Birch-Laminated Stocks Spreading?

[Picher]

I bought my .270 Rem 700 BDL Stainless Laminated several years ago and applied bedding, but no pillars. It shot very well, but after a couple of years, accuracy dropped off.

Has anyone else here found that accuracy loss over time might be attributed to spreading of the relatively soft birch, especially for those rifles with round-bottomed receivers?

I've noticed that some of the after-market stock companies, etc. have installed cross-bolts in the action areas to prevent spreading, as manufacturers of heavy-recoiling models have done with wood stocks of all kinds.

(All wooden stocks that I've bedded in the past few years have been pillar/action bedded, and that's worked fine.)

 

[Bart B.]

Vertical splits caused by too much screw torquing round receivers in wood stocks are common. Heavier recoiling ones moreso than lighter recoiling ones. 40 inch-pounds is about right for most 700's in wood stocks. Cross bolts with only their head and tightened nut epoxied in place helps the area around the front and middle screws but not the back hole.

(Thanks, Snyper, your remark reminded me to give more details.)

Pillar bedding is a good solution if the pillars are well fit to the receiver profile. With conventional bedding or none at all in wood stocks, loosen the screws after each shooting session then retourque them just before shooting again.

 

[Snyper]

Cross bolts epoxied in place helps the area around the front and middle screws but not the back hole.

Floating a bolt in epoxy is no stronger than epoxy alone, and may even be weaker since it makes the epoxy thinner

A cross bolt only works if it's actually holding and compressing the wood mechanically

 

[tobnpr]

Yellow Birch is not "relatively" soft, IMO- but that depends on what wood you're comparing it to when you use that term.

It's Janka hardness is 1260, compared to Claro Walnut of 1,130.

The glues are extremely hard, and add a great deal of dimensional stability and I would assume- strength as well.

Which stockmakers that you refer to are adding crossbolts to their laminate stocks? I'm not aware of any...

In any case, unless the bolt is in direct contact with the receiver and distributes the recoil forces over a larger contact area of the wood, IMHO it's of dubious value. In military rifles where these are present- as in the Mosin-Nagant- they spread the recoil energy from the relatively narrow recoil block on the bottom of the receiver- over the full width of the stock. But, they are in direct contact with the receiver, as is the crossbolt on the Mauser- and not buried somewhere in the stock behind it.

If that were the case, the wood would either split (if too close), or if set further back, the wood would still compress in front of it. I don't see how it would serve any purpose.