Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Bent McMillan

I bought a used McMillan from another member for my Sako 338. Cleaned, patched and duracoated till it looked real nice. I was at the range today and the rifle was racked. I glanced at it and did a double take, I thought my trifocals were playing tricks on me, but no. The dang stock is bent, no kidding from the grip to the butt the thing bends away from the shooter about one inch. How in heck I never noticed it before is beyond me. I wish someone would tell me they are all that way! How did it get that way? Sure ruined my day. Anyone got a clue how it could have got that way? Thanks, Ken

It's called cast off.

Or cast on, if you grab the gun from the right side.

[bleep].............grin

Never too old to learn something. Steelhead, I hate to spoil your fun, but do you spoze you could elaborate. It did occur to me that the bend was putting my eyeball more on center of the barrel. I can't help it if have only owned cheap stocks. Ken

That be the reason. Damn near all my rifles have cast of varying degrees.

I just made a plant visit to buy a stock myself. Depending on the specific model, they can have virtually no cast off or a lot. The Sako I liked the best had a lot of cast off and fit my body best. Unfortunately, the forend was a little too thin with a Sendero barrel so I bought an HTG.

You guys probably could have made a heck of a buy on a "Bent" McMillan. I'm laughing at myself. Thanks, Ken

Now I know why there is no delete button! Ken

FF!

Show JO

There's no shame learning in person or on someother's beard. It's a shame if you can't/won't....

Prezactly

kend--Now that we have had our laugh at your expense...

Cast is the deflection from straight that is put into a stock in order to make it line up better with the shooter's eye. For RH shooters, it is called cast off, and cast on for LH. It is far more common in shotguns, particularly the older British side by sides. As a LH shooter, shotguns with cast off feel just dreadful; I find myself looking in over one barrel, rather than down the rib.

Sometimes the toe of the stock has more cast than the heel; that is referred to as toe out.

Yes. Cast off/on - toe in/out are means of properly fitting a stock, such that when one shoulders a unit, it can be almost blindly pointed where one wants it to go. When one is paying the bucks for a custom rig, one should alwaays take advantage of fitting options. Fitting should also include the clothes one typically wears in the field. I have an Anschutz with all kinds of stock tweaking options, and it's a good tool for coming up with the proper angles and dimensions.

Thanks for being so kind. I know how hard it must have been, especially for Steelhead and I appreciate it. Ken

Not really, it's those that speak about which they have no experience that are funny.

We are all ignorant, it's how we go about correcting it that matters.