Stock design thoughts

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CubCouper

Rodney Brown
Last summer I convinced Audrey it would be a good idea to build my own stocks... starting with a Dakota stock duplicator. To anyone has has ever built a stock, my hat is off to you. You all know that a duplicator doesn't work like that, me too now.

I started out just wanting to make a twin to the Bat/Dickson cedar stock I own. I love it but am tweaking my version with slightly higher side walls on the front. A small mistake with the router means I'll being trying a lower profile too, but I'm looking forward to the experiments.

So the question for anyone who cares to share is... If you could custom design your own one-off stock, what would you want?

I love the look of nice wood, but I'm already starting on a mold for a carbon fiber stock (based off some experiences with model airplanes of all things). It would be a challenge, but still un-inspired to just copy one of the existing excellent designs... I'd rather start by soliciting some design parameters and see where it leads.

Here are a few in progress... ignore the blue foam (that idea did not work!)

Rod

stocks1.jpg
 
The interesting thing about stocks is how the stock should interact with the barreled action, while remaining legal (the 1,000 yard and most rimfire classes are not limited by rules).

You get all kinds of responses. "Stiff." "Good vibration control" (whatever that turns out to be). Or the complete opposite -- from Vaughn's isolated barreled action, to the "tinkertoy" designs of Shelly Davidson and Gene Beggs.

Some are considering manufacturing in flex between the forearm and butt -- look at Varmint Al's models of the ever-changing loading on the butt & forearm as the bullet passes up the bore.

I suppose the holy grail would be complete independence from the barrel action, though that still leaves the scope as an off-axis weight. Without the mass of the stock, it should be possible to use much lighter tuners.
 
Rod,

You have been around long enough and shot well enough to know exactly what you want...just build it.

Hovis
 
Looks good Rod!
FWIW,I've often thought about an adjustable weight system, integrated into the forearm,etc. for adjusting balance without adding or removing weight.--Mike E.
 
Charles E said:
Some are considering manufacturing in flex between the forearm and butt --
Click to expand...

Rod,
I am one of those. I'll post some pictures when it's finished, even if the results are embarrassing. The key feature of the idea is to add flex in the vertical plane, but minimize it in the horizontal plane. The stock will be 3" wide from the tip of the forend nearly all the way back to the butt, but thin in vertical dimension just in front of, and just behind, the action.

Cheers,
Keith
 
I saw in some research about the distortion that even a few extra pounds on torque on the action screws can put on an action. Got me to thinking about building in a guitar-string link between the fore-end and butt that I could tighten to re-tune the stock. It might sing!

Rod
 
Hello Rod,

Can you tell me what wood you're using for your stock? Red cedar?

How many Oz approximately it weighs when it's finished?

I bought some curly maple blanks from e-bay and plan to make some more stocks myself when I have the time.
Never work with maple wood before so I curious with the finished weight at the time...

seb.
 
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The stock in front is just poplar from Home Depot... at 2lbs 5oz, it is too heavy for LV but may work out very nicely for a HV gun. I built it out of "junk" wood to test some of my woodworking setups and was a bit surprised how it ended up. The two stocks in the background are Alaskan Yellow Cedar. Even though they aren't finished or cut to length, they are still lighter than the poplar stock. I suspect that they will get down to around 1lb 11oz or a touch less by the time they are done. My finished Bat stock is made of the same wood and tips the scales at 1lb 8.5oz... but this design has taller foreend edges, at least for the time being.
 
Thanks you for the info!

Interesting stock project there! I would love to see the finished product.

.... Just in case you want to try to make different stock style/configuration, I built a 'hybrid" stock several months ago that can be used either for short range & long range BR.
You can copy it if you like it.
See this link... http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/?s=seb+ppc&submit=Search

This pic shows the stock in light gun mode, only with the 6ppc barrel on it. The ppc barrel (21.5") looks short with the front wing attachment installed for LG mode.
View attachment 12208

seb.
 
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