M96 Sporter Project - 56K Death

[mmattockx]

Well, after getting my M96 Swede from Tradex and testing it out, it is time for a new stock and some metal refinishing. The initial review and range report for this rifle are chronicled elsewhere in this forum.

So, I got my new stock today. Ordered a roughed semi-inletted one from Great American Gunstock Company. It is indeed rough, needing a fair bit of finishing to get to a decent point. The inletting is nicely done except for one place and the metal starts into all the holes. I figure it will take 2-3 hours of work to have everything fitted and installed. As for final finish, who knows? I want a nice, matte oil finish, so I will have to do some research to find the oil that will give me what I want. I was asked in a PM about stock weights and there isn't much difference without weighing them on a postal scale or similar. Neither one feels heavy or oddly balanced.

To the pics...

The new stock:

Sitting beside the original stock. You can see how much higher the comb is and the longer LOP. The stocks are lined up roughly even at the trigger hole, so it looks like the new stock is around 1" longer without a buttplate or recoil pad.

A detail of the cheek rest, there is a pretty significant ridge there that is going to take some work to smooth out and get a nice radius on.

Now some inletting details:

The bottom metal fitted in. It took a few firm smacks with my hand to get it seated this far. A few minutes with a dremel and a sanding drum should have it fitting nicely.

In this one you can see a fair gap on the one side of the magazine. I am not happy with that at all and will have to look at filling that in to match the other side. Everything else fits nice and close.

And now the barrelled action:

I will keep this thread updated as I get things fitting properly and finished up. Things I need some advice on:

1) Oil finish for a matte finish
2) Glass bedding compound
3) Recommendations for a small recoil pad. I don't need a limbsaver and I don't want a hard buttplate
3) Any finishing tips that pertain specifically to stocks. I have done my share of woodworking, but this is my first shot at a stock.

Mark

 

[louthepou]

Looks like the person who made this stock needs sharper tools or equipment that allows for more precision? Good thing is, once you're done, it will likely look really great!

Have fun,

Lou

 

[Pblatzz]

Looks like it was made for a stepped barrel. Interesting.

Pete

 

[maple_leaf_eh]

Bisonite and micro-balloons will be your friends.

 

[pharaoh2]

I love watching other peoples projects. Have fun, it should keep you busy for awhile.

 

[mmattockx]

Looks like the person who made this stock needs sharper tools or equipment that allows for more precision? Good thing is, once you're done, it will likely look really great!

Have fun,

Lou

That could be. The inletting that was done looks like it was all hand done. The original stock with the rifle was all machine done and looks perfect in comparison.

Looks like it was made for a stepped barrel. Interesting.

Pete

If the military barrel on the 96 is the same as my 98, it had steps on it instead of a straight taper. I am opening the barrel channel up to fit the tapered sporter barrel on mine. On one hand, it is more work, on the other it allows a nice even fit if I do a good job.

The first night I got the bottom metal in and fitted nicely and a start on the action and barrel. Currently, I have the tang fitting in pretty well but the barrel and front lug are taking some work. I am going slow to hopefully avoid any catastrophe along the way.

maple_leaf_eh, thank for the tip on the Bisonite. I will find some around town and try that for filling the gap along the edge of the mag.

Mark

 

[Stewienb]

Any updates??? Would love to do one like this myself, what was the guin like when youj got it from tradeex? how much did you pay? was it shootable upon arrival??

 

[mmattockx]

Any updates??? Would love to do one like this myself, what was the guin like when youj got it from tradeex? how much did you pay? was it shootable upon arrival??

Here is the thread where I got the rifle and a range report:

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=355492&highlight=tradex

No updates that are photo worthy, I do have a couple of threads going in the Gunsmithing forum on the inletting and finishing of the stock. I have been too busy the last few days to do anything more. I will get at it again next week.

Short story is that the inletting done before me was quite rough and needed a lot of carving to get everything fitted properly. I ended up with the bottom metal sunk below flush by 3/16"-1/4" to get the magazine to butt up tight to the bottom of the action as it needs to be. That is done, the barrel is floating and I now have a bunch of shaping work to finish off the pistol grip area and get the bottom metal flush with the stock again. After that will be glass bedding, then final sanding, adding a recoil pad and finishing.

Was it shootable as I got it? Yes, perfectly acceptable. The main reasons I bought a new stock were:

1) The stock was way too short for me, at least an inch on LOP.
2) The comb was meant for iron sights and was far too low for scope use.
3) It was a good excuse to buy a stock and try inletting, bedding and finishing my own.

Mark

 

[mmattockx]

Well, here's some pics to go along with the brief update above. Tonight I decided to do some sanding and removed the ridge around the cheekpiece and did an overall rough sanding with 80 grit to see how bad it will be getting everything truly smooth. Turned out not too bad for the work I did. The cheekpiece ridge was a bugger, though, I will have sore fingers in the morning from that one.

An overall view with the action in place. You can see the wood sticking down into the trigger guard area:

A couple shots of the butt. Now that I have sanded a bit, the grain has come out a lot and looks like it will be very nice when finished:

The forend, I will be removing all the wood above the centerline of the barrel:

A closer view of the bottom metal, showing how much I had to inlet it to get the mag well to butt up to the action:

Lots of work to go, I need to remove some wood to make room for bedding compound under the front of the action and barrel, then bedding, followed by much sanding and an oil finish. At the moment, the leading choice is BLO for a matte finish to go with the hunting use. I want no shiny surfaces to spook game when it is all finished up.

Mark

 

[Steppenwolf]

Mark, Nice work. How much the stock set you back?

Cheers
Kevin

 

[Gibbs505]

Nice work! When I did mine, I pilar bedded the saction as well. Ared you going to do that?

Is that a Boyd stock?

 

[mmattockx]

Mark, Nice work. How much the stock set you back?

Cheers
Kevin

Nice work! When I did mine, I pilar bedded the saction as well. Ared you going to do that?

Is that a Boyd stock?

Thanks for the kind words, guys. The stock was $112USD plus S&H, which was about $30USD. It was around $160CDN with exchange figured in. I think that is not bad, considering the synthetic stocks I priced were $125+ and I am no fan of plastic on my rifles. The grain has come up real nice with the sanding and I am very pleased with what I am seeing now. It should look great when finished and oiled.

I am not going to pillar bed it, from looking at it, the M96 action does not easily lend itself to that method. Maybe the rear bolt would work, but the front bolt clamps the bottom metal tight to the action right in front of the recoil lug. I am going to bed the recoil lug, the front of the action and about 2" of the barrel and the rear of the action around the trigger and the rear bolt. I also plan to bed the front and rear areas of the bottom metal around the bolts to keep it fitting nicely over the years.

The stock came from The Great American Gunstock Company. It is similar to the JRS Classic in its layout. I wanted the high, straight comb for scope use.

Mark

 

[cyclone]

The grain has come up real nice with the sanding and I am very pleased with what I am seeing now. It should look great when finished and oiled.

x 2 - there's serious potential there!

 

[mmattockx]

Well, after a month away from this project due to work and other commitments, I managed to get back at it last night. I attacked the stock with my belt sander to get the bottom flush with the bottom metal. It turned out well, but there is still lots of detail remaining to finish.

As you can see in the pics, there is a significant step from the front of the bottom metal to the current surface of the forearm. I was planning on leaving it and just smoothing everything out, but after seeing it finished I am not as crazy about the idea. Any thoughts on leaving it or working the forearm down to have a smooth transition?

I need to complete the shaping of the pistol grip area, it has a sharp ridge on top that I will be taking down to smooth the transition through that area and make the grip more comfortable for my hand.

Next up will be a more thorough overall sanding of the stock, maybe to 120 grit and then finishing the metal before glass bedding. Any idea if paint will stick fine over bluing or do I need to remove the bluing with steel wool first?

Mark

 

[collector67]

I'm not sure about the bluing, but if you are looking for a "matte" finish on the wood, Boiled Linseed oil will give you the low sheen, Military look, but I find that it tends not to seal as well as TruOil. TruOil has a bit more shine to it, but it still gives a "milsurp" finish without the smell associated with BLO and gives the wood more protection as well.

 

[mmattockx]

Just a bit of necro-posting here.

After letting this sit in my safe for over a year, I finally got some ambition and time to get back on it. After putting off glass bedding the action for months, I finally just dove in and did it one night. The first attempt turned out OK, but I underestimated how much epoxy to use and had areas that did not make contact with the action and barrel.

The shiny surfaces did not touch metal. So, I scuffed up the epoxy and re-did the areas that didn't turn out the first time.

This time I had full contact and the action is a snug fit into the stock. It could probably be fired with no screws installed with no problems. Considering this is my first attempt at bedding, I am happy with the results. I learned a number of things that will make the next one much better and neater, but that is typical of new projects.


After that came bedding the bottom metal.

That turned out the first time, except that I neglected to leave any clearance around the front action screw post that mates up to the bottom of the recoil lug area. The bottom metal fit so closely that I needed to use a punch from above to knock it out of the stock. A bit of Dremel work cleaned that up and it now slides in snug but not crazy tight.

After that I inletted the stock to clear the Timney trigger that was installed to replace the standard military 2 stage trigger. It works very well, super crisp and light. No pics of this, as all I did was remove some material in the stock to accomodate the larger Timney body. The next pic shows the new trigger attached to the action. It was dead simple to remove the old trigger and install the new one.

After that was installed and inletted, I then inletted for the bolt handle. You can see the groove in the stock a couple of pics above and here it is with the action installed and the bolt in place.

At this point, I have a functional rifle that can be fired.

A couple of overall pics of the semi-completed rifle. The front sight has also been un-soldered and removed.

Now I need to finish shaping the stock, final sand and finish the wood. I am torn on what to do with the metal. I think I may get it parkerized and leave it at that or I may get it arma-coated over parkerizing. I am sure I will be flipping a coin over this until the day I send it off for the work.

Hopefully I will manage to stay on top of this project and get it done by spring so I can do some load development next summer and take her out hunting in the fall.

Mark