Musket bedding

[PoorJack]

Going to glass bed a P53 Euroarms 3 band. AcraGlass gel or Devcon?

I was also thinking of putting some carbon fiber into the stock to further stiffen it.

Opinions before this gets underway?

[Carolina Reb]

I like West Systems laminating epoxy with the slow Part B. To stiffen the epoxy (and the stock) used cotton flox. Flox is a chopped cotton fibers. It will make the epoxy hard as a rock once cured. Carbon fiber is overkill, and you don't want to breath that stuff. Aircraft Spruce and Specialty is a good source. Unless your stock is warped, you only need to bed the last 4" of the barrel breech and the tang area. If you want to dye the epoxy to match the wood, use Solar Lux dye based stains. Pigment based stains such as Minwax don't work as well. It only takes a few drops in the mix. Elm matches most Springfield stocks better than their Walnut.

[jonk]

I've always used AcraGlas for bedding. My main gripe about it is, it seems nigh-on-impossible to use enough to get good fill-out without sliming all over the stock, and there always seems to still be some voids left needing round 2. Though the end result when you're finally done messing around is very good.

Outside the box, Marine-Tex is very good, though it's standard color won't lend itself to dying and may not be what you want.

I second the idea to do the bolster/breech area up to about the rear sights (on a springfield anyhow, on an Enfield you wouldn't have to go so far) and the nose back a few inches past the band. See how that works. If you need, then fl bed it.

[PoorJack]

Having done acraglass on centerfire, I'm thinking of going over to the devcon steel bed product. Reviews seem to indicate it doesn't have the problem with voids. The idea for carbon fiber was to put strips of carbon fiber down the length of the barrel channel to reinforce the stock from any twisting from either environmental or thermal reasons.

Currently, I've gotten the beast to shooting pretty well, but it does want to wander as it heats up, hence the idea for carbon.