Gunsmithing FIXED! - Advice on fitting a Manners stock?

[glock24]

I just received my barreled action today (TAC30 w/ medium Palma Bartlein) and dropped it into my Manners T3.

For some reason, the barrel is hitting the stock along the entire left side. The channel is deep enough as there is clearance beneath the barrel. Only the left side is making contact.

I'm not sure if this is the barreled action's fault or the stock's fault, but I assume the easier fix will be to fit the stock a bit better to this barreled action. Or maybe I need to consider something else first?

I've opened up barrel channels before using sandpaper and steel dowels. This problem however seems to require opening up only one side of the stock. I'm not quite sure how I'd do this. I'm fairly mechanical, but limited to only hand tools.

Anyone have advice on how best I would approach this one?

Thanks for your insights.

 

[tmanners]

Re: HELP! - Advice on fitting a Manners stock?

Hi Glock24,
It could be a few differnt things going on, it is hard to say by the pictures. Have you installed the pillars yet into the stock? It looks like the barrel channel would be pretty tight even if the barrel was centered, we usllay like to run about .050" around the barrel and It doesnt look like you would even have enough for that. Give us a buzz and we will get you fixed up asap.
Thank you very much,

 

[chpprguy]

Re: HELP! - Advice on fitting a Manners stock?

Nevermind, the expert chimed in....

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: HELP! - Advice on fitting a Manners stock?

Wow! Now that's Customer Service.

Looks like the Manners' customers have been doing a full court press lately. Sounds justified...

OK, from a clearly lowtech standpoint, for folks who don't have such good Customer Service at their disposal, I would suggest the following tactic.

Placing some shims under the receiver, wrap the barrel with several evenly wrapped layers of masking tape, and mount the barreled action to the stock. One assumes there's some barrel clearance, if not, loosen the mounting screws until there's just a smidge. Taking a belt sander belt that's been cut into a strip, slip the belt, abrasive side out, between barrel and channel.

Grasping both ends of the belt, do a 'shoeshine' action around the barrel, each end up and down, working the belt back and forth along length the barrel channel; cutting the channel to conform to the shape of the padded barrel. As clearance opens, tighten the mounting screws a small bit at a time and keep cutting. When the screws are snug, start removing shims. When the shims are all gone, there should be a perfect clearance around the barrel.

Greg

 

[hill billy]

Re: HELP! - Advice on fitting a Manners stock?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Greg Langelius *</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Wow! Now that's Customer Service.

Looks like the Manners' customers have been doing a full court press lately. Sounds justified...

OK, from a clearly lowtech standpoint, for folks who don't have such good Customer Service at their disposal, I would suggest the following tactic.

Placing some shims under the receiver, wrap the barrel with several evenly wrapped layers of masking tape, and mount the barreled action to the stock. One assumes there's some barrel clearance, if not, loosen the mounting screws until there's just a smidge. Taking a belt sander belt that's been cut into a strip, slip the belt, abrasive side out, between barrel and channel.

Grasping both ends of the belt, do a 'shoeshine' action around the barrel, each end up and down, working the belt back and forth along length the barrel channel; cutting the channel to conform to the shape of the padded barrel. As clearance opens, tighten the mounting screws a small bit at a time and keep cutting. When the screws are snug, start removing shims. When the shims are all gone, there should be a perfect clearance around the barrel.

Greg </div></div>That's a pretty good low tech tutorial. Thanks.

 

[glock24]

Re: HELP! - Advice on fitting a Manners stock?

I'm all set fellas! Thanks for your insight, especially you Tom for your attention in this matter.

With the pillars installed and the bolts loose, I was able to freely wiggle the action around in the stock and achieve a perfectly centered barrel. Knowing now that it was possible to center, I built up masking tape (Greg's suggestion) around the barrel in two spots to ensure it stayed there while I epoxy bedded it.

To Tom's point, even though it was centered, the fit was a bit tight around the sides. To correct this I grabbed my supply of 1/2" drive deep sockets and wrapped 150 grit sandpaper around increasingly larger diameter sockets until I opened up the front of the channel a bit more.

I'm now happy with the position and the clearance all the way around. The Devcon is currently curing.

I might send it back to Manners for a free touch-up paint job, but other than that I'm good to go.

Thanks again!

 

[wnroscoe]

Re: HELP! - Advice on fitting a Manners stock?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: glock24</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I built up masking tape around the barrel in two spots to ensure it stayed there while I epoxy bedded it.</div></div>

I read somewhere that the masking tape trick works pretty good in centering the barrel when bedding.

 

[glock24]

Re: HELP! - Advice on fitting a Manners stock?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: wnroscoe</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
I read somewhere that the masking tape trick works pretty good in centering the barrel when bedding.

</div></div>

LOL! Yeah, I think I read that somewhere too!

Hey, here it is!

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1167138&page=1

 

[DarinR]

Re: HELP! - Advice on fitting a Manners stock?

I first saw the masking tape idea years ago in the "Bed your Rem 700" video by Darrell Holland.

Darin