Mini-14/Hogue Stock Bedding

[keithallenlaw]

Greetings.

I was told today by a well known and popular gun smith that he doesn't
do or recommend bedding a Hogue stock because of the flexibility. And
most attempts to stiffen it do very little to help. I really like the stock.
It's the Hogue Olive Drab and it really looks nice on my blued tac Mini.

So, here are my options. Go with either the Ruger black synthetic stock
or a custom walnut or wood stock, 'IF' I wanted it bedded properly.

Honestly, do I need to bed this rifle if its primary optic will be a
4 mil no magnification red dot? Am I just throwing money in
the wind here? It already has a trigger job by Wayne and I'm
also having an all in one strut/gas block installed as well.

Any and all opinions are most welcome. Thanks! -keith

 

[lipofsky]

my 181 series is in a hogue overmolded and no beding it will hit clay pigeons on the 100 yard berm all day long

 

[keithallenlaw]

my 181 series is in a hogue overmolded and no beding it will hit clay pigeons on the 100 yard berm all day long

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing this.

 

[DGW1949]

From the FWIW Dept:

Some stocks fit better than others, so it follows that rebedding will help some rifles more than others.

I have no idea whether your Houge stock needs rebedded, but I agree with your gunsmith on the "flexibility" issue. What he is actualy refering to there is that The Hogue design lacks structural rigidity.

Me personaly, if I wanted a properly bedded Mini-14, I'd start with a known-straight wood stock and use Acra Glass. There's a few reasons for that but the bottom line is that that's how it has been done for years, and it os done that way because it works.

None of this has anything at all to do with "which optics" or how nice the stock looks to you. What it does have to do with is adding strength to the stock AND preventing the barreled action from moving around inside the stock as the gun is being fired.

Adding a strut to a short-bareled Mini will not help to the same extent that adding a longer strut to the longer-bareled model helps. Even the guys who market those things will tell you that.
On the other hand though, it can't hurt.....and yep, I agree with you on the version you are talking about, meaning that if I was to put a strut on mine, I would want it to be integeral with the gas block.

Just in passing....we all want our guns to shoot as good as we can get them to. Bear in mind though, that nothing you do is going to get your rifle to shoot any better than the accuracy potential of the ammo you feed it, so be carefull that you aint trying to tree the wrong cat...if ya get my drift.

DGW

 

[keithallenlaw]

Thanks Hawkeye for the thought out answers to my questions. I'm most grateful.

 

[jiamei67]

Hi, new from New York and I read your whole post but I am not agree that bedding is flexible!

 

[DGW1949]

Hi, new from New York and I read your whole post but I am not agree that bedding is flexible!

Good morning and welcome to the forum.
I agree with you in that the bedding material which I mentioned is not flexible.
However, the "overmolded" Hogue stock is.
Now, that aint to say that the Hogue stock is bad, it's just saying that I prefer to spend my time and materials on bedding a stock which don't easily flex to start with.

DGW