Converting model 700 stock to work with model 7 action...
- Thread starter new210/22
- Start date
What stock style are you looking for? I know of quite a few m7 stock options. If composite, wildcat, McMillan, b&c, HS, hightech, brown, Pendleton, mpi all make a minimum of 1 stock for the m7.
Let me tell the OP a short story about adapting a stock from a different model.
I have this long time friend of over 50 years that is CHEAP to the core. He has decided to gift his daughter in law a rifle chambered in 308/win.
Fine. He brings this thing over and it's an obsolete Mossberg 800 bolt action with a homemade club for a stock, made out of a nice piece of clear Birch. The former owner had broken the stock beyond repair and decided to carve one out of a scrap piece of wood he had in his shed. Luckily it was a straight grained piece of Birch.
He inletted the wood and carved away just enough wood to give it the image of a stock. Probably took several hours to do the inletting and maybe an hour or so with a belt sander to shape the rest of it. Then he applied a liberal coat of Reddish Deck Stain and slathered it with some sort of oil on the outer surface. He painted the inletting RED.
My "friend" brings this thing to me and wants a silk purse made out of this SOW'S EAR. He informed me that he had asked a couple of others to do this before coming to me because I can be a curmudgeon when this sort of thing is asked of me. NO KIDDING. I asked him why he didn't "FIX" it himself. Normal humming and hawing. He often reminds me of "Allan Harper" of 2 1/2 Men when it comes to the fabled lost wallet.
Now if any of you are familiar with the Mossberg 800 you will realize why the rifle was a financial failure and drew very little attention. Mossberg was a bit advanced in their thinking when they built these rifles and the trigger guard/trigger housing are all one piece but made of relatively soft cast plastic. IMHO this rifle could have been greatly improved upon but they were trying to undercut companies such as Ruger and Savage in pricing. Everything about the rifle is proprietary. None of the threads are standard in the industry and the trigger group is next to impossible to reduce pull without creating issues further down the road.
I found a stock in my bin that could be made to work with some creative bedding and told my "friend" that I would attempt to make up something acceptable but he would have to do the final finishing.
So after several passes on the milling machine to make the final inletting fit without to much glass bedding material being used it came time to drill and pillar the action screws. This is a simple but time consuming job. This afternoon I finally got the last pillar in place and it is a relief to have finished my part of the job.
Altogether I have close to twelve hours into this project and there is at least that many hours left for the owner to finish it. I refuse to finish it because I will own the darn thing for the rest of my life if I do. NO THANKS.
The stock wasn't the only issue that needed to be dealt with. The original rear action screw had been lost and in his zeal to "fix it on the cheap" he had forced a 10x32 screw into the threads thereby buggering them up. Of course it is next to impossible to find the proprietary screws so the receiver needed to be tapped to accept a 10x32 hex head screw on both the front and rear mounting points. This means that the pillars had to be modified to accept these screws so they would be flush. The front mount hole of the trigger guard had to be modified as well.
There was a very good reason why the Mossberg 800 FAILED to attract a following. IMHO it is truly a Sow's Ear of a firearm. Mossberg's latest center fire offering looks to be much better thought out and interesting.
This is a bit more extreme than your job would be but not by a lot. If you had to pay a smith or stock maker to mod your 700 stock to fit your Mod 7 you would be looking at a $500 -$800 dollar charge. You can purchase a stock that will fill all of your requirements from Boyd's for around half that amount for a non checkered laminated drop in.
You are very sparse in listing the options you require as well so that's why I went into a bit of depth in my reply. Most smiths and stock makers will run from such a project as fast as they can.
What type of 700 stock do you have?????? Laminated, extruded plastic, plain wood???????????????????? You might be able to trade it for what you need on the EE.
I have this long time friend of over 50 years that is CHEAP to the core. He has decided to gift his daughter in law a rifle chambered in 308/win.
Fine. He brings this thing over and it's an obsolete Mossberg 800 bolt action with a homemade club for a stock, made out of a nice piece of clear Birch. The former owner had broken the stock beyond repair and decided to carve one out of a scrap piece of wood he had in his shed. Luckily it was a straight grained piece of Birch.
He inletted the wood and carved away just enough wood to give it the image of a stock. Probably took several hours to do the inletting and maybe an hour or so with a belt sander to shape the rest of it. Then he applied a liberal coat of Reddish Deck Stain and slathered it with some sort of oil on the outer surface. He painted the inletting RED.
My "friend" brings this thing to me and wants a silk purse made out of this SOW'S EAR. He informed me that he had asked a couple of others to do this before coming to me because I can be a curmudgeon when this sort of thing is asked of me. NO KIDDING. I asked him why he didn't "FIX" it himself. Normal humming and hawing. He often reminds me of "Allan Harper" of 2 1/2 Men when it comes to the fabled lost wallet.
Now if any of you are familiar with the Mossberg 800 you will realize why the rifle was a financial failure and drew very little attention. Mossberg was a bit advanced in their thinking when they built these rifles and the trigger guard/trigger housing are all one piece but made of relatively soft cast plastic. IMHO this rifle could have been greatly improved upon but they were trying to undercut companies such as Ruger and Savage in pricing. Everything about the rifle is proprietary. None of the threads are standard in the industry and the trigger group is next to impossible to reduce pull without creating issues further down the road.
I found a stock in my bin that could be made to work with some creative bedding and told my "friend" that I would attempt to make up something acceptable but he would have to do the final finishing.
So after several passes on the milling machine to make the final inletting fit without to much glass bedding material being used it came time to drill and pillar the action screws. This is a simple but time consuming job. This afternoon I finally got the last pillar in place and it is a relief to have finished my part of the job.
Altogether I have close to twelve hours into this project and there is at least that many hours left for the owner to finish it. I refuse to finish it because I will own the darn thing for the rest of my life if I do. NO THANKS.
The stock wasn't the only issue that needed to be dealt with. The original rear action screw had been lost and in his zeal to "fix it on the cheap" he had forced a 10x32 screw into the threads thereby buggering them up. Of course it is next to impossible to find the proprietary screws so the receiver needed to be tapped to accept a 10x32 hex head screw on both the front and rear mounting points. This means that the pillars had to be modified to accept these screws so they would be flush. The front mount hole of the trigger guard had to be modified as well.
There was a very good reason why the Mossberg 800 FAILED to attract a following. IMHO it is truly a Sow's Ear of a firearm. Mossberg's latest center fire offering looks to be much better thought out and interesting.
This is a bit more extreme than your job would be but not by a lot. If you had to pay a smith or stock maker to mod your 700 stock to fit your Mod 7 you would be looking at a $500 -$800 dollar charge. You can purchase a stock that will fill all of your requirements from Boyd's for around half that amount for a non checkered laminated drop in.
You are very sparse in listing the options you require as well so that's why I went into a bit of depth in my reply. Most smiths and stock makers will run from such a project as fast as they can.
What type of 700 stock do you have?????? Laminated, extruded plastic, plain wood???????????????????? You might be able to trade it for what you need on the EE.
David Henry
CGN Regular
- Location
- West of the big road
Thank you Bear hunter, nuff said. D.H.
