An M40A1 ish PX Special Build

dirtybores

dirtybores

I don't work for you
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Minuteman
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Aug 24, 2022
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North Central Texas
#1
With a few minor exceptions of pieces from my own bin, this whole build came together from PX acquired parts...that in the beginning were never bought for one another lol. Its a pic heavy post, but I just wrapped it up and was proud, so figured I'd share.

I was originally scooping up a stripped G serial action for a different project and hoping I might stumble on another Obermeyer since a barrel came with purchase (appears to actually be a 1:12 Schneider, Eric Reid proof mark and GA Precision roll mark barrel). In that transaction, I was given a very gracious opportunity to get a USMC M40A1 return stock that had been pretty badly damaged.

With a weekend worth of HARD (relative term) labor I repaired it via a Mcmillan kit and Devcon and wax and all kinda nonsense and then started to add correct minor parts. The Mark 4 scope and welded Model 7 base I was planning on using just weren't great, so that part got jumped to M40A3 vintage.

I welded up and redrilled a Grayboe bottom metal so I could have the "look" but run AICS mags. Added a 721 short shroud. Fresh 308 chamber cut and some length off the top (21", threaded now). DD Ross lug cuz I got one off here once. The balance was weird, so off the barrel came. SPR/Bugholes gave it 8 straight flutes.

GreTan spring and polished just about everything. Gutted a Walker to fix up a tombstone, split-sear trigger that was in rusty shape. Hung some leather accessories and a Turner Saddlery sling. Added the world's tiniest picatinny in front of the Wichita up front, just enough for a qd Atlas. Gave it a book set and suppressor, and here ya go!

Zeroed this morning with 150gr Federal Fusion, which it shoots mighty fine!!

Photos oldest to newest:

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#8
Looks like very nice work. Was that where all the damage was, in the barrel channel? Isn't that a very odd place for abuse? Or have I missed noticing repairs of far more damage elsewhere?

Had any number markings survived until your ownership to tell what rifle it once was a part? It looks like an 8 in the bedding by the front mounting screw hole but that could have been an impression from bedding your action?
Not really important I suppose but the details just build a history and life of that stock both in and now out of the corps.

I've got to look around for those old strings from the return stock days and bottom metal swapping that happened. Those were good times.
I wonder if the actions have ever been surplussed since moving on to the mk13 mod7? I suppose if they had it would have been big news here. That would add an all new level of craze to matching numbers and complete rifles. 🤤🤩🥳 lol
 
#9
OddBall said:
Looks like very nice work. Was that where all the damage was, in the barrel channel? Isn't that a very odd place for abuse? Or have I missed noticing repairs of far more damage elsewhere?

Had any number markings survived until your ownership to tell what rifle it once was a part? It looks like an 8 in the bedding by the front mounting screw hole but that could have been an impression from bedding your action?
Not really important I suppose but the details just build a history and life of that stock both in and now out of the corps.

I've got to look around for those old strings from the return stock days and bottom metal swapping that happened. Those were good times.
I wonder if the actions have ever been surplussed since moving on to the mk13 mod7? I suppose if they had it would have been big news here. That would add an all new level of craze to matching numbers and complete rifles. 🤤🤩🥳 lol
Click to expand...
There was damage throughout. I didn't take good before photos...got too excited to start working. The rear wichita had been drilled out to accept a flush cup. The bottom metal had been cut horizontally along the sides for reasons unknown. There were two side cutouts and a deep barrel channel cut where it looked like an attempt was made to remove the interior steel. Its damaged but still there. Several vertical holes were drilled through for a picatinny rail. The "S" in the bedding was just a stamp on the action I bedded it with. Some of the external clear was abbrated back to bare fiberglass, which I just waxed rather than patched.

I know very little of its lineage other than its original rescuer being a respected cloner and it all appearing correct. Late 80s seems best guess. I could probably pop the butt pad off and see if any markings are underneath, but everywhere else would be sanitized by now.
 
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#10
dirtybores said:
There was damage throughout. I didn't take good before photos...got too excited to start working. The rear wichita had been drilled out to accept a flush cup. The bottom metal had been cut horizontally along the sides for reasons unknown. There were two side cutouts and a deep barrel channel cut where it looked like an attempt was made to remove the interior steel. Its damaged but still there. Several vertical holes were drilled through for a picatinny rail. The "S" in the bedding was just a stamp on the action I bedded it with. Some of the external clear was abbrated back to bare fiberglass, which I just waxed rather than patched.

I know very little of its lineage other than its original rescuer being a respected cloner and it all appearing correct. Late 80s seems best guess. I could probably pop the butt pad off and see if any markings are underneath, but everywhere else would be sanitized by now.
Click to expand...
I wasn't sure if that was an 8 or an S. I guessed wrong. You appear to have made a mod for the bolt release clearance.

So someone drilled through it multiple times to mount a pic rail? Ouch.

Could they have been attempting to mount, I don't know the proper name for it, one of those rail adaptors normally used on the A3? Part of it gets put in a cutout recessed into the barrel channel and the other screws down onto it to encircle the barrel and give 1-3 short rails at the for-end of the stock. If they did, someone should have measured a few times before the attempt because I think the stock design on the A3 was much wider and deeper in the front than the A1.

That sounds like a crime cutting the bottom metal. Those things were hand modified to begin with. Another ouch. Any surviving numbers on them? I'm still hoping to find the missing matching metal for a couple stocks.

A flush cup would be a much more modern modification but I'm not sure of its advantages on a traditional stock design or traditional sling position. Wonder if they planned to add more on the side(s)? I'd say rescued is an apt descriptor for the condition you describe.

I haven't heard of any markings ever being under buttpads. It would sure be a spot rarely seen. Mine all need replaced so I guess I'll find out someday. That would be a cool spot for a Private Malone type message.

I've got moved swivels, very curiously on one. Both appear to have been moved about 1/2 inch forward and the original spots filled. I can see the remaining stud still there in the barrel channel. I can only guess that they were snapped off/moved at the same time.

A different one has the front swivel snapped off from I guess using a big pipe wrench which also gouged up the stock with circular grooves. I'm not sure if it was a school stock or what. It has DS painted on the side in some of the remaining paint and some old rotting tape with T or D18 and a marine's name written on it in marker. Remnant shadow in the paint from a data card I guess on the right side and very curious damage to the front of the stock that seems impossible to have happened if it was assembled. Maybe it happened when the swivel was snapped?

The last one has the front swivel loop removed and clear signs of grinding to shrink the remaining base for a Harris bipod to attach I guess.

It would be wild to know all the stories of the returns because each has their own tale like the men who carried them.
 
#11
Correct, I recessed it for the action from the parts collection, which has an older variant of that modification from GAP.

The bottom metal area damage could have been a drop because it was much worse on one side than the other.

If you're referring to the PGW EFR seen on M40A3/5s, no it was not modified for that. I've put one of those in an A4 and to get it into an HTG would take some real sorcery and look ridiculous. An overarching clamshell like a chassis might have is an interesting theory though.

The side cutouts were probably not for more flush cups. They look like this:
20230930_164543~2.jpg


She did get one upgrade today. A member here helped me locate a discontinued rail for the Badger rings, and it can run some of my toys now 👍 no stock mods required lol.
20230930_162814~2.jpg
 
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#12
dirtybores said:
Correct, I recessed it for the action from the parts collection, which has an older variant of that modification from GAP.

The bottom metal area damage could have been a drop because it was much worse on one side than the other.

If you're referring to the PGW EFR seen on M40A3/5s, no it was not modified for that. I've put one of those in an A4 and to get it into an HTG would take some real sorcery and look ridiculous. An overarching clamshell like a chassis might have is an interesting theory though.

The side cutouts were probably not for more flush cups. They look like this:
View attachment 8238878

She did get one upgrade today. A member here helped me locate a discontinued rail for the Badger rings, and it can run some of my toys now 👍 no stock mods required lol.
View attachment 8238896
Click to expand...
Had a thought on the metal damage, could someone have tried clamping it by the trigger guard in a vise during their super duper bad guy shooter build
?
That strange part that mounted down at the end was the only thing I could think of as a reason for anyone to try hogging out the barrel channel.

I've been loitering around in the mk13 string today and its probably another case of no-way too big but that all in one scope mount/rail down the barrel and rails on both sides near the receiver for lasers and such might have also been an idea for them? Unless that rail also mounts to the barrel it must have some added support in the stock too.

That is a sizable patched area. They actually made a hole that big? To quote myself from earlier, "Ouch". Another thing I saw in the mk13 pictures was the inset bipod rail mounted in the forend with 3 screws and sizable holes/mount points seen in the barrel channel. Similar but not the same as the described 'changes' someone had done to it. I thought those type rails were long out of use. Everything seems to be going Arca-Swiss rail now over even pic rails for a 6 o'clock rail.

Are you going to mount a rangefinder up there or that old over the top mounted intensifier?

Another off the wall thought on the barrel channel damage. Could someone have actually wanted to build an SBR action with a integral suppressor? Probably way off the deep end with that idea.
 
#13
I think by your descriptions in one para you're describing a MARS or MIRS rail, which wouldn't/shouldn't be in stock contact. In another para you're maybe talking about an Anschutz rail. While I have seen those in Mcmillans, for instance I have an A2 with one, they are inletted from the bottom. The barrel channel already accepts an M40 contour, so widening it further would result in some reeeally thin edges likely to chip.

If I had to guess, the stock probably passed through a few different hands and different things were done, undone, and redone. Different eras and ideas, maybe sat in a parts bin awhile too. It was a fully functional stock in bad condition. I probably could have dropped an out of the box 700 BA in it and it would've performed fine. Now it just looks better and is alot more "cleaned up" so to speak.
 
#14
dirtybores said:
I think by your descriptions in one para you're describing a MARS or MIRS rail, which wouldn't/shouldn't be in stock contact. In another para you're maybe talking about an Anschutz rail. While I have seen those in Mcmillans, for instance I have an A2 with one, they are inletted from the bottom. The barrel channel already accepts an M40 contour, so widening it further would result in some reeeally thin edges likely to chip.

If I had to guess, the stock probably passed through a few different hands and different things were done, undone, and redone. Different eras and ideas, maybe sat in a parts bin awhile too. It was a fully functional stock in bad condition. I probably could have dropped an out of the box 700 BA in it and it would've performed fine. Now it just looks better and is alot more "cleaned up" so to speak.
Click to expand...
That it is, very well cleaned up.
 
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