Gunsmithing Some GRS work:

[LRI]

Started with a blank and here's where were at thus far:

Spun up a barreled action using a Defiance, LH port, right bolt piece. Pretty easy and straight forward single shot, Onto stock work now. We inletted and bedded it. That was pretty easy.

The fun starts with all the 2ndary fitup work. First, get a trigger fitted, then clearance the tang, followed by getting the accy rail mounted and the little stuff; escutcheon and trigger guard. Took longer to polish the TG than the bottom side fitting.

Coming along well and almost ready to wrap up.

Then its to Indonesia! Hope it survives the trip.

 

[Bender]

As usual, top notch work!

 

[LRI]

One accessory rail that is never ripping out of the stock, lol.

This whole idea came about almost 13 or so years ago. I never cared for Freeland rails as the darn things always seemed to cause a hand stop or bipod to hang up while adjusting due to the center mount screws.

That and you spend all that money painting a Palma stock only to have hardware mar up the bottom side.

Our rail is intended to eliminate all of this. More work to install for sure, but they do present well once your done.
Normally I'd of made aluminum ferrules to bush the screw holes. GRS stocks are a lot narrower on top. I had enough room for a 5/16 counter bore. Any bigger would have gone outside the barrel channel.
Stainless washers it is. These were 3/8". I stacked em up on a screw with a nut and turned em down to slip fit in the holes. Nice so that the screws dont over squish the holes over time.
Now we'll lay a sheet of carbon down it and call it a night.
Have a great weekend all!

 

[Kwe1982]

That is some amazing work. Thanks for posting the pics.

 

[mdesign]

One accessory rail that is never ripping out of the stock, lol.

This whole idea came about almost 13 or so years ago. I never cared for Freeland rails as the darn things always seemed to cause a hand stop or bipod to hang up while adjusting due to the center mount screws.

That and you spend all that money painting a Palma stock only to have hardware mar up the bottom side.

Our rail is intended to eliminate all of this. More work to install for sure, but they do present well once your done.
Normally I'd of made aluminum ferrules to bush the screw holes. GRS stocks are a lot narrower on top. I had enough room for a 5/16 counter bore. Any bigger would have gone outside the barrel channel.
Stainless washers it is. These were 3/8". I stacked em up on a screw with a nut and turned em down to slip fit in the holes. Nice so that the screws dont over squish the holes over time.
Now we'll lay a sheet of carbon down it and call it a night.
Have a great weekend all!

One accessory rail that is never ripping out of the stock, lol.

This whole idea came about almost 13 or so years ago. I never cared for Freeland rails as the darn things always seemed to cause a hand stop or bipod to hang up while adjusting due to the center mount screws.

That and you spend all that money painting a Palma stock only to have hardware mar up the bottom side.

Our rail is intended to eliminate all of this. More work to install for sure, but they do present well once your done.
Normally I'd of made aluminum ferrules to bush the screw holes. GRS stocks are a lot narrower on top. I had enough room for a 5/16 counter bore. Any bigger would have gone outside the barrel channel.
Stainless washers it is. These were 3/8". I stacked em up on a screw with a nut and turned em down to slip fit in the holes. Nice so that the screws dont over squish the holes over time.
Now we'll lay a sheet of carbon down it and call it a night.
Have a great weekend all!

Very cool Chad, the best fit in the industry!!

 

[NewsShooter]

Looks nice, might have to lay some carbon down for a surprise when I bed my buddies Tikka in a GRS stock he picked up.

 

[LRI]

Final Assy:

 

[TexasUplander]

The front receiver pillar isn't perfect, and I'm just not used to seeing ANYTHING leave your place that isn't ......

 

[TippyRacer]

What’s with the carbon fiber sheet inside the barrel channel? Serves a purpose, or just ‘cause?

 

[Mike Casselton]

The front receiver pillar isn't perfect, and I'm just not used to seeing ANYTHING leave your place that isn't ......

Are you referring to the pillar or the escutcheon?
The pillar looks normal. The escutcheon is installed vertically on an angled surface and machining the counter into it will cause the rim to look off centered.

Or, is that just an optical illusion?

 

[TexasUplander]

Escutcheon

 

[LRI]

The front receiver pillar isn't perfect, and I'm just not used to seeing ANYTHING leave your place that isn't ......

This is the only photo of the front bedding pillar. I'm at a loss to see what is wrong here.

 

[LRI]

Are you referring to the pillar or the escutcheon?
The pillar looks normal. The escutcheon is installed vertically on an angled surface and machining the counter into it will cause the rim to look off centered.

Or, is that just an optical illusion?

It's not just angled, it's sloped. It's why I countersunk the thing so deep. So that I would have a thin wall to machine/file/sand to blend. The GRS piece has a very pronounced/aggressive transition in this portion of the stock. To elegantly blend this escutcheon to it required rethinking the part a little. I made a zillion or so escutcheons about ten years ago. Literally a lifetime supply. Those are what's shown in later pics here. They would not have presented very well on this rifle.

As you see, the lower side gets heavier as you go further down. This is because the face was machined by using a thread insert as a trepan tool. Simply to mean there is taper on the inner bore of the escutcheon. The screw isn't off center. The "fat" side is just significantly lower than the "thin" side. If you pay attention to the flat bottom surface, it's concentric to the screw, center point, and OD of the part. Only the outer ring varies in thickness.

What you don't see in any of the photos is the business end of this. This piece is completely removable and indexes perfectly every time. So, how does the owner go about clocking that little bushing so that it matches back up with the stock?

Rather than type it all again, I pulled this off our store:

Even an item as innocuous as a guard screw escutcheon is carefully fitted. Rifle stocks often feature a draft angle on the bottom side of the forend for styling. Fitting an escutcheon presents a unique challenge in this situation because we want to have a flush, seamless transition with the stock. Doing so however will alter the relationship between the countersink of the screw and the escutcheon. This error causes a screw to bind and distort as its tightened, potentially altering the precision fit between bedding and receiver. Our solution is to "clock" the escutcheon once it's been fitted so that we can restore the countersink angle back to its proper relationship with the pillar bore and screw hole of the receiver.

Pocket is machined parallel to stock's underside draft angle and then fitted with an indexing pin. Once fitted, the escutcheon is drilled to position onto the pin. Escutcheon is now precisely positioned with repeatable accuracy. All that remains is finishing the countersink so the screw tightens against the receiver/escutcheon without any side loading due to the differences in angles.

Once fitted, it's easy to recognize the difference in relationship between the screw head and the escutcheon. It's immediately noticeable during assembly. Screws "torque up" much more positively when tightened. It's these kinds of subtle attention to detail items that instill greater shooter confidence when competing with our rifles.


Source data on this: https://www.longriflesinc.com/pages/custom-rifles-international-palma

 

[LRI]

What’s with the carbon fiber sheet inside the barrel channel? Serves a purpose, or just ‘cause?

It's just something I like to do. Just finishes the rifle in a way not common to others.