Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats McMillan lost their EDGE

This falls in the category of if you have to ask the question you wouldn't understand the answer.

Paying serious bucks to shave those ounces.

DF

Yep.

In my world (backpacking) losing 5oz's for $150 +/- is considered on the bargain side of the equation.

Brown Precision Pounder is expensive. But, what do they know that McM doesn't? McM is expensive, too.

DF

Thats what I'm wondering?? Maybe they have beefed up the fill in the action area to make the stock stronger??

Wouldn't shock me if that was some it; human nature to push the envelope so to speak. Not really a good excuse by McMillan though as ...

1. None of the other manufacturers that compete in the ultralight field have caliber restrictions. Plenty of Pound'r stocks on 375's.
2. If McMillan makes the stock heavier than people were expecting, people may put them on a heavier caliber rifle and get a different brand to make weight on their "sheep" rifle.

Hahaha exactly!

Why don’t they offer a lightweight pad? The 1” Pachmayer’s are half the stock weight. Removing that weight from the very back of the stock, would do wonders for balance to where you could slim the barrel profile, shifting the bulk weight between your hands...the action area.

The 1/2" is hardly lighter than the 1"... the bulk of the weight is in the "foundation."

Not that much difference. For sure not where one could explain 5 oz.

DF

Yes, that metal foundation on just about all Pachmayr pads is the source. If one is willing to pay $150 more for edge fill, why not omit the Pachmayr pad and go with another brand that doesn’t have the steel insert and heavy base? Very cheap way to loose weight and improve balance IMO.

What brand pad are you thinking about?

DF

Concerning McMillan beefing them up.....I'll throw this out...it was a big surprise to me last year.

I had 2 Edge fill stocks inlet for M5 bottom metal. The company that made the bottom metal did the inlet.This also required installation of pillars which came with the bottom metal. I drilled out, little by little, the existing pillars in the edge stock....they are pretty flimsy. I drilled out and installed the precut aluminum pillars. While doing this I got to really see what the fill in Edge stocks is like. It's not substantial....at all. It crumbles.

I'm glad to have real pillars in there now. Seeing the fill first hand, and the "pillars" McMillan uses, set me back a little on Edge fill stocks.

That said I can't say that I've had a problem with an Edge fill and I've got/had a lot of them.

I installed a Hogue on my last project.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1151354638

I didnt weigh it prior to installing (wish I would have) but definitely lighter than a Pachmayr decellerator or old english. No steel insert, ground very well. I believe Pachmayer makes some 1/2 models that do not contain the steel spacer as well, but their dense base material is just heavy. I believe there was a thread on here about lightweight pad options a few months ago that mentioned other options.

Edit: Found it...link to a 2.5 oz pad and another link to the flip-flop pad thread (wish photobucket was running), also some common pad weights provided in the flip-flop thread.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...true/thin-light-recoil-pads#Post14369454

I started paying attention to this after owning a P-64 Fwt that had a Pachmayr ventilated pad added (as many have been). The rifle didnt balance quite right for me, which showed up when shooting from unsupported positions. Then I bought another P-64 Fwt which had the original aluminum butt plate. The difference was night and day to me. I have also had some Micky's built on patterns that were offered in the 80's/90's via the M70 winlites. Besides the winlite stocks being of better quality IMHO, they are a good bit lighter as they dont have that heavy Pachmayr pad hanging on the end of the stock.

IF MacM. we're now giving you more carbon/strength
for your money, I'd reasonably imagine they would make
a marketing promotional point about it.

I would say the additional weight is likely
to be attributed to more/ excess resin...
which means little in regards to extra
strength...(lest the orig. Edge could have
had less than optimal design/strength
formula to begin with?)


The term "Aerospace technology" is thrown around in
hunting stock industry, that is true about the carbon
and resins employed, but the 'hand laid' manufacturing
method is rather agricultural. IF ones knows about the
precision used in the aerospace industry when creating
composite technology components they will understand
how strictly they formulate and control the fibre/resin ratio,
distribution and weight, compared to gunstock manf.

In some way one is getting an aerospace grade stock,
but not in the way some might be led to believe.




One don't need Kevlar to be in the ultralight category.
when it comes to weight saving composite tech.,
carbon is superior to Kevlar.

There are diff.types of carbon and Kevlar, but in
general terms Kevlar has a more predictable
and forgivable failure mode compared to carbon fiber.

Kevlar fiber has tensile strength comparable with carbon,
a modulus between glass and carbon and lower density
than both.

Kevlar aramid has applications where lightweight, high
strength, stiffness, damage resistance, and resistance
to fatigue and stress rupture are important.

So if one wants a more resilient LW stock with less
chance of 'snapping'.. steer away from 100% carbon.

If one is building a stock that is a composite of materials , the stock will only be as strong as its weakest component. Kevlar is for strength not light weight. If you want a lightweight stock you would use E,S or S2 glass which is lighter and much stronger then Fiberglass. Of course it has to be applied in a strict environment to use it to best advantage.

Does anyone know how Brown builds their pound’r so light, yet so strong?

DF

Brown has always made the pounders out of Kevlar. They are hard to work on because of that fact. I looked at Bansners new stocks, they look very impressive. I was wondering when they would reappear.

And why McMillan can't do that?!