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Nathan Foster

Hi Ben, with some care, I think that will clean up OK.

Try to give it a basic clean up- then check fit.

This thread has caused a few phone calls for me, folk concerned about sidewall relief. So I want to go over this again here.

Parallel side walls can become trapped to be sure. This can pinch the action and prevent the rifle returning to battery after each shot. The result of a pinched T3 is normally double grouping.

During bedding, there are three ways to approach sidewall relief.

1. make sure plenty of release agent is used, then powdered graphite.

2. tape off the side walls with electrical tape.

3. If the use of heavy release agent and graphite did not work, hand sand the sides, counting passes (as per book 3, as with all of this info).

The one problem with taping sides, is that if you have an action that consists entirely of straight sidewalls, it leaves little else to bed. The Ruger M77 is a good example. Personally, I take the risk and use release agent dabbed on to a good layer, then graphite.

After the bedding and initial clean up, the job can be checked for fit. if it is extremely tight, then we need to get in with fresh sand paper and count passes on each side, doing our best to relieve the side walls in an even manner. The same can be done with a bead blaster providing other areas of the bedding are properly masked off.