So I'm sanding and preparing the stock for our 7x57, how far can I slim down the sides of the forearm towards the barrel channel before I get in trouble by taking too much material out?

Not much, if any as I recall from the Bansner's I've done. Before you know it you'll have sanded thru the gel coat and have nothing but exposed fiberglass cloth.

As Wifowler says, you're out of luck. You'll be through the glass shell in short order.

Thanks Guys,
kinda what I was thinking, I'll proceed carefully.

Nice to hear someone using a Bansner... they're GREAT stocks and I'll be ordering one soon.

Brad, have you done any previous builds on Bansners?

I have three at present, one I bought "used as new" and it is going on a F.I.E. "Musketeer" FN-LE rifle, in .308Norma, that a friend gave me some time ago. I had a 3-pos. safety installed and Blackburn bottom metal, as I detest alloy parts of any type on guns and it ought to be quite the piece, it is 40+ years old, but, in "new" condition.

I also have a pair going on a couple of my Brno 21 rifles, rechambered from 7x57 to .280 Rem. and while I prefer the Micky Edge stocks I have on some of my other rifles, I am very impressed by the Bansner's given the "workingman's price".

I kinda wish that the wrist of the stocks were a bit less bulky, but, all in all, and I have or have had about all of the major "plastic" handles since my first Brown in 1985, I think that Bansner's make one fine product for the price.

Is your project to be another Mod. 70-.30-06 that you will get working just so and then decide to sell and build something else? ....the mark of the true "rifle looney", eh, never quite satisfied!

Kute. yes I've built on rifle around a Bansner. I prefer the ergo's of the Bansner to anything McMillan makes. It's lines are quite similar to the Kimber MT stock including negative drop in the comb.

Here's the M70 30-06 I once had in a Bansner:

One of my all time fav rifles (course I wouldn't of had the tinsel on it... ) and one of my all time fav elky pics! Thinking the last time I saw that rifle you nuked a lope doe with and Magnum shot his first lope. Good morning my friend.

Dober

Dober, I'll never forget that morning with Cole... was watching a Pitts Special doing acrobatics, thinking of my own father and his arial acrobatics, with my 12 yo son, hunting antelope in central Montana... that Pitts was still doing its maneuvers when I dropped the lope. Cole got big tears in his eyes looking at that dead doe... reminded him of mom! He sure had no tears when he dumped his buck at 225 yards!

Brad, funny that, as I'm putting this one together for my 14 year old, Roman. I did the bedding before work this morning, now tonight I've been fighting the BM/ mag box, it's real close, just a little more work. I best hurry as we leave for his first colorado elk hunt in a bit over a week.
Oh and Dober, that 06' fwt/edge you like is now Sebs, so you might see that duriing the Mt season as I'll be handing it off to him when I'm out fer da hunt..
color me looney.

I am working on two Bansner stocks right now that I want to hunt with this year.
I just scrape, file, and sand off the flashing from the mold, to get off the high spots.
Then fill in the pits or low spots with 2 part epoxy putty: Putty-Cote.
Those two steps are what separates it from a McMillan Edge basic inlet stock, but only half the price.

Roman is a lucky boy!

Well gents, it pretty much done. I put up the details on the rifle blueprint page.
Thanks for the advice!

The great thing about Bansners is you can change them anyway you want if you don't mind a little fiberglass work. To narrow the fore end just cut the barrel channel out with a dremel cut-off wheel. Scrap the foam fill till all you have left is the outer shell. With the barreled action in the stock, take a heat gun carefully and evenly to the fore end and squeeze it as close to the barrel as you want. Tape it, use rubber bands, whatever until it cools. Tape the barrel, wax it, and use some foam in a can from the hardware store to fill the barrel channel. After that dries, you can scrap a little away to use a layer or two of epoxy soaked glass cloth to rebuild, and then bed as you normally would. Simpler than it sounds. Then you don't have big landing strips along side your skinny barrel.

Very interesting and may I ask what, if anything can be done to "thin" the wrist of these stock blanks? I really prefer slender rifles and find most synthetic stock blanks too bulky; I have used most of the major brands, some less common ones, i.e., one from Brent Clifton, styled after the Dakota Classic handle....and, it worked real well on one of my P-64 Mod. 70 original .375 H&H rifles, but, was one heavy mother!

Ideas? If, you can do this kind of work, well and in a reasonable time frame, you should move to BC, we have a very few REALLY great riflemakers here, but, not as many as we need so old geezers like me can get rifles built in 4-6 months, so we can use them before we end up in the "dementia ward".....given the number of rifles I own.some more practical folks might say I am there now!

My 280 Ack is stocked in a Bansner and i just restocked my 7x57 in a Bansner which i purchased from a guy who had stocked another 700 in this stock , needless to say i had a lot of work getting it fitted to my 700 . You don't have a lot to work with until you are into foam .

This video I believe I saw on cable TV.
It is Mark Bansner running the lathe and an assistant, Gary, making the blue stocks.

Kutenay - I don't see why you couldn't do same to the wrist as it's hollow too. I have cut the the stock off at the wrist to cast off and re-glassed it together inside the wrist. You can change it anyway you want it's just body work. But you might want to take a look at Brown Precision, their stock is thinner in the wrist.

I was working in a Bansner stock today, and I did not like what I read in the instructions on line:
http://www.hightech-specialties.com/installation_instructions.html
When tightening the screws never apply over 14 lbs. or never use more than your thumb and first two fingers on the screwdriver.

So I made some pillars out of 6061 1/2" round stock.
I used a boring head to make the pillar radius fit the 1.355" diameter of the Rem 700 receiver, so when I glassed the pre compressed pillar, there is no epoxy on top of the pillar.

Bansers are great stocks, but like and super lightweight hand laid up 'glass handle, the walls are thin..

I did about the same process for a M7 350 mag. Filled with 2 part epoxy, sanded and painted with Rustoleum textured "Aged Iron". Cut out the floor to receive the floor plate.Got the pillars off Ernie The Gunsmith.Bedded with Devcon steel putty. Paid $87 for it on E-bay. Love it!