shortening lop on mcmillan edge stock

[bjork]

i have a finished edge fill mcmillan hunter with a length of pull over 14". what's involved in shortening the lop to 13.5"? thanks.

 

[Timnterra]

It's a matter of cutting the recoil pad off and gluing another pad on. The stock is filled with a very lightweight expanded foam that has basically no strength so it cannot hold screws. You will need to determine what pad you want and take that into account when measuring to make the cut. Use a compound miter saw with a new sharp "finish or trim cutting blade" mask off the area to be cut with high quality masking tape and mark the spot on the tape. Make sure the stock is well supported in the saw before you start the cut. For this you might need to build some extra supports, especially if the stock has a raised colmb. It is very important to Make sure that the cut line is parallel with the line on the previous recoil pad, of perpendicular with the line of the barreled action in the stock. The cut also needs to be perpendicular with the centerline of the stock. Once you have made the cut you will need to remove some of the expanded foam and fill that area with Devcon or marine-tex. This will give the new pad something to adhere to. Once that's done take the new pad place it on the stock and mock it up where you think it fits best. Then scribe a line on the underside of the pad to mark where it will sit on the stock. Screw the pad into a grinding fixture and grind the pad on a belt grinder lubed with WD40 being careful to keep the sides and top perpendicular but let the toe of the recoil pad follow the angle of the belly of the stock. Be careful to not grind too much just get right up to the line. No place the bad back on the stock and use a scribe to mark the screw locations in the bedding material. Remove the pad, drill and tap those holes with the screw thread of your choice a # 10 or # 12 screw in a course thread should be good. Fit the pad back in place and screw it on. Now you can glue the new pad on and use the screws to hold it in place. Once the epoxy has cured wrap a layer or two of masking tape around the stock just above the recoil pad and take it back to the grinder to finish fitting the pad. Be careful to not grind through the tape and mess up the stock finish. Once it's all ground down you can peel off the tape and you are done.

Honestly if you are not a serious woodworker or knife maker who already has the stuff you will spend more buying tools to do this job well than you would spend sending the stock back to McMillan or a gunsmith and having them do it.

 

[cohunt]

instead of a glue on pad-- you can use a 2 part epoxy (devcon, marine tex, etc) to epoxy a piece of wood into the stock so you can screw on any length pad or spacer that you like -- I did this on my MPI stock from the suggestion of the owner)-- it will add just a bit of weight, but works very well as eventually most pads will need to be replaced over time anyway. As in the instructions above, cut stock to desired length as above, remove some foam fill material, cut wood to fit (use a quality wood as what would be in a stock such as birch, walnut, etc _hard wood) and epoxy it in place, then grind/fit a new pad and screw it on--bingo! -- or take to a local smith and he can do it for you

 

[bjork]

thanks for your replies. i do have a compound miter saw, but lack the appropriate sanders.
i had planned on sending it into mcmillan to have it shortened. when i inquired about the cost a couple months ago, the cost was 80 plus shipping. when i inquired this week and asked for the appropriate form to send it in, the price was 182. perhaps the difference in prices is between a standard fiberglass and an edge fill? either way, i'll buy the tooling before spending a couple hundred to shorten the lop.
how much should this job cost? i'll take a look at some local smiths before i make any decisions.

 

[Timnterra]

thanks for your replies. i do have a compound miter saw, but lack the appropriate sanders.
i had planned on sending it into mcmillan to have it shortened. when i inquired about the cost a couple months ago, the cost was 80 plus shipping. when i inquired this week and asked for the appropriate form to send it in, the price was 182. perhaps the difference in prices is between a standard fiberglass and an edge fill? either way, i'll buy the tooling before spending a couple hundred to shorten the lop.
how much should this job cost? i'll take a look at some local smiths before i make any decisions.

I would think most gunsmiths would charge around $100 + the recoil pad to do that. (Some recoil pads are rather pricey) If McMillan quoted you with return shipping included the second time around that would account for $40 extra dollars, they are a little over the top on shipping rates. I just set in a stock for a warranty issue and it cost me $15 to ship it to them but they charged $40 to return it to me.

 

[bjork]

thanks man. i generally like working on my stocks myself, but the finish of this one is awfully nice- i'd hate for something to happen to it hell, i'm heading to a smith now to have him look at a 700's timing - which i recently acquired, and i'll bring this edge along with another mcmillan i have for an arc nucleus. i was opening up the bdl inlet for ptg stealth dbm, and i've been going very slow- the fit so far is very nice, but the rear pillar is something i cannot address with a dremel w/o hosing the stock. hopefully he can take it down to the correct depth for me so i can finish the stock up....going to be a ~19.5" 6.5 wsm arc nucleus suppressed
cheers.