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What have you used to stiffen your factory plastic stocks. I opened up the channel but am still not happy. If I look at this thing to hard it flexes. I know my rifle shoyld group way better than it does. Shooting Fed GMM 168gr and my mini14 groups better.
Will jb-weld or some other epoxy help?
Any suggestions appreciated.
Eric
In the past I have used carbon arrow shafts fitted and bedded into the forend. Seemed to work pretty well. I would take and really rough up the inside of the channel with a dremel tool so as to give your epoxy plenty to grab ahold of. I bed all my actions with JB and have not found anything better.
I have bedded many actions with JB weld as well.
As to the "stock stiffening" idea, I've never had much luck. Tried several different epoxies, and things were stiffer, but not stiff. Honestly a $99 B&C Duramax, or a Boyds laminate are much better choices IMO.
I have used aluminum shafts or carbon arrow shafts in the forend and then filled the front channel with epoxy and bird shot mixed to add stifness and weight. I have also filled the butstock with epoxy and bird shot mixed to add additional weight.
The carbon arrow deal works pretty well. I have a hogue overmold stock, which is actually more flimsy at the forend than a factory tupperware stock. I ground out channels in the ribs with a dremel plastic carving bit, and bedded a couple of arrows into the stock. It stiffened it up enough that a 26" varmint barrel doesnt make contact with the stock on bags or in the bipod any longer. Here is a couple pics that may help if you wanna try. If I had to do it again, I would drill out some area underneath the recoil lug section for the arrows to go up under. I think this would add even more support.
http://i387.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/IMG_5079.jpg
http://i387.photobucket.com/albums/o...3/IMG_5078.jpg
The methods shown will alleviate the torqueing of the stock but really dont stiffen it much back and forth. The idea of getting those arrow shafts under the recoil lug will help that because that is where the back and forth flex occurs. If you really want to eleiminate any flex get a $97 Boyds laminate or the Dura-Max previously noted.
El Lobo
I think stiffening the forend will make it feel stiffer to you, but probably not stiffer to the loaded portion of the gun. If you have a free floated barrel, the forend doesnt do a whole lot for supporting the gun while recoiling. The portion of the stock that would need stiffening is behind the recoil lug and between the action bolts, and continuing thru the grip region. If you use a bipod, I think the forend stiffening will be helpful.
BajaBill, The use of a bipod will cause the forend to twist or torque. Thats when you have barrel contact with the stock. Look at it for a bit and you will see what I mean and what causes it. Hold the rifle horizontal with a bipod on it then turn it on its side without touching the forend and you will see that just the wgt of the bipod will torque the forend. It may even flex it side to side. The side to side will be helped by the epoxied in arrows if they extend far enough back past the recoil lug That may be working and may not. Under normal use my plastic stock does not flex or torque enough to cause me any problems.
El Lobo
Right now the stock twists when you touch it, shooting from prone off a bipod, and flexes when you mount it and load the bipod. Looks like a new stock is probably in order. Was hoping I could make this one work.
How is your trigger? Have you tried to torque your action screws? What scope are you using?
I've done it before. Last one was with 1/4" steel bars epoxied on both inside edges of the stock. Had to chip away a little bit to fit the bars against the edges. Not sure how much good it actually does. Didn't do "before and after" test. Best bet is probably to get laminated wood or 3rd party fiberglass stock.
Stang,
All items mentioned need to be addressed. Trigger is heavy, don't have a torque driver so can only guess, and cheap mildot scope that has been beat up on my mini. All probably contributing to my poor groups along with my rubbery stock.
for bipod issues, even after glueing in stiffeners, the recoil lug well is going to be the soft region and may act as a hinge region between the 2 stiff parts forward and aft of the well. I think you are going to be wasting a lot of time and effort if you are not happy with the bipod use with the factory stock. A thin walled, open section is never stiff in torsion so you need more area to make up for it thru the weakest section. Or, a stiffer material to begin with.
If try the gun without bipod, use a front sand bag rest without any additional support for the fore end, you could eliminate or verify that as the problem with the gun. I never used a bypod and never hold the front of my gun while shooting off of a rest so it is always relatively free to twist except for any torsional support provided by my shoulder and trigger hand.
I tried stiffening a Stevens stock with aluminum tubing and epoxy. It helped a bit shooting off a bag, but it was still terrible off a bipod.
The best way to stiffen the latest tupperware stks is to melt them down to a liquid and pour carefully into a large soup can and us eit for a paperweight.
For some reason my tupperware stock does not seem to have the same bending and torquing problem as I see reported every so often in this forum. It is made of a pretty hard plastic. I have read here from people that they have no problems with thier stocks either. I wonder if at some point in time Savage or its supplier made some stocks from a different plastic formulation (of which there are hundreds if not thousands) such as a filled plastic, harder plastic or maybe even structural foam which is very stiff but not usualy used in thin sections.
I dont use a bipod but when benching or offhand I still shoot excellent groups with my handloads out of that rifle. I just use bags at the bench.
El Lobo
I've filled my plastic forends with bondo it worked really well for me