Accurizing the Stevens 200...

icehunter121

icehunter121

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Now b4 you dont read the whole post and start wondering in circles read this please. I recently picked up a stevens 200 in .223 from a dealer in here. Immediately after receiving I ripped it apart and tuned it up a little bit,got the factory trigger down to just over 3 pounds (safely) and looked at the stock.A 3 pound trigger is to heavy on a varmint rifle but I want to try it out any ways. If it works fine great and if not I will get a aftermarket trigger for it. Back to the stock...

Remember I havent even fired it yet...So from going back through 30 some pages of old posts most ppl said that the stock was to flimsy on the fore end. So I had mine apart and grabbed the fore end and butt and tried to twist it....yup if I wanted to I could twist it around itself so here is what I did.

Some ppl said to use arrow shafts,some use steel rods ( to me they are round so the stock could twist around them so I pulled out my trusty dremel tool and went to work on it. I went and got a piece of square key stock( 5/16 inch)..just a little over 2 bucks for it and cut it to 7 inches long. Then I roughened it up for the bedding to grab to. Next me and Mr. Dremel went to work on the baffles inside the stock and ground them down till the keysock was flush with the top of the baffles. Then the dremel was used to really roughen up the inside of the stock and I drilled 1/8 holes through every baffle so the bedding could grab through it. The bedding I used was Acraglass in the red box cause its a liquid and flows nicely.

now some pics...

stevens3.jpg


stevens2.jpg


stevens1.jpg


So now I am gonna wait for that to harden up overnight and check it in the morning. Then if it passes the twist test I am going to bed the recoil lug,first inch of the barrel while leaving the rest free floated and bed the tang also.The holes in the stock under the receiver will have bedding forced into them to make it more secure. The rest of the bedding will be done with acraglass gel from here on out...

Will it work??? I have no idea but hopefully it should. Just thought I would pass this along to my fellow cgn nutters....:)
 
icehunter121 said:
Now b4 you dont read the whole post and start wondering in circles read this please. I recently picked up a stevens 200 in .223 from a dealer in here. Immediately after receiving I ripped it apart and tuned it up a little bit,got the factory trigger down to just over 3 pounds (safely) and looked at the stock.A 3 pound trigger is to heavy on a varmint rifle but I want to try it out any ways. If it works fine great and if not I will get a aftermarket trigger for it. Back to the stock...

Remember I havent even fired it yet...So from going back through 30 some pages of old posts most ppl said that the stock was to flimsy on the fore end. So I had mine apart and grabbed the fore end and butt and tried to twist it....yup if I wanted to I could twist it around itself so here is what I did.

Some ppl said to use arrow shafts,some use steel rods ( to me they are round so the stock could twist around them so I pulled out my trusty dremel tool and went to work on it. I went and got a piece of square key stock( 5/16 inch)..just a little over 2 bucks for it and cut it to 7 inches long. Then I roughened it up for the bedding to grab to. Next me and Mr. Dremel went to work on the baffles inside the stock and ground them down till the keysock was flush with the top of the baffles. Then the dremel was used to really roughen up the inside of the stock and I drilled 1/8 holes through every baffle so the bedding could grab through it. The bedding I used was Acraglass in the red box cause its a liquid and flows nicely.

now some pics...

stevens3.jpg


stevens2.jpg


stevens1.jpg


So now I am gonna wait for that to harden up overnight and check it in the morning. Then if it passes the twist test I am going to bed the recoil lug,first inch of the barrel while leaving the rest free floated and bed the tang also.The holes in the stock under the receiver will have bedding forced into them to make it more secure. The rest of the bedding will be done with acraglass gel from here on out...

Will it work??? I have no idea but hopefully it should. Just thought I would pass this along to my fellow cgn nutters....:)
Click to expand...

If you haven't fired it beforehand, how are you going to know if all of your efforts have improved its accuracy?
 
TheTooner said:
If you haven't fired it beforehand, how are you going to know if all of your efforts have improved its accuracy?
Click to expand...

Its just called playin....looked at the stock,seen some weaknesses and tried to fix em. Probably wont get a chance to take it out and fire it this year cept if the weather co-operates...but its just a idea how to strenghten up a 200 fore end...as for effort....I spend every day at home at lunch time for a hour...I need someting to do and this fits the bill to a T...
 
jackenape said:
...what if there was a factory defect and you need to return the rifle?
Click to expand...

Then he is SOL. Haha who cares? It's a rifle that runs him less than 400 bucks. A nice project, better to have fun with it than worry about what will go wrong. That's the beauty of fiddling with something you didn't invest heavily into. To the OP, make sure you give her a sweet paintjob as well. No point to fixing the stock if you're not going to paint her to.
 
cam1936 said:
Then he is SOL. Haha who cares? It's a rifle that runs him less than 400 bucks. A nice project, better to have fun with it than worry about what will go wrong. That's the beauty of fiddling with something you didn't invest heavily into. To the OP, make sure you give her a sweet paintjob as well. No point to fixing the stock if you're not going to paint her to.
Click to expand...


The shipping both ways will likely cost just as much as a replacement. Besides, unless it were the stock itself he'd want warranty work done on, Savage likely won't care (unless he got some epoxy stuck in the action, or something. :D)
 
icehunter121 said:
Now b4 you dont read the whole post and start wondering in circles read this please. I recently picked up a stevens 200 in .223 from a dealer in here. Immediately after receiving I ripped it apart and tuned it up a little bit,got the factory trigger down to just over 3 pounds (safely) and looked at the stock.A 3 pound trigger is to heavy on a varmint rifle but I want to try it out any ways. If it works fine great and if not I will get a aftermarket trigger for it. Back to the stock...

Remember I havent even fired it yet...So from going back through 30 some pages of old posts most ppl said that the stock was to flimsy on the fore end. So I had mine apart and grabbed the fore end and butt and tried to twist it....yup if I wanted to I could twist it around itself so here is what I did.

Some ppl said to use arrow shafts,some use steel rods ( to me they are round so the stock could twist around them so I pulled out my trusty dremel tool and went to work on it. I went and got a piece of square key stock( 5/16 inch)..just a little over 2 bucks for it and cut it to 7 inches long. Then I roughened it up for the bedding to grab to. Next me and Mr. Dremel went to work on the baffles inside the stock and ground them down till the keysock was flush with the top of the baffles. Then the dremel was used to really roughen up the inside of the stock and I drilled 1/8 holes through every baffle so the bedding could grab through it. The bedding I used was Acraglass in the red box cause its a liquid and flows nicely.

now some pics...

stevens3.jpg


stevens2.jpg


stevens1.jpg


So now I am gonna wait for that to harden up overnight and check it in the morning. Then if it passes the twist test I am going to bed the recoil lug,first inch of the barrel while leaving the rest free floated and bed the tang also.The holes in the stock under the receiver will have bedding forced into them to make it more secure. The rest of the bedding will be done with acraglass gel from here on out...

Will it work??? I have no idea but hopefully it should. Just thought I would pass this along to my fellow cgn nutters....:)
Click to expand...

I've accurized MANY 200's. Stiffened the forend, bedded the action. In fact, bedded and pillared them in laminate stocks. But NEVER, NEVER have been able to reduce trigger pull to 3lbs as you claim. You're in Lethbridge, and I'm in High River and I travel thru the bridge city on business. I'll bring a trigger gauge, show me 3 lbs.
 
gitrdun said:
I've accurized MANY 200's. Stiffened the forend, bedded the action. In fact, bedded and pillared them in laminate stocks. But NEVER, NEVER have been able to reduce trigger pull to 3lbs as you claim. You're in Lethbridge, and I'm in High River and I travel thru the bridge city on business. I'll bring a trigger gauge, show me 3 lbs.
Click to expand...

I used a trigger gauge on it and and and...I dont live in Lethbridge but live a hour and a half east of edmonton. So if you want to travel about 6 hours north and bring a trigger gauge...hey go for it. Let me know when you are going to show up with your trigger gauge and I will make sure I am around for it.

You wanna call bull s**t, be my guest....how does that go?? Oh ya...gitrdun eh..
 
icehunter121 said:
I used a trigger gauge on it and and and...I dont live in Lethbridge but live a hour and a half east of edmonton. So if you want to travel about 6 hours north and bring a trigger gauge...hey go for it. Let me know when you are going to show up with your trigger gauge and I will make sure I am around for it.

You wanna call bull s**t, be my guest....how does that go?? Oh ya...gitrdun eh..
Click to expand...

i think the other guy is on crack. if you know what your doing you can get 3lb's out of the stock parts. i done it on 2 of them.

also you can use .041 piano wire to make it less then this
 
Calum said:
Neat project, I hope it all works out well for you. :)
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Thats the fun part about workin on this. its not a expensive rifle to begin with and if it doesnt work out its only a couple of minutes with a air die grinder and I can rip it all out. When I was running the EGO shoots out here this year and a couple of new friends came out from Vancouver one of em had a Stevens in .223..

It took a hit so was knocked out of sight so he had me sight it back in for him off my bench I had set up in the back of my truck. That little rifle impressed me with its accuracy so finally I thought I needed one and bought one to play with.

For less then $400.00 bucks ( I have spent more then that in a bar in one night) I bought a new play toy. This weekend the weather is supposed to be nice here and since I have 6 other rifles to take out and shoot I might just take the .223 out and shoot it just for ####s and giggles...I dont expect great accuracy out of it yet...but who knows??
 
For less then $400.00 bucks ( I have spent more then that in a bar in one night) I bought a new play toy. This weekend the weather is supposed to be nice here and since I have 6 other rifles to take out and shoot I might just take the .223 out and shoot it just for s**ts and giggles...I dont expect great accuracy out of it yet...but who knows??
Click to expand...

I hope you at least got to brnig something home with you for $400.00!!! :p

If this works out well for you I plan to do the same once I pick one up, What that average grouping on a stock 200 anyways? say 100 yards out and 300yards out?
 
ranger_dave said:
I hope you at least got to brnig something home with you for $400.00!!! :p

If this works out well for you I plan to do the same once I pick one up, What that average grouping on a stock 200 anyways? say 100 yards out and 300yards out?
Click to expand...

Most guys and gals in here are getting sub moa groups with the stevens.My buddies with some handloads in .223 when I shot it the groups were less then .5 at 100 yards. for a cheaper rifle they impressed me lots. As for dumping $400.00 in the bar in one night...

When my G/f at the time walked in and I had 4 tables of ppl #### faced on shooters and was standing there with my hand on the shooter girls ass and my other one on some other chicks ass standing beside me...lets just say that I came home with a very grumpy person!!!:D
 
Great to see others fixin' up their $360 rifles and the heck with the others who cut it down because they think cheap in price means cheap in quality.

I love my .223 and plan to get a .308 and fix that up too. They shoot great out of the box but too bad they do suffer a bit when they get too hot with the regular hunting/sporting barrels. But at these prices we can beat them up in the bush and still afford to get a target type rifle. :)
 
Could you share the information on what you did to the trigger to get 3 lbs. I used piano wire and reduced the pull weight but more would be good.

Mine shot so good out of the box it was amazing and the piano wire helped of course.

I didn't like the feel or the sound of the hollow stock so weighted it with shot and sealed it with spray foam. Some say that this will work lose over time but so far no problem.
 
kens said:
Could you share the information on what you did to the trigger to get 3 lbs. I used piano wire and reduced the pull weight but more would be good.

Mine shot so good out of the box it was amazing and the piano wire helped of course.

I didn't like the feel or the sound of the hollow stock so weighted it with shot and sealed it with spray foam. Some say that this will work lose over time but so far no problem.
Click to expand...

Sure Ken no problem....On the side of the trigger where the wire goes into there is a set screw...all i did was back the screw down so that there was less pressure on the wire. Then i tested it for slam fire and bump fire. No problems there so I set it back up to factory spec.,coated it with epoxy and reset it to just over 3 pounds.

It locked solid into place and went from there. As I was loading up a bunch of rifles to take out this afternoon I heard a soft wimper from my work bench. It was the .223 wanting to go out for the afternoon...so I tried to twist the stock and with the key stock in it and bedding set up....this thing is hell bent for strong now. So I slapped it together and its going out this afternoon just to fire some groups with.

I will post pics later on when I get back from having a afternoon of burning lots of powder off....
 
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