is 65 in-lbs. And it's not necessarily important to go that high. What's key is consistently tightening the screws. They might do well at 45 or 55 in-lbs...just so it's always the same and equal between the two. A good torque wrench helps.

+1 with jonoMT, If you mean action screws I usually go between 55-65 in lbs. front and rear. consistency is the key.

Thanks for the info guys, sorry I should have wrote action screws. Friend was trying to tell me that you shouldn't tighten the rear screw as tight as the front. This didn't make sense to me that's why I posted the question on the forum.

Regards Chris

There are some rifles where that can apply. I had a Swiss K-31 that relied on the barrel not being free-floating. Groups actually tightened up a bit by backing off the rear action screw a half turn. But most rifles I'd think would be best off with equal torque on both.

Just whatever you do, if you have a rifle with 3 action screws, don't torque the middle screw down hard; just snug it only.  Its only job is to secure the front of the trigger guard.  If you overtorque a middle screw, it will stress the action, to the detriment of precision.

For most 2 screw actions, you can apply equal torque to both, but it is more important to get adequate torque to the front.

Thanks Rifledude i didnt know that, and I'm specifacaly talking about my Ruger.

Regards Chris

RifleDude wrote: Just whatever you do, if you have a rifle with 3 action screws, don't torque the middle screw down hard; just snug it only.  Its only job is to secure the front of the trigger guard.  If you overtorque a middle screw, it will stress the action, to the detriment of precision. For most 2 screw actions, you can apply equal torque to both, but it is more important to get adequate torque to the front.