Bedding

[bulletman]

I think I want to bed this GPR properly, any one done it before ?...I need instructions, on it and the brand of bedding to use, that would be best. Its a Lyman GPR 54 cal, percussion.
I found Brownells acraglas, and acraglass jel, at Midsouth, will one of these work ?
Should the sides be touching anything when done ?, or just the bottom of the barrel , bottom 3 sides ?, bottom 3 and the two sides up to the wood line ? , its octagon.

 

[Deadeye]

Muzzleloader barrels don't usually benefit that much from
bedding as far as accuracy is concerned. It will add strength to your stock if your shooting extra heavy loads.
I bed a lot of rifles( mostly centerfire high pressure rifles)it does help them to be more accurate. Sometime, some wants to install a 15/16" muzzleloader barrel in a 1" stock and then I'll glass it right to the top edge of the stock and usually just in a 5 or 6" section on each side of the wedge pins is all that is necessary. It's allright to do the whole
length of the stock if you want to. Acraglass Gel is what you will want to use. It's thick and will stay where you put it. You can color it with just about anything. A drop or two of brown liquid shoe polish if you want it brown.
Any kind of paste wax put on the metal parts will keep them from sticking to the stock.

 

[bulletman]

My reasoning behind it is, It is obvious to me the barrel to wood is a problem, my groups opened back up, any adjustment to the wedge pins determines where these balls are going, I was thinking If I bed it, the fit will always be the same when I put the barrel back on after cleaning. Am I correct on this ? would bedding solve this problem ?...everything else is consistnet, patches, balls lube technique. etc.
Its only after taking apart and cleaning, then putting back together it happens...Today i experimented by bending the wedge pins slightly to adjust pressure and it made a big difference, thats why i thought bedding may help, something is giving somewhere. And thought the bedding would make a solid perfectly flat surface that will not give.

 

[bulletman]

The bedding worked out, I dont know if it was the stock warping, and or me when I built it,and set the barrel to wood ( sanding ) but something wasnt right, I just have the bottom 3 sides bedded perfectly and now the gun is back to one big ragged hole groups at 50 yards.

 

[sabotloader]

Very good, I am glad you were able to accomplish this project, I have always felt more comfortable with bedding.

Another thought I just had that may help explain some pf you wood problems, I wonder how much moisture was in the piece of wood in the first place. If there was the drying process will cause the wood to shrink and move...

Well anyway best of luck

Keep shooting muzzeloaders - it's a blast

 

[bulletman]

I would guess there was moisture, I know that with alot of musical instruments, the companies that build them do not let the wood cure long enough and as a result the sounds are not as good as they could be, and sometimes warping occurs, I figured Lyman may be under pressure like them and use wood before they should, funny you mentioned that, that had occured to me a few weeks ago. This also was my first BP gun, and I built it from the kit, and figured I did not get the bedding proper in the first place, then once it warped a little it made a huge difference. That acraglass gel is great stuff, plenty of working time, no hassles or hurry about it, you can just take your time.

 

[sabotloader]

You know, I remember looking at your home page but I forgot you were in the muscical field, so you full well understand what I was working to...

When I lived in Boise as a young kid one of the guys I worked for built mandolins(sp) some type of a special mandolin, but I can remember him swearing, I mean really swearing about the wood was not cured to the point the wholesaler had promised him - i thiught he was pretty mean, but he said it made a tremendous difference.

Keep shooting muzzleloaders - it is a blast....