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Paul Horwath

Here's what I've done to prepare the pillars and the recoil lug for bedding my Tikka T3 action thus far.

I've screwed the pillars to the action using a tapered head screw. On the threads of the tapered screw, I wrapped the threads with electrical tape to a diameter that fit the inner ID of the aluminum pillars. The tapered head centers the pillar at the top, and the electrical tap centers the pillar where it mates to the face of the action. Then I placed a tall socket on the top of the pillar that cleared the tapered head of the screw and rested on the flat face of the pillars. I then tapped sharply with a hammer, to embed the surface of the action into the softer aluminum pillars. I supported the tang of the action from beneath while tapping on that pillar. The forward pillar is well supported by the action so no support was necessary there. Here's what the mating surface of the pillar looks like after some crisp tapping with the hammer.



I did this because the Tikka action has these raised bosses surrounding the female threads each action screw. I needed a way to establish a larger surface area of contact between the pillars and the bosses. This method leaves a perfect imprint of the bosses into the pillars.



With respect to temporarily holding the recoil lug into the recessed notch in the receiver, I looked for a method that would hold my stainless steel aftermarket recoil lug in firm contact with the forward face of the recess in the action. I don't want any rearward movement (play) of the action toward the recoil lug, after the lug is glass bedded into my stock. So I used feeler gauges for setting spark plug gaps, and determined a 0.008" shim would provide a very snug friction fit, if the shim was placed on the rearward side of the recoil lug. So I found some 0.008" shim spacers from an automotive differential rebuild kit I had in the garage, used some metal snips to cut out a shim, and carefully tapped the ship into place at the same time I seated the recoil lug into the recess in the action. The friction fit of the recoil lug is so snug that I won't need to temporarily glue it into place. Once the bedding material sets up, the lug will withdraw from the recess in the action, and I'll simply pry out the small piece of 0.008" shim stock from the recoil lug recess in the action. It may even fall out on its own. Here's photos of my recoil lug pinched into place with the 0.008" thick shim.




I'm open to any members' suggestions, recommendations, and advice...
Paul