I decided to glassbed the barrel as well as the recoil dam and the rear of the receiver. I also drilled a long hole through the wrist from the rear of the receiver mortise and epoxied a steel rod through the wrist for strength. I dug out all my old epoxy bedding kits, and discovered I had enough stuff to glass bed several rifles. To my chagrin, I discovered they were the old non-gel kits, which run like molasses out of a gooses' rear.
I made one last check for pinching in the stock, and found a serious pinch in the barrel channel. After relieving the pinch, I had a very slight gap on the front right of the barrel channel. Since I was going to bed the entire barrel, that gap would disappear like Dorothy in a tornado.
I covered the barreled receiver with mold release, then for good measure, I sprayed it with white grease after the mold release had dried. I pre-mixed the hardner, gel flock, and brown dye in a cup (saves on mixing time). I then added the resin, mixed it, laid it out in the stock, and clamped it all together with stock screws. I left it overnight, bumped it out this AM with a piece of firewood, and found the usual gaps in the bedding. I cleaned the glass bedding with brake cleaner to get the white grease off (it worked like a charm), and repeated the whole bedding process, and it is setting up as we speak.
One of the things I like to do just as the mix starts to set is to make sure all gaps are filled from the top. The pictures show the results. Hopefully, the glass bedding job is complete. I had an excellent front barrel recoil lug mortise, which really had concerned me. If I managed to fill all the gaps (I did some clay blocking), it should all look very nice.
My dies and recoil compensator arrive today. Thank you Midway.
Next will be the installation of the trigger and the lengthening of the magazine. The latter is going to be a real test of patience.
jt