M1 Ferrule to Lower Band Draw Fitting

Ended up with a NOS Italian BM-59 stock. It had its front tenon, its barrel channel, as well as the op-rod clearance routed way off. Lots of chiseling, but the tenon fitting is the interesting part.

The Kuhnhausen book gives a value of 30-50 pounds of barrel draw for dampening. Where he got that number I have no idea. Please, if someone could fill that in?

The 1961 National Match document has lots of dimensions relating to the position of the front tenon, but one of the tools needed is missing from the manual. Lots of other tools as well as their blueprints are included, but not that one.

The option that was left was to chisel the tenon down to the point where the ferrule would actually locate correctly in relation to the receiver, then epoxy in place.

Receiver then clamped in the stock with its trigger group. Front ferrule loose to the wood, but the tenon spaces filled with epoxy. I had some 3M 2116 Grey from a project at work. Fantastic material.

A 40-pound bucket of oil was hung in front of the lower band to deflect the barrel as the epoxy cured.

After the material set over the weekend holes were drilled through the ferrule and into the wood and the face of the ferrule was countersunk. Both holes were countersunk just enough so that the screw holes cleared the lower band.

Yes, the zinc on the screw-heads look horrible. I was out of time and the rifle was needed for a match.

Rifle shoots well.

It was quite a bit of work to save some pretty curl.....

Forgot to post pic of the final product.

Its the top rifle.

And yes, that "adapter" style lower band that allows use of a non-extended BM-59 stock is garbage. Its drilled 3mm and positioned wrong, but a long .125" endmill fixed it right up. Also the clearances were all wrong and it needed tapered endmill work to clear the oprod. It is a cast piece of trash.

But in the end both rifles get thrown in the dirt for matches, so as long as they hold accuracy........
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