Anyone ever heard of this?....

A

artist

Guest
I'm shooting a .257WBY built on a Savage action. Although I don't have any pictures to post, you would not recognize the rifle as a Savage if I posted one. The stock has been refurbished and thumbholed, and the barrel has been replaced with a HART 30" heavy varmint - THIS THING WEIGHS A TON! -which was part of the primary purpose. Fitted with a Nightforce 12-42 scope, the rifle is used for long distance shooting and is impossible to shoot off-hand - needless to say, there would probably have been better choices to start off with for a project like this, but it is what it is and it shoots great!
I'm currently loading up some 130gr HPBT rounds which when done, will be WAY too long to fit into the magazine - which is OK, as you can see, the rifle is used for "single-shot" style shooting anyway.
My question is this:
In transforming a "hunting rifle" into more of a "taget style" rifle, has anyone ever heard of "filling in" the magazine cavity which may increase the overal stability of the action?
I have never read or heard about a procedure like this. Has anyone ever tried this or heard about doing this?
 
Thanks....but....

Thanks for the answer - now I know this procedure exists.

Can anyone walk me through how this is actually done or link me up to a page that explains it?

Is it as simple as installing a single-shot follower, then turning the rifle on its back and pouring the magazine cavity full of some sort of epoxy based compound?

Learning...learning...
 
artist,

It's often a matter of weight. When one is using a factory repeater action as the basis for a Bench Rest rifle weight is often a concern as trying to "make weight" while maintaining sufficient mass in the critical components becomes problematic. For a lightweight rifle like a 10.5lb Group gun one would probably start the process by epoxying a lightweight AL loading plate into the magazine cutout and bedding the barreled action into an aftermarket stock which is purpose-built without a mag-box recess.

This Davidson plate from Sinclair is a common option... http://www.sinclairintl.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=search&item=RAMP-S&type=store ...... this item is epoxied into place and the magwell filled or a stock with no magwell is used.

For a heavier build such as yours seems to be it's probably appropriate to just fill the mag well with epoxy or epoxy mixed with something like wood chips or another filler or "floc".

I'm currently building a Hunter Bench Rest stock by using the factory stock as a form for laminating the Carbon Fiber, after which I'm milling out the excess wood.... In my case I've got some superlightweight fiberglass floc which when mixed with resin makes a hard foam matrix, I'm using this to fill the magazine recess up only partway since I must retain enough of a cavity to hold two cartridges (A rule in HBR)

Some have whittled a loose-fitting wooden or other "plug" to fill the hole, which is then epoxied into place. This again is to increase stiffness in the critical flex area while not building excess weight into the system. It's most often considered hoovis to use the plug below the glued in loading plate although some have milled magwell filler blocks which actually obtrude up into the magazine cutout to form a loading block/ramp.


Remember that if you just install the block and turn the rifle over and fill it with epoxy it'll forevermore GLUE itself together! The method is sound but you must coat the bottom of the action with a release compound like cooking PAM, wax, shoe polish or the like.


hth, specific build question will probably be better answered over on the Gunsmith Forum. :)


al
 
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