Dear All,

I have a "plastic" (injection molded?) rifle stock with a hollow foreend. Not only is the foreend pretty loud, it is also fairly floppy. In the past, I have to some extent been able to take care of these issues by (half) filling the foreend void with epoxy (Acraglass). I was intending to do so again this time, but was wondering if there was anything else (or additional) I could do to stiffen the foreend in the process??

Just an idea, one hears so much about carbon filament material and its use with epoxy. Supposedly this combination should be very light and very stiff... I don't know if any such materials are available to the general public (at low cost), or whether this is at all applicable to what I'm trying to achieve??

- mike

Find a pro shop or an archery supplier near you and get some pieces of graphite shaft to bond into the forearm. It will get better stiffness with less weight.

Darn good idea Tiggertate!!

Do I simply position lengths of grafite shaft in the hollow foreend before I pour the Acraglass?? Is the grafite shafts hollow?? Will the shaft lengths need to be covered with Acraglass completely, or is that irrelevant??

- mike

I've done this very thing but I used inconel tubing which is very stiff and very light. Inconel tubing is used as fuel line for Hydrazine fuel on the space shuttle. I cut the lengths I needed and bedded the ends in bedding compound and a dab in the center. I actually drilled a hole through a couple of the interior webs and stuck the tubing through them. Helped a bunch. If you would like, PM me and I'll send you a length of tubing. The graphite shafts are a good idea, but I would bet the inconel is stiffer and lighter.

Sounds like Pegleg has you covered. The stuff I used was hollow tubing. Cut-offs and broken shafts. I plugged the ends to keep the epoxy to a minimum. I cut them to the full length of the hollow in the forearm.

You are going to have an issue getting any readily available epoxy to stick to the injection molded stock.

If the fore arm is really that bad, then the only good solution is to replace the stock with a better one.

I roughed mine up with a Dremel burr. It made for a pretty good mechanical bond.

Guys, thanks an awful lot for your help. Pegleg, I'll get in touch via PM.

CAS, I have already used Acraglas in one of these stocks, and it is still in the stock with no sign of working loose. So far so good. Like Tiggertate mentioned, one possible clue is to rough up the stock in advance. In any event, buying an aftermarket stock is not an option for this particular rifle - the factory synthetics are the only game in town. They are pretty serviceable once modified a bit.

- mike

this is a good post. just what i have been looking for with regard to my synthetic steyr and a few other rifles.

I find epoxy putties can be molded and shaped for this work much easier than liquid two part epoxies. It is very easy to put exactly what you need where you want and clean up any mistakes before they cure.

I cut out a 1/8" thick piece of steel to snugly fit the bottom of the barrel slot. Then drilled holes in the steel. Inserted it and then pumped high temp hot glue from a glue gun to fill everything up. The glue settled out perfectly level. Really stiffened up that synthetic stock. Cheap, easy, and effective.

A pushrod from an old motor works great. Adds the stiffness that you want and also a bit of weight for better balance.

" MHO " Run this by me again . Your wanting to do what to the fore end of a stock ?. Stiffen it up or add weight and stiffness ?.

Inexpensive composite forms of stiffners are available from custom fishing rod manufactures .

Boron Carbon either hollows or pencils can be had , some times frayed or splintered for nothing .

Who manufactured your stock ?. You say it's lose in the fore end or floppy ?. It's injection molded plastic ?. Do you know what type of plastic ?. If you tell me the manufacture I'll know .

Acraglass is fine for bedding for bonding how ever I would recommend Devcon Epoxy . Unless you already have the other . You can also " Foam fill" the fore end with or with out stiffeners and not epoxy anything .

Simply cut a " Plug " out to be replaced after words in the fore end , urethane foam adds stiffness in hollows to be sure put the boron carbon or arrow shafts ( their not to cheap ) into the hole and foam in place. Glue the plug in . Bingo .

Do you wish to add lateral strength , are you going to drill into the fore end hollow and not lay up under the barrel channel correct ?.

A bit of advice for all of you wishing to "Bond " on plastics . KNOW the type of plastic your dealing with first it really helps .

Second make a covalent bond ( physical and Chemical ) Never worry no matter what the weather or load if properly engineered that is !.

Any of you ever try ( urethane adhesives ) for lay up under the barrel channel ( bedding with a pliable yet solid surface ) . 3M , Sika Flex, sell it under Marine adhesives ( 5200 is 3M's )
SikaFlex is 241 291 290 and other #'s.

The really nice thing about the stuff is it's in a chalking tube bonds to almost anything . Here is the best part about it . Plus 400 % minus 50% bond stretch as well as compressive strength with out bond failure !!!!!!!!!!!. unaffected by moisture or heat in any gun situation least wise .

...

On this particular stock, I'd like to achieve a stiffer foreend and sound deadening.

When I say the stock is "plastic", I don't strictly know that. Whatever synthtic material it is made of?? I assume it is injection molded as it is certainly not laid up, it is hollow and I beleive the marks from the mold are visible (slight lines on top and bottom of buttstock, say.

Sadly, Blaser is the only one who manufatures synthetic stocks for their own rifles. If a McMillan would have been available, I would have bought one in a heartbeat. As it is, the Blaser stocks can be made quite serviceable.

Here is what I have done to the two stocks I have owned for quite a few years:
- remove pitiful factory pad
- cut stock to length with a future 1" pad
- install (wooden) block(s) to allow installation of new pad
- fill hollow buttstock with foam (insulation material) to deaden sound
- install 1" Pachmayr Decelerator
- fill hollow foreend with epoxy - or in this case carbon rods plus some epoxy - to stiffen foreend and reduce sound.

On past stocks, I have added varying amounts of material to the foreend. In one stock I wanted to achieve extra weight (stock used with magnums and for driven hunting). On another I only added as much epoxy as I felt I needed to dampen the sound.

On this last rifle, I already have a heavy barrel on it - Blaser calls it a "semi-weight". It adds a bit less than a 1 lbs to the total weight of the rifle. Because of the heavier barrel, I'm not really looking for additional weight up front, thus my interest in stiffening the stock without adding too much weight.

Other than the mods I described above, I don't intend to modify the stock (no lay-ups - I would not know how...).

- mike