Dear TrxR, All of my actions except one in 30 years of shooting benchrest have been glued in and not screwed. I personally have had one action come unglued during a match. I have seen two others belonging to competitors come unglued. I have had success with both glued in and pillar bedded, screwed in only actions. I feel that glued in actions are easiest to do. I also feel that glued and screwed in actions are least likely to fail. Screwed in actions have a couple of benefits: easier to disassemble the rifle and to access the components; you can use that specific action as a final,and possibly more accurate, gauge when chambering a barrel for that action; ability to check the bedding for softening without a lot of trouble. Is a pillar bedded, screwed in action as precise as a glued in action? I don't know but I suspect it is. I don't know of any objective articles that have compared the two using the same action, barrel and loads under identical range conditions. That would be ideal but difficult to do. To me the benefits of a pillar bedded, screwed in action outweigh the supposed benefits of a glued in or screwed and glued in in action. I suspect there are many out there in benchrest land that disagree with me, question my sanity and shallowness of my gene pool. In the end here are my conclusions: If you want the safest bedding job by all means screw and glue in the action. If you have access to a lathe and do your own gunsmithing do what ever strikes your fancy. Otherwise you will probably get a glued in action with the proviso that it may come apart sometime.
As to what epoxy to use: JB weld with aluminum or steel seems to work well and is available. Epoxies with metal powder in them seem more popular nowadays. By the way, what does TxrR mean. I saw it and immediately Tyrannosaur Rex came to mind. Tim
