Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Reinforcing a sporter stock forend

Now did you have to toss my buddy Red in there?

The rods are bedded in opaque epoxy. There is nothing visible beyond a filled channel.

Okay, we're back on track to a good discussion. I apologise if I came back harsh on the last post. Forgive me, I was badly injured and have been on crutches and unable to hunt. That's why I've been posting, normally I'd be away hunting.

The shop depicted in that rifle thread is not a grease monkey shop. That's a guild gunsmith's machine shop. These projects I've shared were not willy nilly but were well thought out using proven and sound techniques.

I do understand having different opinions on techniques that work, and I'm not locked into this one particular method. I put into practice many different proven techniques to keep my toolbox full. I try to use a proven method that best fits the particular application and goal, this includes using carbon fiber. I started to get the impression that you were implying it was your way or the highway, and that you were attacking a proven method only because it was different than yours. Sorry if that was wrong.

As to Red Green, I try to leave for the field with professional tackle that's vetted and squared away. But, I'll be the first to admit that on a number of multi-day backpack hunts, I returned with tackle that looked as if Red Green had made the repairs. But, the rifles and stickbows alway keep running.

Best:)

I have bedded may sporters over the years where I remove 80 to 90% of the wood, insert 2 alluminum arrow shafts (carbon fiber shafts also work well) and fill with steelbed or similar.

What Aluminum alloy are you using that has a melting temp of 3600 deg?

Aluminum melts at a tad over 1220 degrees F, we pour it at aprox 1800 degrees F to get a proper fill in the mold. We've ran different types of processes that improve the quality of the castings that include the use of chills and squeeze casting (technology you most likely don't have access to due to cost), I've seen aluminum alloyed to a point where machining with conventional tooling is impossible. Also worked research on our process where we cast aluminum blocks with steel cylinder liners in-place in the mold.

The aluminum you speak of defies physics....

Carbon fiber is the way to go.

Sorry about that, it doesn't defy logic. I'm on crutches and had to look back at a machining metal chart. I grabbed the wrong line for boiling vs melting. I don't have my glasses on but it looks like typical 660-deg C melt, 2056-deg C boil. That's a conservative 3600, but for the wrong number.

Yes, I agree that is the way to go on that application with laid up carbon fiber to maximize use of the space, that would have reached a proper level of spine. For that matter, using better wood from scratch would have been the best way to go. But with using the factory unit, scavenged pieces of carbon rods or tubes, and trying to conform their shapes to fit the available space, would have been a complete jack legged piece of junk with the compact forend I had to work with. That would not have worked well at all, I didn't want to replace the factory wood, the laid up carbon fiber didn't warrant the gains, and the aluminum best fit the application and exeeded all measureable goals.

Best:)

Aluminum or carbon???

Thanks all for the responses.

Gary
You keep talking about inadequate space in a factory stock... I guarantee you have far more space to work with than many of the stocks I do/have done. I am guilty of grinding the end of triggers to clear an ADL guard because I reduce the depth at the magazine significantly...

In my quest to lose weight on every thing on a mountain rifle I have made short splinter fore ends that make your example a 4x4...

There is always room for a rod piece or 10.
art

Sitka, we actually measured to see how much room was available to machine inlet. Problem I ran into was it was a small lightweight compact forend with a big magnum contour barrel. When you added the required float, the available space to work with was odd shaped, compact, and with a sharp taper in multiple directions. There was enough room, if I could shape the carbon fiber to fit this odd space, to get enough spine to reach my goal. We took the wood as far as I dared within this space, and I didn't want to go any further.

The stiffener needed to taper in several direction, to include following the exact taper of the barrel and barrel shank. Trying to take sections of solid carbon fiber rods and piecing them together like a puzzle, was not anything I cared to do. I actually have all the materials needed that I could have made up my own laid up carbon stiffener to perfectly fit this space and work. I was preparing to do this, but when performing the other machining tasks with the aluminum, it was much easier to go ahead and just machine the stiffener from the same material. It was very simple and took very little time. In addition, it was easy to temporarily tie this stiffener to the front sling stud and foward pillar within the recoil lug mortise to test the gain in spine. When doing this, the spine exceeded my goals by a country mile. This all took minimal time, and at this point, going the path of the laid up carbon fiber was a decided no go.

The end results have been fabulous to date. As flimsy as this forend was to begin with, I never imagined I would have it so strong and yet so light. My only issues so far is that I've bashed a few rocks where the dings penetrated the wood deeper than the Acraglas had penetrated. I was pleased at how far it did penetrate, but if I could double that with future stocks, I'd be happier. This is the reason I'm trying the slower West System on the next two stocks.

I'm not trying to bash anything you do, it's just that in my opinion based on me having my boots on the ground with this stock in hand, using the fishing rods or solid tubes was not a route I cared to follow. I also did not care to thin the wood any farther than I did, and I only wished to reach a defined goal in stiffness, which I did. This was surpassed in all measureable aspects.

Best:)

Aluminum

Just got the news today that I'm on crutches another month, followed by a leg brace. Bummer.

Sorry for all the hashing back and forth, but I think it good when everyone can discuss and vet the different techniqes.

Good Luck!

Ok, let's turn to a discussion on how to skin a cat.

Enjoyed reading about different methods, sounds like they all met the objective the respective builder.