Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Floppy fore-end on the Ruger American

Used a heat-gun to straighten the fore-end and flare the barrel channel, then sanded a slight bevel. It was tight on the port-side.

Filled the fore-end with cookie dough but ran out of my beloved Loc-Tite and had to use Oatey for the distal end. Made each compartment spill into the next, and overlapped. Started proximal and worked my way out. Still floated, and I don't mind the extra weight but weight weenies beware. The stock is still weak near the action but the fore-end is much stiffer laterally. Upward pressure will still make contact but not on a rest/bags.

Cookie dough is plenty tough and adheres well but need to beat on it to see if it stays put.

Also got some stainless action screws at the hardware store... 1/4"-28 x 3/4" SHCS.

Could you describe how to do the heat gun trick? Will a hair dryer work?

Thanks for that 4th I'm fixing to do something along those lines with my 308 compact and your method helps the thought process. I happen to have quite a bit of expoxy resin and some thickener and will do something like you've done there. Same issue here btw almost tight on the port side and bigger gap on the right.

DD,

The hair dryer might work. I heated up the plastic until it started to "sweat" on the channel "lips". This is just where it starts to change appearance but only slightly. Don't want to go too far but if you are cautious and start slow its easy.

With the barreled action out of the stock, point the heat-gun into the channel. I heated the bottom of the channel and the port side-wall and lip. Then I turned it upside down, opened a drawer on my bench and stuck the top edge of the drawer front into the barrel channel. I pulled/leevered the stock to "straighten" the fore-end and twisted to flare the lip... focusing on getting the port side fixed. You could also take a wood board (and put in a vice) and do the same thing but the drawer was easy.

Watch out... that sling stud will get hot! Cool with water, or go have a beverage. I also flared the starboard-side, but had the fore-end un-straighten itself with too much heat and leverage.

JUST NOTE...

...the amount of heat I used caused the top edges of the partitions in the fore-end to melt slightly. This wasn't an issue for me since I was planning to fill those partitions but if you're looking to just re-shape with heat its something to keep in mind. If you wanted to just heat and reshape the channel "lips" you might be able to put water soaked paper towels in the bottom of the channels. Just a thought.

Hope this makes sense, if not let me know.

Jason

Salty,

I'm interested in how it turns out with the epoxy. I've done a lot of fixturing with Bondo, resin used for 'glass work, Cerro, etc. for mechanical testing (i.e. breaking things). Whenever I used the resin made for 'glass it shrunk a lot. And didn't adhere very well. Always had to add mechanical fasteners to take up the slop. Not sure if this is the same stuff you have or not.

Have you used this epoxy in plastic stocks before? If not, I wonder if you could test it in some other plastic to see if it shrinks and adheres well? If it doesn't stick, no problem... but if it sticks partially its just extra work to get it cleaned up again.

I do like the idea of something that pours into the compartments and that would be an advantage of epoxy (assuming it "pours")... that was my first thought too. But the beauty of the cookie dough is that it doesn't shrink much and sticks well.

Shot 100 rounds yesterday with the cookie dough but I've also been beating the stock... literally. The bottom of the fore-end has marks from banging it on my bench. No loose cookie dough... so far, so good

Please keep us up-to-date on what you find.

Jason

Jason, was thinking about doing something similar to predator .22 stock. Don't really have any experience bedding tho...Can you expound a little on the loc-tite product? I've never used it but it seems you just knead small pieces into place and smooth out as you go...?

Seems it sets up pretty fast so I assume working quickly is necessary. Also looks like it comes in a 4 oz tube, would that have been enough product to finish your stock?
Thank you..

I'm interested as well - which Loctite product is this cookie dough stuff?

Looks like good work on the barrel channel, thanks for the writeup.

Just FYI on those stainless screws, if you don't already know - they are good for corrosion resistance, but not as strong as a regular carbon steel fastener. Shouldn't matter for this application though.

That's my question also. What is cookie dough?

Also, do you have number on how much weight it added to the rifle?

ballistic studies

Saw this stuff on the web , should work like a charm and is made to fill in hollow foreends

FYI -- Ruger stiffened up the forearm in recent production rifles. I actually handled one today and the difference is very noticeable.

Interesting. I'll have to check new ones out.

Certifiable,

Each tube is 4 ounces as you mentioned (Loc-Tite and Oatey). It took about 1-1/2 tubes to fill the entire fore-end to a level slightly above the plastic partition walls. The barrel is still floated.

Set-up time is listed as 5-10 minutes. There's plenty of time to work with it and it doesn't accelerate really fast at the end like some epoxies. Just cut a chunk off and roll/knead.

Jason

Yondering and Crow hunter,

The Loc-Tite version is called "Metal Magic". Oatey sells something similar called "FIX it STICK". You can see what the containers look like in the first pic. I have used Metal Magic on a bunch of repairs. Oatey is new to me but seems like a very similar product.


NTG,

I used 1.5 tubes so I'm guessing 6 ounces. The fore-end feels a lot better. Before, I could get the stock to touch the barrel with the rifle shouldered and applying a little pressure to the fore-end. I like the balance of the rifle with the added weight.

If you didn't want to add that many ounces, you could fill then drill. Or just fill the first few compartments, and partially fill as you work towards the end.

Jason

Looks good. Like Devcon? Please let us know if you try it and what you think.

SAS,

That's great news. Are you at SHOT this year?

Jason

I did a similar job on my Ruger but added lengths of carbon fiber arrow shafts down each side of the barrel channel. They helped stiffen the forearm considerably.

What did you use for the filler?

The carbon rods would definitely help reduce the weight compared to the epoxy putty that I used... its hard as a rock and dense.

I used Acra glass, not the gel. I wanted it to flow down the inside of the shaft to help fix it in place. I didn't fill the whole forearm up. Just enough to cover the arrow shafts. It does not flex under normal use.

348srfun,

Did you just cut the stock's cross sections out against each side of the forearm?