Bought a premium auto body fibreglass kit from Canadian Tire, mixed and poured it into the butt end of a Tikka Varmint rifle including the fiberglass cloth and a couple lengths of threaded rod for good measure. Generated some heat on curing but the electrical tape wrapped around the pistol grip cap kept it from coming out. Added stiffness and weight, maybe 2lbs total. Better balance, controllability, and accuracy and no problems since done 7 years ago.
Filling synthetic stock with expanding foam ?
- Thread starter FatCatsDad
- Start date
- Location
- Brockville, ON
Another foaming product that might add more in the rigidity/stiffening department is the foam sold in kits to fill foundation cracks. I've used that for its intended purpose and it's very hard when cured up and holds up to UV quite well (I have some parging on my to do list to get that foam out of the UV lol). More expensive than spray foam, but if looking for strength, it's not outrageously expensive. I've filled the synthetic butt stock on a Canuck shotgun with low-e foam to fixthe hollow toyish sound of the stock and it worked great for that. Just taped off the stock and knifed off what expanded out. Sounds like a $301 shotgun instead of a $300 hahaha
I've tried filling the buttstock of a cheap plastic riflestock with canned expanding foam from the hardware store, but ran into the problem where only the outer part exposed to air cured properly - there was still foam-goo on the inside that was a mess to clean out. What's the trick to get it to cure?
Adding weight to the fore end is conducive to better off hand shooting.
Light rifles are great to carry but point them from an extended offhand hold can be difficult.
Adding weight, helps "dampen" shake or "wobble"
I've added steel rods and lead strips using expanding foam.
You have to spray it in "stages" It can't cure without air.
In my experience the foam in the spray can does not work well, messy and too dense.
The polyurethane foam works best. The available standard density is 2lb. Mix it fast and dump it in, add latter after the first is hard enough.
A problem with polyurethane foam is that it shrinks with time and it also bonds to the inside of stocks and when it shrinks it sucks them in making them ugly. This is avoided by using a very thin bag known as rain bags for newspapers also as used by Subway sandwhiches, unless you need a case of them go to Subway. To install studs into a foamed butt drill a hole and then through this hole chew out the foam, add epoxy and once cured drill and epoxy in the stud. I used brass inserts for this and a nylon washer that compressed to line up the hole in the stud.
The polyurethane foam works best. The available standard density is 2lb. Mix it fast and dump it in, add latter after the first is hard enough.
A problem with polyurethane foam is that it shrinks with time and it also bonds to the inside of stocks and when it shrinks it sucks them in making them ugly. This is avoided by using a very thin bag known as rain bags for newspapers also as used by Subway sandwhiches, unless you need a case of them go to Subway. To install studs into a foamed butt drill a hole and then through this hole chew out the foam, add epoxy and once cured drill and epoxy in the stud. I used brass inserts for this and a nylon washer that compressed to line up the hole in the stud.
