Bedding forestock and filling butt for rigidity on polymer stocks.

[Eagle Trapper]

Purchased a NIB Ruger American predator in 223. Took the rifle apart to clean it, looks clean but the rag says no. Anyhow, has anyone done glass or jb weld forest bedding to help stiffen up the somewhat flimsy stock? Also has anyone pulled out the piece of Styrofoam out of the but and filling it with silicon or a similar substance? It's a cheap gun and has a polymer stock, can't ask too much but it'd be fun to tinker. Seen a few YouTube vids. Just curious what others have done.

[icehunter]

Yup,done a few. Used 1/4inch key stock in the front end. Also have done them with carbon fibre arrow shafts if a lighter weight was wanted/needed. For securing them I used that liquid bedding from cabelas. I believe the name was bedrock,I dremeled out slots in the forend stock reinforcements,slid in the keystock or arrow shafts then poured the bedding around them and let it flow in and help partially fill the stock voids.

Never done any of the butts yet as doing the forearm was all that was needed. I have done savage,WBY,mossberg and Remington stocks this way.

[teledogs]

I filled the butt end of a Savage stock with Mono low expanding foam to get rid of the hollow drum sound and it worked well. Didn't notice any rigidity improvement.

[Dean2]

Originally Posted by icehunter

Yup,done a few. Used 1/4inch key stock in the front end. Also have done them with carbon fibre arrow shafts if a lighter weight was wanted/needed. For securing them I used that liquid bedding from cabelas. I believe the name was bedrock,I dremeled out slots in the forend stock reinforcements,slid in the keystock or arrow shafts then poured the bedding around them and let it flow in and help partially fill the stock voids.

Never done any of the butts yet as doing the forearm was all that was needed. I have done savage,WBY,mossberg and Remington stocks this way.

Very good advice. Just filling the voids with Devcon or whatever doesn't help much and adds a lot of weight. Best solution is to put them in a quality stock but if you can't afford that then the carbon fibre arrow shafts is a very good alternative. As far as filling the buttstock, I never found this to be of any advantage unless you are trying to add weight to tame a heavy recoiling gun or balance the gun with the scope on it.

[icehunter]

Oh and if you can"t get broken arrows,check out hobby stores that sell RC stuff. You can buy shafts and C/F rods from them. A little pricey as compared to free arrows,but its a alternative.

[Dean2]

Originally Posted by icehunter

Oh and if you can"t get broken arrows,check out hobby stores that sell RC stuff. You can buy shafts and C/F rods from them. A little pricey as compared to free arrows,but its a alternative.

I get my carbon shaft arrows from Bow shops. They usually have a whole bushel of broken ones, especially if they have a range, or cut offs that they will give you for free.

[Eagle Trapper]

Thanks for the tips fellas!! I also seen some product sold in New Zealand for this specific application that looks interesting. JB weld may also be a candidate

[DLab]

Instead of running an arrow shaft the length of the fore stock ,I went the other way to deal with a non pivoting bi-pod creating flex.I took short pieces of arrow shaft and angle cut them each end to fit side ways in a channel cut in front of the cross supports,front and rear of the sling mount.Rough up the area needed for epoxy grip and clean with ISO alcohol.
I just used clear two part epoxy glue to bed them in.That stiffened the fore stock and dealt with the flex issue nicely.
Also left me access to the sling mount nut in the channel.

[catnthehat]

I bought some Aluminum u bar stock from Canadian tire to stiffen the forensic on a cheap stock once, it worked fantastic . I roughed up the surface of the bed and
Epoxied it in.
Cat