I wanted to add weight to my Varmint rifles so I drilled two 1" holes in the back of the stock under the recoil pad of a laminated Boyds Thumbhole stock. The holes were only a bit over 1" deep as I happen to have some 1" x 1" tungsten cylinders laying around. Those two little cylinders added over a pound. Problem is that wood is as hard as the gate hinges to hell. I ruined a new 1" spade bit drilling just the two holes; the first hole took at least 5 minutes and the second hole seemed like forever because the bit was toast.

The way I did it was put the spade bit in my lathe at 500 rpm and push the stock into the bit with as much pressure as I could muster. I can't imagine doing it with a hand drill.

I have two more Boyd stocks to do and don't really want to go through that again. Are there better choices for super hard wood? Hole saw, forstner bit? Woodworking is not my forte. Maybe metal bits, starting small with incrementally larger bits?

Thanks for your thoughts!