New McMillan HTG M40A1 smear stocks!!!

yea i was just piddling around just to get an idea as to what it would look like with the action screwed in to the stock. i havent had mine built yet as im still waiting for the lugged scope mount before i send her off to be built. and thats when i realized that the screws weren't able to reach the action threads. so maybe thats the issue..it needs to be professionally inletted before it will screw in right.
 
yea i was just piddling around just to get an idea as to what it would look like with the action screwed in to the stock. i havent had mine built yet as im still waiting for the lugged scope mount before i send her off to be built. and thats when i realized that the screws weren't able to reach the action threads. so maybe thats the issue..it needs to be professionally inletted before it will screw in right.
How flush is the bottom metal to the stock when you fit it in there?
 
I saw that yesterday. I tried to add it to my cart and got an error message. Then it was gone from the listing page when I refreshed.

I’m glad someone else noticed it. I thought I might have seen a mirage. These Smear Stocks do funny things to a man’s mind. I did snag the HTG Urban Smear on Saturday. Since it’s not any true clone correct stock, I can just build it out with my excess M40xx parts pile.


There is/was an M40A3 MOD1 also. It had the deep hook in the buttstock. Not my thing, but it seemed like an odd variation.


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ETA: I just checked McM site. That’s a new one. So that’s two this week.
 
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I saw that yesterday. I tried to add it to my cart and got an error message. Then it was gone from the listing page when I refreshed.

I’m glad someone else noticed it. I thought I might have seen a mirage. These Smear Stocks do funny things to a man’s mind. I did snag the HTG Urban Smear on Saturday. Since it’s not any true clone correct stock, I can just build it out with my excess M40xx parts pile.


There is/was an M40A3 MOD1 also. It had the deep hook in the buttstock. Not my thing, but it seemed like an odd variation.


View attachment 8490165

ETA: I just checked McM site. That’s a new one. So that’s two this week.
Appreciate this....been looking for one. Thanks
 
I saw that yesterday. I tried to add it to my cart and got an error message. Then it was gone from the listing page when I refreshed.

I’m glad someone else noticed it. I thought I might have seen a mirage. These Smear Stocks do funny things to a man’s mind. I did snag the HTG Urban Smear on Saturday. Since it’s not any true clone correct stock, I can just build it out with my excess M40xx parts pile.


There is/was an M40A3 MOD1 also. It had the deep hook in the buttstock. Not my thing, but it seemed like an odd variation

View attachment 8490165

ETA: I just checked McM site. That’s a new one. So that’s two this week.

If anyone is looking there's a big hook A4 for DD Ross bottom metal on McMillan's site right now, plus a couple inletted for M5 DBMs as well 👍
 
Stupid question. How does the model 70 floorplate mate up to the 700 action? Do the bolt holes align?

The floorplate needs to be cut and fitted against the trigger guard. The trigger guard also need trimmed back and the trigger itself gets a square cut out of it. Definitely not a modular system like things today.


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Stupid question. How does the model 70 floorplate mate up to the 700 action? Do the bolt holes align?
The floorplate is shortened and cut to fit the distance between the front stock screw hole and the front of the M70 trigger guard (since the M70 bottom metal and M70 trigger guard are 2 separate pieces). The M70 trigger guard also needs to be shortened and fit to size. You also need an escutcheon embedded in the stock for the front screw on the M70 trigger guard. The back screw of the M70 trigger guard uses the rear M700 stock screw hole, and the front of the M70 bottom metal uses the front M700 stock screw hole.
 
I've never understood why they didn't go for an ADL solution on the M40A1.
"Bulletproof" and impossible to open the foorplate by accident.
Made cleaning easier with all the crud we would drag it through and pack into it, enabled unloading without repeated chambering and clearing right along with clearing a jam was actually possible, and a piece of rigger’s tape made it not pop open on accident anyhow. That was standard field prep for the rifle right along with a taped cat eye on the objective lens and taping up the muzzle.
 
I've never understood why they didn't go for an ADL solution on the M40A1.
"Bulletproof" and impossible to open the foorplate by accident.
@Redmanss gave a great answer above, the floorplate is absolutely necessary at minimum for a military bolt action sniper rifle. The ADL is just a trigger guard, so it's far more difficult to do all the stuff Redmanss discusses above. Additionally, the Corps didn't use the Remington BDL bottom metal because it's aluminum and they needed steel bottom metal (lessons learned from Vietnam). There weren't many options for the Corps, but since they have in-house (RTE shop) 2112 armorers, they did have the ability to purchase COTS items and modify them as they saw fit.
 
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Well, I used an "ADL" rifle, based on a M98 Mauser action, for many years in the Norwegian NG.
The foorplate on these were never opened.
My thoughts are that anything that can be kept away from Murphy is a good thing. Even a missing rigger's tape.
 
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Well, I used an "ADL" rifle, based on a M98 Mauser action, for many years in the Norwegian NG.
The foorplate on these were never opened.
My thoughts are that anything that can be kept away from Murphy is a good thing. Even a missing rigger's tape.
Glad that worked for you. Having a hinged floor plate worked great for us, and we opened it all the time to clean our rifle and empty the magazine post mission. We Marines love simple, but we also love versatile and even though a fixed floor plate is cheap and sturdy, we splurged a bit and went hinged.

For us, given the weaponry available in that day and age, the M40A1 was the best thing going and served us magnificently until combat moved on and we needed something new. Even then, we spent about ten or so years getting off our asses to fund, develop and field the M40A3.

Really though, fixed floor plates is so WWII. Same can be said about clip slotting, but nobody ever said that Marines aren't stubborn and stuck in the past. I mean, geez, even the Dress Blues jacket still has a high collar just in case we get into a sword fight...
 
I picked mine up from my local builder Friday.

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Before the Clone Police come with their Flashbang…..

The receiver is correctly clip slotted.

The Badger rail, spare scope and BO rings will suffice until the correct parts are obtained.

And the barrel, well it’s remaining natural as my wife likes the look of the complete platform ‘As Is’

We have been married 37 years and she allows me a lot of freedom with my addiction and I want to keep it that way.

In this case compromise is acceptable by me.
 
Made cleaning easier with all the crud we would drag it through and pack into it, enabled unloading without repeated chambering and clearing right along with clearing a jam was actually possible, and a piece of rigger’s tape made it not pop open on accident anyhow. That was standard field prep for the rifle right along with a taped cat eye on the objective lens and taping up the muzzle.
Thank you for your first person, in the action, view of how shit works.
 
First time out with it on Saturday. Other than a round being test fired thru it at GAP. I cleaned the barrel. Bore sighted it... and dry fired it one time and shot a 5 shot group at 117 yards. 42.0 of Varget gave me 2600fps. Wind was running from 2:30 to 8:30... lowest wind speed recorded I seen was 12mph. I actually seen my wind flag at 117 yards completely flip 180 degrees and about 10 seconds later flip back. This was the group on the blue target.

Then I dialed up 7.25 min and went to the 430 yard steel plate and put some right wind on. Wasn't to worried about the group and placement I wanted to see what the waterline was going to tell me. That had 43gr of Varget and gave me 2700fps.

This rifle and the 169SMK is going to pound.

The one flag pic attached is at 330 yards from my shoot house. It's a 100 yards in front of the steel plate. Notice the streamer coming off of it.... yes the wind was moving.

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Frank,
You might have mentioned it already, but this thread is 10 pages. Did you use your 5R or conventional rifling? What twist? I know it’s not a matter of accuracy on target, I’ve read your site and posts about 5R and conventional. I guess what I mean is do you need traditional rifling and twist to compete in vintage sniper matches. I know a lot of members shoot in those. Clone/replica building can come down to the unseen details for many. For me, I’ll take the best potential accuracy with the correct barrel contour. I’ll have too much money invested not seek best performance.

Besides, if I can say, “This is the same barrel Frank Green uses,” I’ll feel like I have some range cred. 😂

Thanks,
Greg
 
Frank,
You might have mentioned it already, but this thread is 10 pages. Did you use your 5R or conventional rifling? What twist? I know it’s not a matter of accuracy on target, I’ve read your site and posts about 5R and conventional. I guess what I mean is do you need traditional rifling and twist to compete in vintage sniper matches. I know a lot of members shoot in those. Clone/replica building can come down to the unseen details for many. For me, I’ll take the best potential accuracy with the correct barrel contour. I’ll have too much money invested not seek best performance.

Besides, if I can say, “This is the same barrel Frank Green uses,” I’ll feel like I have some range cred. 😂

Thanks,
Greg
My build I did the 5R rifling and 1-10 twist.

If you look at the original Marine Corp barrel drawing it gave the option of 4, 5 and 6 groove barrels. So just because I didn't do a 6 groove because they used Douglas or something else for the barrel back in the day during this or that time frame etc...... it shouldn't be anything from keeping me shooting that gun in a vintage sniper rifle match.

The A3 drawing if you look down in the title box also references the original A1 drawing number as well. If you look at the cross section of the print itself it shows a 4 groove barrel but again.... if you look at the call out for the number of grooves it says, 4, 5 or 6.

Why did I do the 10 twist and not a 12 twist? I wanted the option to shoot whatever bullet I wanted to shoot thru my rifle. The 12 twist will limit me on my options.

Original M40's where 10 twist barrels and if I recall correctly the A6's are 10 twist.

If a match director is going to get that picky and tell me I can't shoot my gun because it's not a 12 twist barrel then I'll shoot it at a different match. That to me is just getting to nit picky when other twist barrels like the 10's where used in other M40 rifles as well.

The 5R rifling now has data to back it up that it helps the flight of the bullet. So 5R it is for me.

Here is a funny for ya... I can't tell you how many times on an emergency requests for our military... we've made replacement barrels for this or that.... and I couldn't call them barrels with a given caliber or twist etc.. listed on the order. I had to call them fluted blanks. Also we've done barrels even for the PWS/WTBN shop and we did 5R and 1-10 twist barrels. Last order I/we did like that was 2023.

If you want to be some sort of purists... knock yourself out on what you believe was used etc... but again if your going to jump on me because I used 5R rifling and 1-10 twist is the least of our worries for some vintage sniper match gun... stock type, action type, scope type etc... is going to be more important rule wise in my opinion.

Just my .02 and I'm not picking a fight with anyone.

Later, Frank
 

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Thank you for the thorough answer and insight.
I suppose rifling could be considered internal fluting, so that works for me.

I have been in Army supply for 15 years, full time National Guard. Government acquisition is a weird place. The things we see in FEDLOG are pretty funny sometimes. When it comes to extras, the non issued, cool to have stuff, I think vendors get creative when they apply for an NSN. It’s probably to get their stuff ordered at the unit level without raising a flag.

For example, when Oakley M Frames were the cool eyewear, the FEDLOG description was, FaceShield, Industrial. We could order any time we wanted because no one up the funding chain would question safety gear. Automatic knives were another. Knife, Boy Scout was one, and the Benchmade Triage is a Rescue Tool. I also always ordered an odd number so it looked like I had a specific need, and wasn’t bulk ordering Cool-Guy knives and flashlights for the Joes.

Greg
 
Thank you for the thorough answer and insight.
I suppose rifling could be considered internal fluting, so that works for me.

I have been in Army supply for 15 years, full time National Guard. Government acquisition is a weird place. The things we see in FEDLOG are pretty funny sometimes. When it comes to extras, the non issued, cool to have stuff, I think vendors get creative when they apply for an NSN. It’s probably to get their stuff ordered at the unit level without raising a flag.

For example, when Oakley M Frames were the cool eyewear, the FEDLOG description was, FaceShield, Industrial. We could order any time we wanted because no one up the funding chain would question safety gear. Automatic knives were another. Knife, Boy Scout was one, and the Benchmade Triage is a Rescue Tool. I also always ordered an odd number so it looked like I had a specific need, and wasn’t bulk ordering Cool-Guy knives and flashlights for the Joes.

Greg
Doesn't surprise me Greg!

The reference the the fluted tubes... I won't name the contractor at the time that had the contract for barrels... but several times they couldn't deliver... so I/we got the panic call and they knew we could help them out and the stuff would work! I couldn't call them by caliber, twist etc.. because the contractor had the contract... and calling them 30cal barrels, 10 twist etc.. would raise a red flag.

FaceShield... = sunglasses = :cool:
 
Frank,
You might have mentioned it already, but this thread is 10 pages. Did you use your 5R or conventional rifling? What twist? I know it’s not a matter of accuracy on target, I’ve read your site and posts about 5R and conventional. I guess what I mean is do you need traditional rifling and twist to compete in vintage sniper matches. I know a lot of members shoot in those. Clone/replica building can come down to the unseen details for many. For me, I’ll take the best potential accuracy with the correct barrel contour. I’ll have too much money invested not seek best performance.

Besides, if I can say, “This is the same barrel Frank Green uses,” I’ll feel like I have some range cred. 😂

Thanks,
Greg
Also even on other prints/drawings... the mil spec might just say 5 groove but in fact they mean 5R. It just didn't get spelled out that way on the drawing. I've got mil drawings for 6.5's, 30 and 338cal barrels that show it that way. It's a typo on the drawing.
 
Finally got my stock set up for an action.
I had no interest in building a true M40, just wanted the stock to use and be enjoyed.
SAC trued G series 700 with 6mm Creed barrel.
I modded the 700 trigger myself. And epoxied the esteucheon in myself also.

Just a nice user rifle. Will end up putting my Mil-Spec Nightforce 3.5-15 on it since is it not selling.
 

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