Boyd's M1 hand gaurd problem?

lorne19

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I installed a complete Boyd's finished stock set on my M1 tonight and noticed that the rear hand guard is about a 1/4 inch narrower than the original. Also when all installed the stock is about 1/4-3/8 wider on the hand guard on the op rod side of the stock, is this normal? My original stock set lined up perfect, as anyone else experienced this with a Boyd's stock set?
 
Maybe these photos will explain my question better.
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The right edge of the guard should at least cover the top left side of the op rod to a point where you cannot see the inner edge of the op rod when viewed from the top. In your case there is a gap where one should not exist. It is probably still functional, but it is cattywhampous and doesn't look right. This cannot be adjusted to shift the guard to the right because of the need to fit the front end of the guard into the curve of the lower band. I'd contact Boyds for a replacement.

Apart from this, there are a couple of other things to watch for when fitting the handguard. The end that butts up against the face of the receiver should be dressed off as necessary to establish some clearance-about the thickness of a business card is good. Also, when the guard is in place there should be some clearance between the bottom of the lower left edge of the guard and the top of the stock. Sand down the guard to achieve this. Do not sand the top edge of the stock. Some of the commercial guards have an excess of wood on the inner surface which binds against the barrel when the guard is installed. The inner top surface of the guard may need to be sanded down somewhat.
 
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I thought something wasn't exactly right. Sadly I bought this stock set second hand so returning it for a new one isn't an option. I also noticed that finished hand guards are out of stock on there web sit, so no new one for a while. The rifle dose function fine, just doesn't look exactly right. Dose anybody have any tips to easily take the retaining clip off the hand guard?
 
There is a special tool which allows the clip to be expanded and held while the guard is installed and removed from the clip. This is pretty much essential to remove or install the clip w/o cracking the guard.

There is another way of doing this by using a wire thru one of the holes in the end of the clip, securing the free end of the wire in a vice, and then expanding the clip by pulling against the vice while "rolling" the guard into position. It's tough to explain just how to do this, but it will work in the absence of the tool for the clip.
 
Problem fixed, I put the original hand guard back on, luckily it matches almost perfect.
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And here's the finished product.
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Boyd's have had growing pains with their M1 stocks to the present. In some cases they will give pretty much a drop-in fit. In other cases there is a need to establish more clearance at critical points. You need to check these carefully when fitting the stock and handguards as both accuracy and functionality can be adversely affected.

One good thing about them is that there is plenty of wood to get a good, tight vertical lockup with the trigger guard. One of the causes of a loose vertical lockup is when the circular lugs on the guard become worn flat on the one side. These worn trigger guards can often be used with a new stock to get a tight fit. Folks should always apply a bit of grease to the lugs to prevent excessive wear.
 
lorne
The rear handguard clip inlet on my Boyds unfinished set was made deeper than it should have been. To fix it I added a couple strips of thin cardboard underneath and shifted them to the right side to center the clip on the handguard. It looks good now.
 
The inleting was too deep, but I wasn't able to use the hand guard regardless has it was to narrow to fit the stock properly. It was 3/8 narrower than my original hand guard and nearly a quarter inch shorter too. Luckily my original matches pretty well, so I'm not worried. Has for the stock it required a little fitting in the receiver area and little for op rod clearance but nothing serious. Overall it gives a good tight receiver to stock fit, and left a generous amount of wood in the trigger area to allow a tight fit.
 
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