Jeffe and others,

I located a new M70 Classic Safari Express to inspect and try out. I have one issue w/ the stock: It appears the comb is too high as it is difficult to get down on the sights. It naturally shoulders for a higher scope sight but no good for iron sights.

Question - Is there any reason why I couldn't remove some wood from the comb area on this stock? If I can reshape it to better use fixed sights it would be a winner for me.

Thanks,

Gary

There's no reason you couldn't do it. There may be some reasons to consider it carefully. If the stock has a monte carlo comb it is a snap to lower it and the butt does not need reshaping. If it has a straight comb, that complicates the job a bit. In some instances, removing wood from the top of a straight comb results in the butt looking "flat-topped" and misshapen. It just depends on how much you need to remove. If that occurs, you then must remove wood from both sides of the upper comb to restore the proper "rounded" contour. This gets to be a bit much for some home gunsmiths. In either case, a stock refinish would be required.

Glen,

The Classic Safari stock has more drop at the heel than at the comb. I was thinking of bringing the comb down closer to the same drop as the heel. Maybe take a bit off the face of the cheek piece and then blend it back together so it doesn't look odd.

There looks as if it has enough wood to work w/ and even in a worst case scenerio, it appears to have enough spacer and pad material to re-fit if the heel needs a bit of lowering.

I hated to whittle on this stock w/out some additonal input from those more experienced. It looks straight forward to me, but maybe to Jeffe or others is a no-no.

Thanks

If it's the older Safari Classic stock Winchester credited David Miller with, there is enough lumber there to build a three bedroom house out of.

It is far better to make the stock fit you. You will suffer less from recoil problems and should be able to shoot more accurately if the stock fits. Just approach your modifications slowly. Rasp, sand, or cut the stock down slowly trying it for fit as you go. If all you are cutting is the comb, then you aren't in danger of affecting the strength of the stock.

You may want to ask advice before you cut the stock from people like Jeffe who work with stocks and understand fitting them. I have to change the comb to be higher in the back and lower close to the action so that it recoils away from my cheek bone. You may want a totally different solution.

When you think you have it right, pick up the rifle, close your eyes, and put the gun to your shoulder, and then open your eyes to see just where your eye is in relation to the scope or sights. Keep doing this after each change to the stock until you are happy with it. Yes, you will destroy the resale value of the stock. BUT, if the gun doesn't fit you now, why own it?

Perhaps someone could post some pictures of various comb shapes to help this guy???