Sanding down a thick B&C stock -updated with progress pics pg2 - Thx Ian R!

Buckmastr

Buckmastr

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I have and m70 extreme weather with a bell Carlson synthetic stock. It's really thick in the grip and forearm. Is it possible to sand it down and repaint? Or will I get into the porous middle of the stock? Is this destined for failure?
Any comments or experience would be appreciated
Thanks!
 
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Buckmastr said:
I have and m70 extreme weather with a bell Carlson synthetic stock. It's really thick in the grip and forearm. Is it possible to sand it down and repaint? Or will I get into the porous middle of the stock? Is this destined for failure?
Any comments or experience would be appreciated
Thanks!
Click to expand...

I have always wondered the same thing... Hoping somebody has tried it.
 
Almost all plastic stocks are going to be hollow inside. Some are filled with a foam as a shock absorber but outer the plastic used for the structural needs is relatively still thin walled and hollow.

So the question is if it's actually solid in the wrist area or will you suddenly have a pistol grip stock when it gets too thin. Have you taken off the recoil pad and looked inside and measured things up with a probe rod to check the depths of the hollowing yet?
 
So what are they? "Synthetic" from the first post generally indicates a plastic of some sort.

Or if the answer is "composite" then you sure as blazes do not want to start cutting into it since much of the strength and rigidity will be in the fiberglass or carbon fiber that is on the outer surface. Also again such things are generally not going to be solid since they'd be overly heavy.
 
From their website:
"Bell and Carlson stocks are constructed using a "hand lay-up" process, using a variety of "composite" materials. These composites, including fiberglass, aramid fibers, graphite, epoxy gel coats and laminating resins; and polyurethane reinforcement with milled fiberglass, provide a warm and solid feel rather than the hollow, toy like impression one gets from injection molded stocks."
 
A shell style layup like that is good stuff. But it's pretty much the last sort of thing we should ever cut into for thinning down the parts mentioned. Removing more than the surface finish with light sanding will cut into the fiber materials and resins which gives it the structural qualities that make it so good in the first place. You'd quickly ruin the stock by doing so.

So either you live with it or shrug and sell the rifle and be more fussy about finding the next one that fits you better.
 
B&C have a very thin shell and are filled with PU 20lb foam. You can reshape it but you will need to replace the shell and shape with bondo and paint. I believe they are made with an acrylic resin so they may be bondo friendly. Some bondo mixes will not harden on epoxy due to different PH.
 
You do not want to thin this stock as you will completely destroy the integrity of the stock. All of it's strength and stability is in it's one piece skin, if you remove that skin ,even if you attempt to replace it after, your strength it still compromised. This is one of the reasons I dislike B&C stocks, they are clubby and there is nothing one can do about it. I have a very serious love for Brown Precision stocks for this very reason, they are nice and slim through the grip and usually the forend is nicely configured as well.
 
Kind of suspect the issue would be getting a decent finished surface. However, B&C says regular wood working tools are all you need. They even mention the dreaded 'Dremel'.
 
Where I come from cutting away the shell and then splicing in a replacement shell layer correctly is more complicated than "no problems".

Ian, I think that your background is making it seem easy for you where someone without composite skills and background would find it rather daunting...... And so it should. To do a good job that ties the new layup into the existing shell correctly so the joint does not separate is not something for an average bloke with a wood rasp and a boat patching kit. And in fact it's the sort of thing that I suspect if a person has to ask about if it's possible and how easy or hard it would be then they should not be doing it unless they are willing to live with the consequences of failure.
 
I have sanded down a bc stock and the shell is very thin, I don't recommend doing it, you'll be into the fill of the stock long before you get it to the thickness you want
 
Yes it is very thin. Cut through the shell, replace the cut out the shell and then reconture as I said with bondo. If you don't believe me then you guys get together and send me one, you only pay postage. Just remember use epoxy and not polyester, West is okay.
 
The B&C factory stock was a club. Compared to an 80's winlite and win cam.

Some other stock dimensions I had that I liked

Ian offered to prove that this stock could be shaved down with an oribital sander into the bedding block then re clothed (2x 6oz per side) to build a new shell and then resanded and finished as below.









The stock waiting for texture and paint. Ian took 1.5" off the front, 0.25" off the width of the fore end and grip, and 0.45" off the width at the tang.



Ultimately, this is a much nicer feeling gun with sleeker lines similar to a Remington mountain rifle. The M70 now weighs 7.0lbs in 25-06 with a 22" barrel.
Thanks goes to Ian Robertson for offering to do this for nothing, for cgn's education sake, especially knowing how busy he is.
Im going to finish it and try one myself soon. Considering the price of aftermarket stocks, the cost of materials involved, this is worth trying.

Thanks again Ian.
 
It is often not as hard as it my seem. Of course I do have some experience with this stuff and it is very hard to find simple how do I fix this info on the Web. In this case the shell, which was only on the sides, was made from CF and aramid and I think the main reason for the choice of material was so that they could say it was in there more so than the properties it gave? The actual cost per stock would be a couple of bucks over the cost of simple fibre glass. For example we would fill an action area with 2:1 epoxy:glass fibre fill that would easily jack up a truck and then add uni CF on the sides that really did nothing but we could say that there was CF in there. Of course we did make stocks where the CF really did the heavy lifting. Pay me now or pay me later but it is fairly simple trade of weight:strength.
 
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What was the point of the green tape in picture 1? Just to keep the fresh glass from bonding to areas you didn't want to add it? (ie keep it in the desired areas?)

And do I understand right that you used epoxy not Fiberglas resin to bond the new glass to the stock?
 
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