Shooter98
Well-Known Member
I will start this thread by saying it was Jerry Teo's article about building a tactical rifle on a budget that got me started on this.
25-06 - a set on Flickr
I have a birth defect in both arms that makes it somewhat difficult to hold any rifle that doesn't have a pistol grip for me. I already have a Choate Ultimate Sniper stock on my old Savage 110 that I love but wanted to try my own after Jerrys article. So I decided to build one using my bone stock Savage 111 package gun in 30-06.
I cut the stock just as the article showed, bought a couple of AR grips and some 1/4" plywood. I started by cutting the plywood with a bandsaw and laying it in the stock length wise vertically all the way from the trigger guard to the buttpad. I then ran 3 aluminum 1/8" solid rod through the stock and the plywood. I then shaped the plywood and mounted the grip with 2 aluminum dowel rods. Mind you I was using a ton of 30 minute epoxy along the way.
I then finished with a flat piece of ply laying across the cut section of the stock and then did Jerry's bondo trick. For the forearm I took 3 pices of ply and made a 3 wall box out of them and epoxied (with kitty hair in it) it over the stock forearm. I then cut off about 2 inches of the nose of the stock forearm. I then shaped a 3/4" piece of ply and put it inside the forearm and epoxied it with kitty hair also. I then pinned all the wood pieces together and shaped then filled with bondo. Finally on the forearm I then took a 1" dowel rod and glued 100 grit sand paper to it and contoured it the shape of the barrel even though the barrel will clear this section by about 1/4". I then bedded the stock.
Painting was a nightmare big time. In Oregon, in Feb. it's still only 40 degrees during the day so all the painting was done in my basement with the heater going trying to warm up the room. The primer went on perfect, but the bedliner didn't. It never hardened up. After 3 days of sitting in a 90 degree room it was still gooey. I stripped it, and tried another brand. Same problem. My wife came up with the perfect solution. Rust Oleum has a paint called Stone texture. I sprayed that on, then gave it 2 coats of Satin black. It came out great. I will respray the gun with flat black though as it's still too glossy.
I swapped in a new factory heavy barrel and rechambered to 25-06. The finished rifle ready to shoot weighs 12 pounds.
I will be shooting the gun for the first time tomorrow at the range. I hope it shoots as good as it looks.
Thanks Jerry for the great ideas!
Mike.
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