Originally Posted by odonata
It was a cold & dreary day so I decided to go hang out in a friend's barn & do a little work on Ophelia while he worked on his sailboat. I cranked up some Van Morrison on the Bose SoundLink & started to try to figure some things out...

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The first thing I did was drill some test holes in a piece of scrap pine & to find the right drill bit to countersink my Talley crossbolt heads:

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In several online reviews I heard mixed stories about adding pillars to a Ruger M77 stock. Some people had a perfect fit while others complained that the pillars were too long & needed to be shortened. There must be some variance in stock sizes between specific models because a new recoil pad I ordered wasn't even close to a good fit. Both of my pillars were too long and I had to use a file to get them to the correct length. I was just dry fitting them & using a Sharpie to mark the area that was proud of the wood & needed to be removed:

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I found some 4" (10cm) stainless bolts to strengthen the grip & used a bench grinder to remove as much of one of the heads as possible:

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Pat used one of his really long bits to drill a pilot hole before switching to a larger bit that was still slightly smaller than the stainless bolt:

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With a slightly smaller hole, the stainless threads were able to grip the wood enough to screw the bolt in from the base of the butt to behind the tang. The ground down Phillips head was countersunk into a slightly larger hole:

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So now I have about half of the items that Sir Ron suggested I install back on page 182. Drilling the crossbolt holes will give me something to do later this week. So progress! I don't know if I'm doing everything right since I'm making this up as I go along but it's been fun getting it to all fit together tightly.

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Inspirational of Sir Darryl. Enaa baasee'.
I am getting out the wood working tools and attacking the stock in picture he posted above, of my .500 Mbogo, first ever.
Will enlarge the barrel channel to fit a fatter barrel on a ".500 Jeffery Match" rifle, to be completed after 20 years of WIP.

The only thing I do different is make the long-axis grip screw hole big enough for the epoxy-coated allthread to slide in
with a gush of epoxy overflowing.
If you don't have a grip cap to cover the bottom of grip, flush finish of epoxy over the rod,
or you can drill from the action side before the rear pillar goes in.
I did the latter on the stock above, hiding the grip rod entirely.

Another thing maybe not discussed enough is to be sure there is tang relief behind the tang.
I like to make that the final bedding touch after all else is done.
Use two thicknesses of vinyl electrician tape around the side surfaces of the tang and set it in epoxy bedding covering the wood around the tang.

Ron aka "Rip" for Riflecrank Internationale Permanente
NRA Life Benefactor and Beneficiary
.458 Winchester Magnum, Magnanimous in Victory
THE WALKING DEAD does so remind me of Democrap voters. Donkeypox.