Any Way to Reduce Excessive Bolt Lift Effort???

[CA Turkey Huntsman]

Thomae, thanks for the clarifications. I'm trying to understand these procedures the best I can before I go hacking into my brand new stock.

Frank (fgw_in_fl) also put rods in his forend, but did not allow them to protrude out of the front. Since I'm not up for a custom paint job like you did, I'll probably follow Frank's method and cut the rod length to about the front sling swivel. There is one other detail worth discussion, and that is the holes you made back at the magazine end for the rods. Frank was only able to drill in 3/8" or so before hitting an obstruction, but I see you went totally through the thick plastic boss clean through to the mag well. I'm not sure if Frank hit the recoil lug as he was drilling, or some other metal part that has been moulded into the recoil lug seating boss.

You apparently drilled in very low from the front of the forend, allowing you to keep the drill bit parallel with the forend, and negating the requirement to remove the plastic "webs" to drop the rods down into the bottom. I like the fact that your method set the rod ends into the entire recoil lug boss, but am now wondering if it would be possible to drill in that far with the bit coming in at an angle, as Frank had done?

Did your two holes clear the recoil lug itself, or was it necessary for you to notch the lug to fit over the two rods?

[thomae]

My holes cleared the lug and I didn't have to do any modification to the lug itself.
IIRC, I used this 5/16 x 17" drill bit: http://www.homedepot.com/p/t/2022141...1#.UUI25Bx9Pl5

I did not have to remove the interior webbing as I wanted to keep whatever internal structure I could. The sanding and finishing the ends was rather easy. I gooped over a bunch of partially hardened JB weld, let it harden for a few days and then sanded. You could simply paint the entire stock with black paint or bed liner or undercoating and leave it at that if you wished.

[CA Turkey Huntsman]

Thanks again, Thomae. I guess I could try to dye the epoxy black somehow, or find some that is already black in color. If I am careful, I wouldn't have to paint the stock at all, I'd just have the two filled in holes at the front of the foreend. Heck, its just a working gun anyway. The coyotes won't care much if one can see the rod holes in the front!

[thomae]

The coyotes won't care much if one can see the rod holes in the front!

I shot mine for a while (including the Savage shoot last year) with the two rods sticking out the front end. Kinda looked like some kind of space gun. .