Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Let's add some grip to a rifle stock

A few months ago I bought a McMillan Winlite sporter stock from Medriver. I wanted a replacement for the factory plastic stock on my Model 70 Classic Stainless .416 Taylor. I like this stock because it not only fits me well, but the comb works nicely for both a low mounted scope or open sights. I use Talley QDs and a Talley peep with it. Nice as the stock was, it had McMillan's uncheckered finish: not bad but not awesome either. Given that this rifle is made for fighting brown bears, it didn't take long to decide I wanted to add some grippiness to it. I can tell you from experience that when you're half-way done cutting up a deer and a brown bear comes in on you, a slippery rifle due to fat covered hands is no fun.

I called a guy at McMillan who's been helpful before and picked his brain. He said that under Kelly they used to add grip using Marine Tex, but the new owner halted that. It turns out to be a very simple job that greatly improved my stock. The only caveat is that once you've applied the Marine Tex, you're committed. It will need worked until it hardens up sufficiently. Here's how I did it:



The first thing was to apply a double layer of painters tape to the appropriate areas and draw out the pattern I wanted. I used heavy paper to make a template to draw out the pattern. Then I used a razor knife to cut the tape away. Then I used 80 grit sandpaper to roughen up the area to be gripified, being careful not to screw up the tape borders. Next I cleaned and prepped the areas with alcohol. For this I used yellow bottle Heet.



Next came the application. After mixing the Marine Tex I held the rifle in a vise and applied it to the template areas. It goes on in an even coat pretty easily. I was concerned I'd end up with either too little or too much, but it's pretty simple and self-explanatory. The texture is achieved by working the material as it cures. This took some experimentation. I discovered that I had to stay with it until the material set up enough to hold the texturing I'd applied. I pretty much lost track of time but estimate I was messing with it for 1.5-2 hours. Initially I just wore nitrile gloves and made texturing by pushing the tip of my finger into the Marine Tex and then pulling it away. The pattern this made can be seen in the above photo.

This seemed to work, but then the texture I'd achieved slumped back to nothing after a short time because the Marine Tex was still too viscous and uncured. Later, as it set up more the finger push/pull method wasn't working so well because the Marine Tex wouldn't jump out when I pulled my finger away. Then I stole one of the wife's hair picks and used that to jab divots into the material. That worked well. Then I also used an awl to do the same thing. The combination of the hair pick and awl seemed to work well, and I got things situated on all panels as the cure began to finalize.

The Marine Tex had obviously gone over my tape borders when I was applying it so I couldn't let a full cure happen with the tape still on there. As soon as I was happy with the texturing I carefully pulled the tape away, which left nice, crisp borders on the panels.

I was happy with the grippiness of the panels I'd added. My use of Marine Tex for other projects gives me plenty of confidence for its durability in this application. The next thing to do was send the stock off to John Boy for one of his excellent paint jobs.




John Boy was able to duplicate a pattern from a rifle he did for me a coupla-three years ago that I really like. This .416 was previously discussed in this thread: https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...15182434/416-taylor-project#Post15182434

The rifle now wears a much better scope, a Trijicon Accupoint 1-4 with the German #4 reticle. I'm still using the same load of 400s at 2150. It's been deadly on brown bears and deer.

So if anyone has a fiberglass stock that could use gripification it's a pretty simple process. Worst case, if you don't like it you can sand it off and try again. I'm happy with how this turned out. The only thing I would do differently is to maybe make some test pieces and try out different texturing tools and techniques. Then again, I'd be perfectly content with the process done the same way all over again.

Great post, thanks for bringing us along.

Looks great!

Very nice. Great information step by step! Thanks

Very good post…quite informative. Thanks.

Great post - nice work👍

I've done this a time or two with Marine Tex. The key is the timing. You want it to just start to set up. Too early and it's too liquid and just wants to level itself out as happened to you. Let it kick over a bit then it's easier to "color within the lines" and the texture can take on a more aggressive "tooth". I kinda "paddled" it with a tongue depressor and it was a much more textured effect. You can also do both sides of the rifle in one sitting (use a cradle). Downside is your working time becomes relatively shorter. I'll see if I can get up a picture for you.

A pic would be great. You are correct about the wisdom of waiting. I think if you had the right texturing technique down it might even be too rough and you'd even have to knock it back a bit. That would be a fine "problem" to have.

Hopefully this shows the effect;


This was a rifle built for my Dad when he was in his late 70's. It's a 260 and I had convinced him to downsize from his 300 Win Mag. It's pretty grippy...but doesn't grab on things or abrade stuff it touches.

We never spoke about how he felt about the flames.

Yeah, this!

I've painted several with textured spray paint. I'm happy with the results.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rust-Ol...Protective-Spray-Paint-7220830/100121155

pabucktail, that's Finn Aagaard approved!

I've used Rustoleum Multi colored Textured paint. Doesn't add as much texture as the OP's but works quite well.

Ha! No joke!

I used the textured rustoleum product on a stock 15+ years ago. It's held up well but looks like hell. I found it difficult to apply evenly. Blacktailer, yours looks like a great job.

Brad is correct! I know a lady who has Finn's Mauser '06 that he did a similar thing to using epoxy with Texas creek bed sand sprinkled on it. It's held up quite well over the years.

Aircraft Wingwalk is a simple way to accomplish the same thing. It’s maybe a bit less aggressive, or lumpy, but feels like course sandpaper.
It can even be painted on in a fleur de lie pattern for Jack O’Conner fans 😁

I like how the OP's rifle turned out. I also like that textured paint. I do something similar. Usually I'll spray the stock with clear, then add a little more texture. Makes it very durable, yet still grippy.

Ive been considering doing this some for some time and the process seems simple enough. Do you think it would be better to apply the marine tex right after you mix it when it's still soupy or, wait for it to thicken up before you apply it?

I'd put it on right away while it's easy to apply. As it cures it will be harder to spread.