This has been discussed several times on how to fix a cheap plastic stock from "throw it in the trash and get a laminate stock to assorted fixes. Everyone has an opinion and some people have two opinions.

I have done some research on what people have done to fix these flimsy stocks that still shoot under an inch group as long as you do not put much pressure on the fore end of the stock.

Google Search on
"how to fix or stiffen a flimsy plastic stock"

will give you additional options and lots of them. The last post is using Rocktite as a cheap simple type of fix vs the other types of fix.

I found different articles on what people did in two or 3 different phases to fix their rifle stock. Below are the most detailed.

Most people drilled or cut down the front forearm and places a small 3/16 or 1/4 metal rod or all thread or used an arrow to go down both sides of the stock.

THEN they bedded the gun as a different procedure once the stock was stiff most of the time.

There has been discussion of the stock handle breaking at the grip and there is a discussion on how to drill and support the grip area.

Lastly there is a discussion what to fill the back stock with to support it and deaden the sound. There are people using expanding foam, silicone, sand, epoxy, plastic bags and other assorted items and many are adding weights in the stock to add weight to the larger caliber rifles.
http://www.savageshooters.com/...e-Factory-Axis-Stock

http://www.savageshooters.com/...nforcement-Made-Easy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCerU_NsdSw
economy fix?

Thoroughly covered in the LAST 5 threads about this very same gun/ topic.....
Re read what we have already told you in those posts.

We disagree on your comment. I did ask lots questions and like ass---s everyone has and least one opinion and some more that one but there were no detailed posts or explanations on how to exactly do the project if you chose to. As helpful as the board is I was surprised that there was very little constructive detailed "how to" information to work with to actually do a project like this.

This final post is just a summary of the information and utubes to evaluate if you are thinking about or want to do a stock stiffening, bedding, and fore grip strengthening of a flimsy stock.

Maybe JimTx has put the matter in a more interesting way, because if that exact matter has been nutted out in other recent topics, I missed them, too.

I have a plastic stock on my Tikka with what feels like a flexible fore end, and may indeed be interested in improving it.

I thought I gave a pretty detailed post when you asked about 6 months ago. I'm pretty long winded sometimes. Just for in case you missed it, here's a repeat:

I took on a challenge one time that I could make a factory Remington 700 magnum rifle with plastic stock accurate (defined as less than moa to 300 yards, on demand, 5 shot groups, fired rapidly without cooling) without rebarreling and without true "blueprinting" of the action. i.e. things that could be done by a home gunsmith without cost or specialized tooling. I acquired a suitable action, a factory tupperware stock, and I had access to as many new takeoff barrels as I wanted from a colleague that used new rifles to build customs.

I began by taking a new 300 win mag barrel and installing it on the action, checked headspace, put it in a HS precision stock and fired it. It shot about 1.75" consistently for 5 shot groups at 100 yards, without cooling between shots.

I borescoped it, and found that the chamber was off-center, resulting in the throat being quite heavily more into the rifling on one side than the opposite side. I set back the barrel 1/2", re-chambered, set to minimum headspace, lapped in the recoil lug to make the barrel shoulder and action parallel, and re-tested. It went to about .75 moa, 5 shot groups at 100 yards, but only if allowed to cool between shots. Otherwise, it walked diagonally, opening up the group.

I repeated with 4 barrels, until I got one that would consistently hold under .75 moa at 100 yards hot or cold shooting. The others all improved by the chamber/setback work, but walked as they heated. So, by trial and error, I finally got a good one.

Then, I put it into a tupperware stock. Accuracy went back to poor. I bedded it. Slightly better, not good enough. Relieved the forend pressure point, it helped, but still not good enough. Pillar bedded it, and glass bedded between pillars, adding fiberglass heavily in the bedding. All of a sudden, accuracy was pretty good, but inconsistent. I attributed that to the forend randomly touching as the plastic flexed up. I added a rod and fiberglass and epoxy in the forend hollow to stop the flexing, and it became about as accurate as in the HS stock.

The rifle is now a consistent, less than 1 moa, 338 win mag rifle. Required set back barrel, re-aligned and proper dimension chamber, minimal headspace, lapped square action/lug/barrel tenon, pillar bedding, glass bedding action, filled forend channel.

Was it worth it? No, I'd just buy an HS precision stock, put it in and be done with it if I wanted a synthetic stock. But, it can be done, and for not much cost other than a few dollars worth of epoxy.

BTW, in the spirit of the low-cost mods, I pillar bedded with pot metal 1/2" dia lag bolt masonry anchor shields from the hardware store, at about $.35 apiece. Filed them to approximate action shape, sanded to final fit with a piece of wet/dry on the action, and installed with a drill press and slightly oversize bit, followed up by epoxy bedding to get them to fit and be square to the action. Milled off the bottom to the bottom metal recess depth with an end mill in my drill press.

Home gun hack procedure 1.1.3, total cost of about $10 to make a "custom" accurized rifle. Only tooling needed was a 10" atlas lathe, 4 jaw chuck, steady rest, dial indicator, depth mic, floating reamer holder, chamber reamer and go gauge, a half round file, a flat file, and a couple drill bits and an end mill in the drill press. Materials needed was handfull of fiberglass insulation from a pink building material roll, some acra-glass, a tube of valve grinding compound, two 1/2" pot metal lag shields, a sheet of 120 grit wet dry paper, and a piece of 1/4" aluminum rod.

PS. To answer your queston on bonding, I didn't think the epoxy directly bonded well to the plastic, I drilled a whole bunch of holes with a 3/16" or so bit and made sure the epoxy penetrated into those holes to anchor it.

Maybe Jim wants some one to volunteer to do it for him.

I too have sent him a detailed how to do it massage.

I am puzzled as to why anyone would want to go to so much effort with a plastic stock. If budget is the driving concern then a cheap takeoff wooden stock, glass bedded properly, will provide a very stable platform and will be very weather resistant if finished properly. All of that is easy to do.......

A slick trick to get epoxy to stick to injection molded stocks is to pock mark the area of interest with a soldering iron. Not only does it make the surface rough but it "burns out" some of the waxes and oils. Plus, it's a little harder to punch completely through the stock - unlike a twist drill.

This is my last on this if you do not like it do not read it or answer.

I have been redoing some old implant crowns and abutments today for a patient along with some cosmetic crowns and other items today on other patients.

This is a statement but not the detailed explanation of what I did, how I did it, and what I used to cut the holes into the implant abutments to get them off and how I got the impressions for the lab to work with. Most of you could not read the above and go do the work unless you are a dentist. There is not enough information.

That to me is a statement like I bedded my gun today. Does not tell you really how to do one.

This is not a detail explanation of what all was done and used. The statement has no detail to it on what was done to get ready, was the stock drilled with supports to go in the bedding material. What material was used for the bedding? Did you fix the stock and bed the action at the same time. Did you drill and place supports in the grip where there is a tendency to break. How did you prepare the gun and action for the bedding and what did you use for block out?

Some of you are experts and do it all the time.
I have not done one is several years and not a plastic one. I deal with details and more details being a dentist.

I put those articles up for the guy that is not an expert like some of you, that wants to screw with a plastic stock when others do not, or he does not have any $ to do so or like me just wants to screw with it to see what he can do to improve a rifle.

One factor not mentioned is the added weight to the stock from all of the additions. A heavier rifle is easier to shoot more accurately due to reduced recoil. I respect the desire to increase accuracy in these flexible stocks but it simply does not justify the expense of labor and treasure in the illustrated examples. Even folks who are budget restricted can easily afford a another $75-$150 for an Accustock model vs all of that effort.

As I posted in another thread on this matter bedding the action area with steel filled epoxy and filling voids with foam are the most economic and effective means of increasing accuracy. This needs to be combined with hand loaded ammo. Lastly adjust the trigger to a low and safe let-off and if you are a good bench shot groups should easily be MOA. You can get a crap barrel with any gun and that is a wild card.

Very often rifles with these cheap 'flimsy' stocks actually shoot well out of the box, hence there popularity with the masses so to speak. Most of these stocks are pillar bedded so the work to upgrade these stocks, if not replacing them with a more expensive plastic or wood stock is focused on stiffening the fore-end. Some find shooting off bipods or bags close to the fore-end tip does affect accuracy. This all points to the need to free float the barrel which many do with high class plastic and wood stocks as well.

I have a Marlin XS7 rifle and my two hunting sons a Remington SPS and a Weatherby Vanguard. I used to use the Remington but with all three I have done nothing else but to free float the barrels and I mean free float so there is a good gap all round that you can run a reasonable thickness of cleaning rag up the channel and give the barrel a good clean and oil.
All three rifles shoot very accurately for hunting purposes and take game at good ranges using bipods and with suppressors hanging on the end of the barrels.

I don't really see any reason why the need to spend a lot of time and effort on cheap stocks when the rifle will shoot accurate with simple and quick free floating.

Often a lot is made of the 'noise' from the cheap plastic stocks and maybe if sitting in a high seat and taking deer at short range, an inadvertent knock to the stock could frighten an animal but for normal foot stalking, I've never noticed any problem with 'noisy' plastics. Boots usually make more noise than anything else.

Obviously with time an effort a cheap stock can be made into anything you want but if only looking to improve accuracy, a good free float certainly will do the trick.

The last group was 4 shots under an inch at 100 before any work but the gun really feels better with the two all thread rods bedded into the fore grip with holes drilled into the front pillar support plastic. it is easy when you have an old 1/4 inch drill bit that is long enough. Still ugly and will probably always be.

You do not realize how little plastic you have in the fore grip till you drill a hole behind the back of the trigger guard into the hollow stock. I placed a ~8 inch piece of all thread in this hole and set the trigger guard in place to hold it in place after the epoxy. I did take the long drill and place a hole higher into the stock from the end of the butt and place and identical piece of all thread in this hole both placed with 2 ton epoxy. I placed the short all thread using an old aluminum arrow that I crimped an inch or so back and use this to carry the all thread to place since the all thread fit inside the arrow up to the crip.

I will bed this weekend if I have the time.

Was it worth it?? Still fun to rig plus the stock feels like a real with the added weight. Probably could have done the stock and the fore arm and kept the gun with the same fit.

Cost involved is 2 tubes of delcon plastic steel and old tube of 2 ton for the grip and piece of 1/4 in all thread.

I bedded the gun with Devcon plastic steel and I do not feel it was worth the effort. You all were right.

Gun was shooting under an inch with Nosler 140 BT and even better with the Hornaday 139 BT lead tip. In the 80's I wanted all my guns to be 1/2 at 100 but with this fun gun How much can you improve with a plastic bedded gun from 5/8 inch and not bedded?

It was fun but a lot of time invested that could have been put to better use.
I also have some bees as another hobby plus my flats bay boat has set in the garage for two months because of prior weekend commitments.

Boys and our toys.
Thanks for all the comments pro and con.

WHAT I really love is what I did to the cheap stock by adding the two all thread pieces in the forearm and two pieces in the weak spot behind the trigger guard plus I filled the stock with foam just because. By chance the balance on the gun now is right at the trigger. This was quick cheap and easy if you own a 1/4 inch drill with 15" shaft.

I have bedded several rifles but never a plastic one. The savage is not the one you want to do with the "back screw" in front of the tang and the tang basically floated.

I had to pull everything off the action and fill with clay bock out(NEXT TIME I will use plumber's putty) It took forever to clean the clay out of the gun.

I agree the stock is not worth bedding the way my gun was shooting but it was worth beefing up the stock for the cost of some 1/4 inch all thread and a couple tubes of epoxy and about an hr of time to do both.
It is still ugly but the stock feels and handles and shoots well once Savage got a new barrel on the gun but it did that before my time invested.

Jim,

It is worth doing just to see what can be done. Outside of that you’re right, it isn’t worth the effort. I once spent a lot of time with a NEF .223 just to see what could be done. I did make it better, but it really wasn’t worth the effort. It was cool to do nonetheless......

I played a bit with a howa plastic stock trying to find some kind of glue that would stick to it. Inside the forend I roughed up a section with 80 grit paper and put a blob of epoxy on it. After it cured, I pried and it popped right off. I repeated with a couple other kinds of glue with the same effect. Maybe there are other types of plastic stocks out there that will let you use glue, but I gave up on this one.

quote:

Originally posted by ssdave:

I borescoped it, and found that the chamber was off-center, resulting in the throat being quite heavily more into the rifling on one side than the opposite side.

I found a M700 Mountain Rifle DM in 280 that had the chamber offset by .004". It wouldn't shoot under 2 1/2" at 100yds no matter what I fed it.

We determined that with a chamber cast chucked in a lathe using a dial indicator.. there was rifling all the way back to the case neck portion of then chamber.

When I called Remington (I had purchased the rifle new) they're response was that it wasn't possible and besides, it would not affect accuracy anyway.