Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors 99 Stock Bolt Hole Help

At some point I picked up a roughed out 99 butt stock. Unfortunately it doesn't have a stock bolt hole through it. I've added one before, but it took me a few tries and ruined a couple cheaper pieces of walnut. This one is a nice piece of walnut and I really don't want to ruin it. Can anyone here give me a hand? Not looking for a handout I'll pay you for your time and expertise.

Do you have a drill press that'll accept it length-wise?

I do not. The last one that I was successful with, I did on my metal lathe ( after the first two attempts at doing it by trying to make jigs and doing it by hand ). I sold my lathe when I moved to MN because I didn't want to move it from WA and haven't acquired a new one yet. Kinda the same with my drill press but I bought a bench top one, as it satisfies my needs.

Can you buy a larger pipe for your bench drill press turning it into a floor model for these type of projects?

The lathe was gonna be my next question. Without the chance to do it in a lathe on centers or likewise in a drill press on centers I don't know of any other way. Entropy is wearing me down or I would just say send it on in.

Odd that whoever rough turned it didn't do the screw hole.

Let me know if you find a solution. I have the exact same problem - nice unfinished stock, and no bolt hole. I thought about trying to do it myself (reluctantly), but after reading these comments, ain’t no way I’m going to try it.

It is odd. Not that it clarifies anything but when I say roughed out, it's rough. It's obviously for a 99 and I'm pretty positive it was done by hand with a gouge. It doesn't have any of the holes in the back to hold it in a duplicator and the lines where the wood was removed aren't as even as you'd expect from a machine.

I'm going to track down a full size drill press or just buy one from Craigslist. Any chance you can describe the procedure?

Will a drill press have a long enough stroke to drill all the way through? When I shopped for drill presses most were around 3-1/2" I went to a commercial brand that was 5" and I'm glad I did!

That video explains the process when using a drill press too. It's what I meant by "drilling on centers".

If you get a drill press for this, a floor model would be ideal. Obviously as much quill travel as possible is a benefit, but if the quill only travels a few inches all is not lost, just snub the table higher for succeeding cuts while leaving the bit in the previously drilled hole. A long D-bit is a blessing (like the one in the video). You can make one out of a piece of drill rod and a bench grinder - much cheaper than buying a long gun drill. Start the hole with a brad point bit then switch to the D-bit.

A D-bit will track nice and straight too. Once I got impatient with re-setting up for each couple inches of cut in a Remington M12 stock I was making, at around the halfway point. I gambled and chucked the D-bit in a drill motor and went the rest of the way by hand - the bit tracked sweetly in its own hole and I came out the end bang-on. I've also used D-bits to bore ramrod holes in muzzle loader fore arms (using the under barrel rod pipes as guides). Never had the hole wander out into mid-air or up into the barrel channel. Slow, steady, and repeated withdrawal for chip clearing, wins the day.

Interesting, that's the video I used when I used a lathe and didn't realize ( forgot/wasn't paying attention/etc ) it showed drill press too. I really need to buy another lathe. In the seattle area they are everywhere because of the navy, shipping, Boeing, etc. decent used ones are fairly non-existent in northern MN.

If you get something figured out, let me know and I’d be happy to be your first paying customer😏

cool video. I was wondering how you kept it lined it up using a drill press or hand drill. The lathe made it easy

It amazes me how you could drill from both ends and end up with a perfectly straight finished hole.

How do they blast through mountains from each end and end up at exactly the same spot in the middle of the mountain?

Makes my brain hurt thinking about it.

agreed! and choosing a different mountain is always a possibility...


My process is definitely shade-tree-class, but..

- drill in 5" (with stiffer 6" bits) from both directions. You can do this off a horizontal bench setup, (or lathe bed), with a hand drill, where the work can be held firmly, and guides can be oriented parallel and stable. several in&out shallow cuts to keep the drill flutes clear.

Then use 12" bits, (again from both directions, and) more critically, again with shallow cuts in&out cleaning the flutes.

- start small with 1/8", or 5/32" and confirm that you have connecting holes, (with laser light or high pressure air). Then bump up to 1/4", and finally 3/8" , with 12" bits that reach through/past the meeting point,

...or, if You are starting with a rough blank, drill the through hole first, and use that as the centers for your pantograph copy set-up

I just tried it for the first time, using a lathe, following the procedure in the video. I took an old stock, drove a 3/8" hardwood dowel in one end and a 3/4" in the other. I drilled it through from the front using a long drill bit, and came out right on center of the 3/4 incher. Then I drilled out the 3/4 from the rear. It fit perfectly.

The critical part was locating the center of the forward end of the hole. I started with a finished stock, so it was easy to put it in place and use a transfer punch to mark the center. It might not be so easy on a semi-finished stock, because it will require some inletting before it will go in place. Kind of a chicken and egg thing. There could also be some propensity for the forward drill to walk the wood grain, because you are starting it 3" down in a cavity. A deep punch mark helps there.

I was concerned about the side cheeks meeting the steel square if you weren't able to fit the stock onto the action before drilling the through bolt hole at just the right angle and not blowing through at the wrist somewhere where the hole is close to the surface. It can't be too high or low either and you have to mark where the hole comes through somehow and threads into the action..

You nailed it when you said "transfer punch" Sam. Fit the stock blank to the tangs first, and when satisfied with a nice snug fit screw a transfer punch into the bolt hole with just a little bit of the point sticking out rearward. Slide the stock back on and when it seats correctly give it a bump so the punch makes a tiny indentation in the wood - there's your aiming point for the center punch.

Figuring out where the hole needs to come out under the butt plate is another matter. Lay the bare action on a big piece of Kraft paper with the screw sticking in it and plot/extend the centerline of the screw an additional distance on the paper. Then remove the screw, slap the inletted butt stock blank onto the action, and with the action positioned exactly where it was on the paper before, plot the horizontal axis line for the screw hole location on the wood. Determine where the butt plate will live in order to find center on that line. Center punch it. (Obviously one must allow for any cast-on or cast-off or lack thereof when doing this - that 3/4" hole may, or may not, necessarily be dead center under the butt plate.)

You now have two punch marks to locate the drill bit and center. The front hole will be really accurate, the butt hole (man, I've been waiting all day to say that!) maybe not quite so much - but it'll be awfully darned close. Drill away.

I like your technique for locating the butt hole. Your ideas are always spot on. Thank you.