I’ve always wanted a left hand 416, but they are fairly hard to come by. So last year I bought a left hand safari express in 375 HH that I was going to rebarrel to 416 Rem. I didn’t really like the stock fit, so I sold that gun and came up with a new plan.

To start, I bought a left hand safari express blank from Numrich Gun Parts for dirt cheap. I bought five of them and kept the one with the best grain and density.



And instead of buying a safari express as a donor action, I searched high and low for a left hand M70 in 7mm STW. This action has the same size ejection port as the safari express action, and as a bonus it is already gloss blued instead of the matte finish on the safari express. I sold off the two piece bottom metal from the 7mm STW and replaced it with a Williams one piece oberndorf unit. I also replaced the original extractor with a Williams machined extractor.



I’ve been working on the stock, adding a shadow line cheek piece, lowering the heel of the stock, adding a fisher grip cap, reshaping the grip, slimming the forend, adding an ebony tip, adding cross bolts and ebony plugs, adding a wrist pin, and installing a red pachmayr pad.



Next up is getting a new 416 barrel. I’m planning to use a Douglas in either 5 or 5a. Once that’s done, I’ll finish the stock work and then send it off for iron sights, a barrel band, and bluing.

Any pointers would be appreciated as I move along with this project.

I'd like to see another pic of your work lowering the heel. Please snap a few pics of the stock on the horizontal.

I took about a quarter inch off with a No. 49 rasp. That seemed to make the cheek weld feel a lot better. The outer face of the recoil pad now measures about 5.25 inches top to bottom.

Thanks.

Nice job.

The new barrel has been installed. Douglas was able to install the barrel in about one week. Went with a #5 sporter, 24 inches long, 1:12 twist, .720 at the muzzle, and a 1.9 inch breech length. It fits the safari express barrel channel almost perfectly.

Hi,
Would you mind showing the weight of the rifle with the Douglas barrel as pictured in your post 04 October ?
Nice project and nice looking rifle.
Thanks.

It is 8lbs 13 oz in its current configuration. I figure it will weigh about 9.5 lbs once I pillar bed it and add the iron sights and barrel band.

Thankyou Sir.
My interest is due to a build I am having done along similar lines. I am having a .375 H&H built on a LH M70 action, also fitted with a Douglas SS #5, 24 inch barrel but .700 inch at the muzzle and without open sights. The stock will be synthetic. I was unsure if achieving a finished, unscoped, weight of 8 lbs was possible but now I'm inclined to think that is within reach.

My stock is pretty heavy, probably 2 lbs 14 ounces. So I’m guessing you can get close to 8 lbs with a synthetic stock.

I finally got around to soldering on the sights and barrel band. I need to fix some minor inletting gaps (since this started as a leftover factory stock), and then I’ll pillar bed the action. Once bedded, I’ll regulate the sights and then send the barreled action off to Glenrock blue. I plan to finish out the stock while I’m waiting on the gun to be blued.

I finally got the rifle pillar bedded, and I’ve now been to the range a couple of times for some test firing. I have 20 rounds down the pipe, and everything seems to be functioning properly. Looks like this will be a pretty accurate rifle. Shot a really tight group at 50 yards today.

Can't ask for better than that. Well done.

Tex,

Nice job. That kind of accuracy makes it all worth your efforts.

JP

Formerly JPaul

I did some more test firing this past weekend. Good news is that the gun is accurate and seems to feed and eject well.

Some bad news. I took the gun apart last night to inspect for cracks. Sure enough, there is a small hairline crack under the bolt handle that extends back just a bit. This is not really where I was expecting a crack to develop. Pretty frustrating, but I will have to decide if it’s repairable or if I need to start over.

Check for clearance between the stock and bolt handle; it should float, it may have cause the crack

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Kobe:
Check for clearance between the stock and bolt handle; it should float, it may have cause the crack

Thanks. I checked, and the bolt handle clears everything.

I’m thinking the crack may just be due to not having ideal grain layout.

A real shame.
Might be savable. If you're confident in your crack repair/hiding abilities a glassed-in ferrule on that rear action screw would help stabilize that back end. Bedding of the bottom metal should be done as well.

We had the cracking problem on Dakota Big Bores until we stopped using claro and bedded them with a pint of Bisonite. Some of the guys liked to inlet with a hammer instead of using a chisel and scraper adding insult to injury. Personally, I would tell a client that claro will probably crack when used in a big bore stock and recommend a more suitable blank. The clover leaf tang acts like a wedge as well. On Mausers you can eliminate this somewhat if the front and rear of the magazine are inletted very well. Sheet metal mag boxes, not so much.

what would be the method of repair for that crack?

Tex84
My goof. You already did pillar bed the screws. A fully bedded action and the first 2 inches of barrel and bottom metal may be necessary. I've improved my 98 Mauser groups by doing that. Just a few rifles. Might solve the movement problem there. Worth a try before you scrap a nice-looking stock.
Can you spare a straight-down picture of the action inlet?

quote:

Originally posted by custombolt:
Tex84
My goof. You already did pillar bed the screws. A fully bedded action and the first 2 inches of barrel and bottom metal may be necessary. I've improved my 98 Mauser groups by doing that. Just a few rifles. Might solve the movement problem there. Worth a try before you scrap a nice-looking stock.
Can you spare a straight-down picture of the action inlet?

Here’s the action inlet:

Thanks. Looks good to me. My guess is the vibration found a weak spot. Both of my claro stocks (Mauser 98's) seemed to be a bit brittle (similar to what stockmaker was saying) when I did the inletting. A bit more bedding on the right tail end of the action might be good idea as well.
Hope you get the crack stabilized.
Please keep us posted.

quote:

Originally posted by Tex84:

quote:

Originally posted by custombolt:
Tex84
My goof. You already did pillar bed the screws. A fully bedded action and the first 2 inches of barrel and bottom metal may be necessary. I've improved my 98 Mauser groups by doing that. Just a few rifles. Might solve the movement problem there. Worth a try before you scrap a nice-looking stock.
Can you spare a straight-down picture of the action inlet?

Here’s the action inlet:

Thanks. I was able to stabilize the crack, but the wood does seem a little brittle in that area. Thus, I’ve decided not to invest the time finishing and checkering this stock. Instead, I’ve already started adding Bondo in some key places so that I can use this stock for a pattern. I just purchased a blank from Roger Vardy for this project. Hoping I can send the pattern and blank off to the duplicator in the next month or so.

I do like how you trimmed it down through the magazine area. Nice and svelte.

You might take some time and glue some little blocks of wood into the inlet. Factory inlets take out way too much. Just make sure your trigger just functions. It's easy to take out more after semi inletting. With more wood around the trigger & magazine you can move the rear through bolt up to give it a more balanced location on the side of the stock. Might use a smaller plug over the cross bolt. 3/8" for ebony works well. Aftermarket steel ones are 7/16". If using ebony, I glue little blocks on a 3/8" dowel and turn them on the lathe so the grain flow of the ebony follows the grain flow of the stock. I'm sure you were limited to the holes that Winchester put into the stock. Here's a pic of the more balanced layout with the same sized Newer Win action in a Roger Vardy blank (although opened up to 3.6" with a Dakota Rigby extractor installed).


IMG_1904pair by JAMES ANDERSON

quote:

Originally posted by gunmaker:
You might take some time and glue some little blocks of wood into the inlet. Factory inlets take out way too much. Just make sure your trigger just functions. It's easy to take out more after semi inletting. With more wood around the trigger & magazine you can move the rear through bolt up to give it a more balanced location on the side of the stock. Might use a smaller plug over the cross bolt. 3/8" for ebony works well. Aftermarket steel ones are 7/16". If using ebony, I glue little blocks on a 3/8" dowel and turn them on the lathe so the grain flow of the ebony follows the grain flow of the stock. I'm sure you were limited to the holes that Winchester put into the stock. Here's a pic of the more balanced layout with the same sized Newer Win action in a Roger Vardy blank (although opened up to 3.6" with a Dakota Rigby extractor installed).


IMG_1904pair by JAMES ANDERSON

That’s a great looking rifle. Good tips. Yes, I need to add some wood and/or Bondo to the inletting. Will post some pictures once I’m a little further along on that process.

You’re right on the pre cut holes for the cross bolts. They come in at about 9/16”.

The walnut blank from Roger Vardy came in today. This is a “heavy” blank in exhibition grade. Hoping to send the blank and pattern off for duplicating in the next week or so.

Looks like a very suitable blank for a boomer. Roger really knows his wood. He can probably tell you the story of where and when he cut the tree down that your blank came out of.

Especially with big bores, don't inlet just with a hammer. Use your rawhide mallet to just mark the high spots and then cut/scrape them out. Receivers & barrels have draft that acts like a splitting wedge when driven with force. Try and keep as much wood in your inlet as possible for it to function properly. Good fit all around the mag box leaves more room to install your cross bolts where you want them.

I know the tree was cut in 1988.

Here’s the latest in my pattern development. I’ve been able to add a bunch of material to places where the factory inletting took too much material out. I’ve also redone the shape of the cheek piece.

quote:

Originally posted by thirdbite:
What material did you use to build up the stock?

Bondo

I used a 25 inch Douglas no.5 on my 416 Taylor Ruger MKII stainless. Shoots 3 different bullets weights into nice one ragged hole groups

Came in at 8.5 lbs.

After glass bedding and adding some lead shot ammo, sling and scope.

Right at 10lbs balances just in front of the front action screw.

But then I used a Ruger factory synthetic stock.

No worry about cracking with that.

Good luck with your project.

I sent my pattern and blank off for duplicating today. Will report back once I receive the new stock.

I received the stock back today from Custom Stocks and Steel. They did a really nice job duplicating my pattern. I think the figure on this blank turned out pretty well.

Coming along nicely. Very nice shape and with really nice grain flow.

Making a little progress on the stock. Got the grip shaped and grip cap installed. I’ve also installed the cross bolts along with ebony caps. Ebony tip and recoil pad up next.

Looks good. Hopefully no cracks this time!

Made some progress on the stock with the ebony tip and recoil pad now installed. I hit a slight snag with the ebony tip. When I was trimming down to size, I noticed a hairline check in the face of the tip. I attempted to stabilize with some CA glue, but I am thinking I will cut it off and install a different piece of ebony.

I got distracted with hunting season, but I’m now back to working on this rifle. Slowly working on the inletting.

Looks good.