1st time stock bedding. (trigger guard torque?)

[Dieudonne' Saive.]

Gents,

I'm going to try my hand at bedding a sporterized stock on an M1917 using Devcon plastic steel liquid and Acra-release agent (Aerosol).

Any tips and tricks you might have in this accurizing endeavor? What is the proper torque to place on the trigger guard screws?

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[ssgross]

I use 30-40 inch*lbs on all my old rifles with wood stocks, with slightly less on the rear screw. I have found that range to be a pretty good rule for wood stocks in general, allowing slight compression of the wood, but not crushing the fibers.
My Winchester 1917, in an original military stock, likes 35 on the front, 30 on the rear. My 1903's seem to like 40 front, 30 rear. My krag gets 30 on both.

[Patrick Chadwick]

allowing slight compression of the wood, but not crushing the fibers.

Agreed. The wood should retain some elasticity.

[usabaker]

Any tips and tricks you might have in this accurizing endeavor? What is the proper torque to place on the trigger guard screws?

If you are looking for accuracy, you might want to consider adding pillers wood will expand, contract, and compress.

I use Eddie the Gunsmiths pillers (most of the time) in his instructions He writes " In a stock of solid wood, laminated wood, or fiberglass, a common recommendation for how tight to make these screws is 30 to 35 in. lbs. Engineers' Edge, on the Internet, tells us that a 1/4" screw tightened to 30 in. lbs. creates 600 lbs. of clamping force. When tightened to 35 in. lbs., this same screw creates 700 lbs. of clamping force."

[Dieudonne' Saive.]

Thanks fellas. Is there anything unique about the M1917 (in terms of bedding) that I should adhere to?

[RC20]

Short answer is no.

I disagree on the give. Its what we have to work with, best is the aluminum bedding blocks that are solid.

But that is target rifles. The 1917 is not a target rifle, so the wood bedding is the best way to go and standard torque as there is nothign unique to the 1917 in that regard.

I am playing with a cut off 1917 stock I got with a free floating barrel. Have to test that now and then have my brother do the type of bedding you are talking about. After that the key is hand loads to get the best firing point out of the barrel whip.

A lot of disagreement on pressure on the tip. That applies to a full normal stock and it was more what they had to work with.

Target stocks are all free floating. How well that works on a thinner 26 inch barrel?

[Bruce_in_Oz]

And all the ORIGINAL bedding methods were designed to tune the rifle to the ISSUE ammo of the day.

The "issue" ammo in 1917 was.....?

IF the wood is in good condition, inside and out, original spec ball or a VERY close hand-loaded equivalent will be the thing.

If the wood is "scruffy" internally, it may be a challenge. Additionally, slinky, boat-tailed VLD bullets may well be an expensive wast of time compared to simpler, flat-based items.