Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors Pre 64 Featherweight into Winlite Stock?

Acquiring a pre 64 featherweight, I have a Winlite stock which has already been whittled on some, will the pre 64 fit into it?

Thanks.

Action hole spacing is different. I likely could be fit, but not easily.

I've fit pre 64's to long action classic stocks. It's not too hard/difficult, but you better be decent with the epoxy....

Any tips on your process of doing this?

Open up the recoil lug inletting and the barrel channel just enough so the action sits level in the stock and the tang fits properly to the top of the grip. From that point, there is some minor inletting needed to make the screws, magazine box and bottom metal work. Pre and post 64 stocks are actually pretty close, so it is not too big of a job.

As BSA indicated - epoxy is your friend. To finish the job with a good fit, put a thin layer of tape on all of the barrel except the first inch or so. Put grease or a release agent over the full action. Bed the lug and the first inch of the barrel, as well as the tang seat and any other areas of the stock which need some added material to achieve a good fit.

Let it harden up for a few hours, pop the stock off of the action and clean up anything that isn't quite right, give it a couple more days to cure. Go shooting.

I've seen post 64 stocks actually fitted pretty well to a pre 64 action... it can be done.


Good luck!

Justin

Good info and tips.
Thanks.

Pre64... what are you using for a bedding compound that you are removing the action after a couple hours? Never done it that way , not that its wrong , I'm always willing to learn a new way.

I've tried several bedding products, but my current preferred is Devcon Plastic Steel. It is a fairly fast cure epoxy (fully cured in 16 hours, but set up very hard and safe to pull apart in a fraction of that time.

You are right that many bedding products should spend as much as 24-48 hours curing with the action in the stock. Even with the Devcon product, I don't think I've ever pulled it apart after 2 hours - perhaps 4 is more realistic, so you've made a good clarification. As general bedding guidance, folks should be aware that many bedding products take much, much longer to cure.

I will be bedding a MK V this weekend and will try to take some photos and keep some notes on the process.




Cheers!

Justin

Justin, a little advice here. Don't try to pull that action out of the stock after 2 or even 4 hours. Let it sit in there for at least 10 hours. You can thank me later...

As promised, the .257 Wby Mag Accumark bedding project...




For this bedding project, I used Devcon Plastic Steel (Putty). I used electrical tape to mask areas of the action where I wanted to create small clearances in the bedding (e.g. front of recoil lug, barrel, etc) and masking tape to protect any areas of inletting I did not want any bedding. For a release agent I used an Evercote product made for use when doing a gel-coat fiberglass job. This is a water-soluble release agent that (in my opinion) gives a better result than using grease.

HEAVILY coat your entire action with the release agent. This is critical. If you fail to use enough release agent, the best thing that will happen is you will have a terrible clean-up job ahead of you to get cured epoxy off of your action. A much worse outcome is that your action will be locked solid into your stock. This is a very real possibility, so don't forget to use lots of release agent!



The stock was fully masked except in the areas to be bedded, and those areas were prepped (roughed) using a rotary tool.




After thoroughly mixing the epoxy, I laid a very heavy layer into the areas to be bedded. You want too much rather than not enough, so mix plenty of epoxy for your bedding job.



Continued below...

Continued...

Then, the action is dropped into the stock...



Because this stock has one-piece billet-aluminium machined inlettng for the action, I left the original surface for the recoil lug to engage (you would not necessarily do this with a wood stock). So, in this particular case, before I torqued the action screws, I tapped the action as far aft in the stock as it would go. This ensured the recoil lug was fully engaged with the bearing pad in the inletting. Then I torqued the screws, wiped up the excess epoxy, and went to bed.





So, BSA, since I did get a full night's sleep, the cure time on this before I pulled it apart was about 9 hours. With the Devcon product, I think you could safely do it in 4 hours, but many bedding compounds need 24 or even 48 hours before pulling them apart for the first time.

Here is the stock and action right after pulling them apart and giving them a quick warm-water wash (the release agent is water-soluble).



Continued below...

And here is the bedding after a bit more clean-up...




And the finished product...





The whole project took about 24 hours and probably about 4 hours of my time.

This project was done on a customer rifle which came into our shop for some custom work and we ended up owning it. The owner decided to go another direction with his project and we we ended up accepting the Mk V from him on trade. This rifle will be listed for sale on GB beginning this Sunday. If you're interested, shoot me a PM.

If have any questions about the bedding project, please don't hesitate to let me know. I will try to keep an eye on this thread in case there are any questions.

Happy shooting!

Justin

BTDT. I don't use all that blue tape though. Nice bedding job, nonetheless. Too bad it's a weatherby and not what the OP was asking about..... If you have a post 64 stock that you glass bed a pre 64 action to, you should show those pictures.

Thanks. Yes, often you are refinishing the stock as a part of the bedding job, in which case there's little need to protect everything. For this stock, i really didn't want to mesa up the factory finish.



Ha! Yeah, I figured the Weatherby might not find too much love on this forum As for the OP, I won't be fitting any pre-64 actions to a post-64 stock anytime soon. Regardless, the bedding procedure would be pretty much the same.

....and well done. Thanks.

Thanks all.

Justin, looks like we're not too far apart. Would you take on the job of pre-64 into Winlite?

Ballpark estimate?

Brazos,

The bedding job on the Weatherby above has about $50 in materials, and maybe 4 hours of my time. A Winlite stock would also require a stabilizer (stiffening) epoxy before the bedding job and some additional inletting. Those adding hours and materials will increase the price for your particular job.

There are lots of smiths around who specialize in stock work and who can do a good, stress-free pillar bed job for around $200. Maybe you would be adding another $50 or so for the extra stiffening and inletting on the Winlite. Honestly, I just can't compete with this price. If you are near Snohomish County, I can make some recommendations for you.

Justin

Thanks Justin.

I'll give it some thought, will probably just sell the Winlite and buy a McMillan.

Ummm...

There was someone trying to find a winlite in the classifieds recently . I was trying to find an adl a while back and depending on what "whittled on" means I'd be interested.