Fabricating a bottom plate for a new 93r17 GV

[SKYGUSTY]

The new Savages have a completely flimsy bottom plate and they have removed the recoil lug from the E-receivers. The barrel mounts in fairly insubstantial and probably fairly soft wood. This isn't looking like a very durable set up for the long haul. I have some 1/8 inch steel and a Dremel tool and a bench grinder and am thinking of making my own new bottom plate but I have some questions. First, why not extend the bottom plate so that BOTH mounting screws go through the bottom plate? As it is, the one in front of the trigger is only anchored in wood which is probably fairly soft birch. Does anyone see any problem with doing it this way? The second question is whether I will need longer screws if I add the 1/8th inch plate? I can probably figure this out just using temporary washers but thought I might as well ask. Third question, will there be any problem in just leaving the magazine opening as a rectangle? That is not only a simpler cut but seems to me a way to use the Marlin 7 shot magazines in this rifle. Looks like the ones you can buy are rectangles anyway. What do you think?

[SKYGUSTY]

Well it is clear that the front action screw is long enough to add a 1/8 inch bottom plate. However, because of the taper of the wooden G stock, there is barely 1/8th of an inch of free play before the rear action screw just starts into the rear action stud. This is too bad because on the G stock there is no washer or plate or anything for this rear screw, the head of the screw rides against the wood of the stock. There is already a depression in the wood under that screw and this is just from hand tightening enough to stop the barrel from rattling when you give a slight thud to the butt of the stock. I suppose the first order of business is to find a thin washer to put under this screw to distribute the load a little bit to stop it from compressing the wood in this area excessively. Is it possible to loosen the rear action stud (which seems to be the only thing holding the magazine bracket in place since they replaced a screw with a post and a clip) and shim the magazine bracket, thus gaining some thread length for the back mounting screw? On the latest model, the front action stud or action boss is designed to have exposed threads between the stud and the barrel, probably about 1/4 inch or so. I think the idea of having a heavier bottom plate that could accommodate both action/mounting screws is pretty sound. On other models of 93Rs I have seen that some actually do have some sort of plate underneath the rear screw, but all of those also seem to have a routed pocket for the trigger guard assembly. Hopefully some of you more experienced people can weigh in. For now I am going to proceed with trying to make the rear plate because I am retired and have nothing better to do! I may never be able to mount it! Of course if Savage didn't use that rare 12-32 thread then I could just put a slightly longer screw in the rear mount, but I have already done enough research to know that finding anything longer than 1 inch long in this thread is pretty much impossible. I either have to remove some wood under a new plate or find a way to gain some slack by loosening and shimming the rear action stud. At this point I am reluctant to do either.

[SKYGUSTY]

So, I found two thin black washers that were nearly a perfect fit for the mounting screws about 5/8 inch in diameter, 3/4 would probably be even better and I will look for those the next trip to the hardware store. The rear screw probably only had a few threads to get it started with but once started, I managed to get 3 or 4 full turns on it. I put the other washer under the front mounting screw. After considering what the bottom plate actually does (just short of nothing) I've decided that these new thicker bottom plates are probably a waste of money. All you really want is more stiffness under that front bolt so that you can get it torqued on tight enough to secure the barrel without buckling it. Washers will do that. The rest of the bottom plate doesn't really do anything. Probably two standard thin bottom plates mounted one on top of each other would be even better. You don't want to go crazy on torqueing down these screws as the barrel will act as a steel wedge in the barrel seat that COULD split the wood if tightened too far. One other thing I added was a fiber washer, about 1/8 of an inch thick and the perfect diameter (about 3/8's of an inch) to fit inside the bore hole in the wood for the front mounting screw. This seems to hold the screw more upright when re-attaching the barrel and seems to get the barrel lined up so that it actually will free float in the stock without touching anywhere forward of the receiver. So now it is much more securely mounted. I may pick up a Marlin 7 round magazine just to see if it will fit and cycle rounds. By loosening that bottom plate and rotating it out of the way I can test it out before taking the extra step of filing out the trapezoid in the bottom plate to a rectangle that will allow the Marlin magazines to be used. I'll leave all this stuff here just in case there is someone else that comes along with the same questions. For my money, if I were contemplating buying one of these, I would pay 20 more dollars and get the wooden G stock over the synthetic F stock. It has a Monte Carlo riser, is way less flimsy in the forestock and seems as though the hogged out interior is no worse than the Boyd stock which is now up to $129 plus shipping, plus a bottom plate plus a trigger guard.

[short round]

Take a look at Diversified Innovative Products or DIP for short, they make bottom plates.