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Free floating and pillar bedding a Marlin rifle....suggestions

V

vettepicking

Hot Rolled
Joined
Jan 21, 2009
Location
S FL
I have a marlin 917vrx with a bull barrel. I have some ideas on how I want to float the barrel but want some suggestions too.

These rifles have a silly dovetail threaded mount 1 inch onto the barrel that acts as the front hold down it is messing with my groups when it heats up. this dovetail is also very loose and falls out. I need to add a piece from the receiver then out to the hole in the stock where it will be pillar bedded. Please dont start off with "just leave it alone" or "buy a rem 700". What is the best way..?
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This may sound sort of stupid. But it won't cost you anything to try and there is nothing permanent. This is what you do.

(1) Put enough manila tap or business card paper between the front tang screw on the barrel and the receiver to lift the receiver off of the stock and free float it.

(2) Put a couple strong rubber bands around the barrel and forearm to give a decent amount of pressure at the front.

(3) Tighten the front tang screw to a solid snug but don't overdo it.

(4) Leave the first tang screw next to the trigger out completely and double check to make sure the action floats completely.

(5) Take it out and shoot it that way and see what it does. You want to look for a reduction in flyers. Especially up and down. Shoot at least 100 rounds and then pull it apart and put it back together and shoot it again as it came from the factory.

(6) If it shoots better with the action floated, then full length bed it from the tip of the stock to where the magazine cut out begins with Marine-Tex.

A lot of times 22s with those flimsy receivers will shoot much better with the receiver floated and the barrel fully bedded. Yes, it sounds backward, but I have done this literally hundreds of times over the years and it often pays off in spades. And, it costs you NOTHING to try and in no way changes the gun. If this test does not pay off you can always bed it from the back of the stud to the tang. I see no reason to relocate the front tang screw. The added bedding area under the barrel wont hurt and might even stiffen things up a bit and give some support.
 
that would work , but it would drive me crazy. Then i would have to explain to everyone "that i didnt do it backwards and make my gun worthless". Can i tig weld (very small beads) a block onto the receiver without it hurting the part and fits? the gun shoots so good till it heats up , i got some .375" groups at 100yards with .17 hmr 17gr bullets.
 
I agree with above, float the action. I put a barrel bedding block on a savage 22 and floated the action and it shot much better. I'd use a barrel bedding block and not put in any of the factory action screws
 
I do not do any welding so I do not know if you could weld on that and not hurt something. I have been doing something like that to my Krag. http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/gunsmithing/head-space-krag-266334/
Being the chicken that I am, I would make a part with a light slip fit to go around the barrel, this part would have a knob on the bottom that is drilled and tapped for your mounting screw. When I got the stock finshed to clear everything and the pillar fitted, I would loctite the barrel hold down to the barrel with wicking grade adhesive. Then do your bedding and floating. Loctite will be good for 300 degrees and will have a lot of surface area for holding depending on how big the hold down is.
 
the main goal i want to achieve is having no stress on the barrel, i want the bolt to be on the receiver , number 1. i also want a normal looking gun. but i need to think about it more. maybe two 8-32 bolts thru the block of steel tapped into the receiver instead of welds.
 
Right next to the reciever it is almost like the reciever and the barrel are one piece, further down not so much.
It would probably be in the way of your scope mounts if you put something around the reciever, making the part a combination scope mount would be difficult. Your idea is something I would consider if the underside of the receiver is heavy and you could stay away from the bolt lugs. If you do this, make your block tapered so it will lift it out of your finished bedding material. Maybe use 4 #6 screws instead?
 
lucky for me this is a .17 rimfire with no lugs. the barrel is a pressed in fit with a pin to hold it, no threads. Heat and pressure will affect the barrel some what, so thats why i feel it needs to be floated from the receiver or vis-versa. when i shoot the first 15 shots its great , then the more i shoot it moves to the left, i stop and reload and check my target it moves back to the right for the first 4 shots. haha
 
If it's moving with heat free floating will probably only make it worse. The barrel is warping as it warms up. Put some paper under the front receiver ring to lift the barrel away from the stock and take it out and shoot it that way. If it gets worse with the floated barrel bed then entire barrel and receiver to stiffen it up. That will cut the warping down a bit.
 
Here's what I've been doing to CZ452's with good results and it will work on your rifle:
First, do as others above have suggested and bed the barrel channel. Full bed is no problem but if not , atleast bed till 2" past the barrel pillar.
(Remember to fill the protruding areas of the pillar dovetail with plastercine so it doesn't hang up on the epoxy.) I also bed the tiny area under the tang - nothing fancy required, just enough to estabilish a level.
Then - assuming you are a machinist - make up an aluminium pillar for the action screw in the miidle of the receiver. The pillar will need to be a funny shape at the top to fit between the magazine and the trigger group but a little imagination will sort out the design. On CZ's I mill a small flat in this area to provide a mating surface for the pillar. The length of this pillar is critical, either too long or too short and your bedding job becomes redundant.
I start off by sitting the barrelled action in it's new bedding job with barrel screw nipped up and poking the end of my verniers down the action screw hole (with bottom metal fitted) to the receiver to establish nominal length. Add 0.020" so you have something to machine off. Remove action and Drill your stock for your new pillar.
Reassemble and take a reference masurement that will allow you to gauge how high the action is sitting on the pillar. This measurement can be a point to point measurement from the top of the receiver to a corresponding point on the bottom metal or if the stock allows, measuring shims under the tang or even smearing a little bearing blue or stockmakers black on the receiver tang may be useful to see when contact has been made.
Pull the barrelled action out of the stock and re-fit as many times as neccessary , each time removing a few thou' from the length of the pillar and measuring against your initial demension till the receiver sits neatly down on the pillar and against the tang without flexing.
Remember, the height you are aiming for is set by the barrel bedding.
It sounds like a bit of work but isn't really and negates the need to make any permanent mods to the metalwork.
 
I was thinking it was a center fire rifle when making my comments. I see why you want the pillar supporting the action. Your heat situation made me think of a trick that I heard about for mounting magnetic chucks on surface grinders. The idea is that you want one end anchored very well and the other end with the ability to float slightly. This is supposed to prevent the bowing as the magnet heats up faster than the grinder table. When we mounted the chuck on our grinder, we tightened one end normally the other end had antisieze between the table and chuck and a little less torque on the hold down screw. Could this help a reciever to bow less? If I was going to try it I would want the front pillar tighter then the rear.
 
JBC you and i think alike, the marlin sounds just like your cz's. the pillars are going to be made in the morning from brass. thank you

JBCGUNS said:
Here's what I've been doing to CZ452's with good results and it will work on your rifle:
First, do as others above have suggested and bed the barrel channel. Full bed is no problem but if not , atleast bed till 2" past the barrel pillar.
(Remember to fill the protruding areas of the pillar dovetail with plastercine so it doesn't hang up on the epoxy.) I also bed the tiny area under the tang - nothing fancy required, just enough to estabilish a level.
Then - assuming you are a machinist - make up an aluminium pillar for the action screw in the miidle of the receiver. The pillar will need to be a funny shape at the top to fit between the magazine and the trigger group but a little imagination will sort out the design. On CZ's I mill a small flat in this area to provide a mating surface for the pillar. The length of this pillar is critical, either too long or too short and your bedding job becomes redundant.
I start off by sitting the barrelled action in it's new bedding job with barrel screw nipped up and poking the end of my verniers down the action screw hole (with bottom metal fitted) to the receiver to establish nominal length. Add 0.020" so you have something to machine off. Remove action and Drill your stock for your new pillar.
Reassemble and take a reference masurement that will allow you to gauge how high the action is sitting on the pillar. This measurement can be a point to point measurement from the top of the receiver to a corresponding point on the bottom metal or if the stock allows, measuring shims under the tang or even smearing a little bearing blue or stockmakers black on the receiver tang may be useful to see when contact has been made.
Pull the barrelled action out of the stock and re-fit as many times as neccessary , each time removing a few thou' from the length of the pillar and measuring against your initial demension till the receiver sits neatly down on the pillar and against the tang without flexing.
Remember, the height you are aiming for is set by the barrel bedding.
It sounds like a bit of work but isn't really and negates the need to make any permanent mods to the metalwork.
Click to expand...
 
I have a Marlin with the barrel pressed in and pined to the action. It was the action originally used for the 22 mag. This is in 256 Win which is a 357 mag necked down to 25 cal. Similar to the old 25/20. I decided to float the front of the barrel and the action and glue the back 3” into the stock like the bench rest guys used to do. I used Brownells acura glass. It looks normal and shoots much better than it. A little heat and it was easily removed. I would like the scope in the normal position over the action but mounted on the barrel. This is a bedding block / scope mount that I am making.



This is not going to meet your look normal criteria but I am ok with it. This is just a handy little truck gun to work on the feral hogs.
 
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