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OK, I think I was outside drinking coffee when this was discussed last time. I just received a nice new C stock from CMP and getting ready to mount it on my A3. Where and how is the relief cut made by the rear tang so as not to have the stock crack under recoil. Thanks Truman
Hey Truman,
Had to do some minor inletting work recently on a Winchester M1917 stock. Best starting advice is....as doctors say, "First do no harm". Take away too much wood and you are screwed.
I started the project by making a simple tool, a scraper. Took a quarter inch wide wood chisel and blunted the tip. Get out a fine knife stone, oil it up and take your chisel in a vertical position and stroke it until you have say a one thirty second inch edge square with the back of the shaft. Next, stroke the back of the shaft till' square with the scraping edge. Then square up both sides. If you understand that and have made your tool you are ready to scrape:).
I'm right handed...hold the stock with your left hand in a near vertical position, with the top of the stock facing you, and the butt planted in your right thigh. Insert the tool into the radius at the rear of the tang cut, keep the rear of the blade flush with the sides of the tang cut and work it like your are reaming something, say a quarter inch twist. You will start to see a small amount of wood coming off. Stroke a few times and then put the barreled receiver in to check your relief. Again, if you follow what I am trying to explain, when you have about a sixteenth of clearance, you are done. Scraping makes for a very smooth surface with no sanding required. Scraping is safer for amateurs like me, since there is no chance of cutting into the wood and causing a bad splinter and a sloppy appearance. Worked perfectly for me. Unless you can write your name beautifully in script with a Dremel tool, scrape. The pros will chime in with better advice if they don't like my method, that's ok, worked for me. The process sounds complicated, but I could show you how to do it in five minutes in the Peaceshack.
Also make sure that your metal fits solidly into your stock and tighten up the trigger guard screws till you can't go no mo', not to the point of stripping threads, but very tight.
Yours in messin' with expensive wood,
Lancebear
The idea is to have no contact between the back edge of the tang and the wood. If the tang bears on the wood, it acts as a wedge and causes the stock to split.
If you have a dremel or similiar tood, use a sanding tool whose diameter is just a bit smaller than the radius of the tang, and carefully take a little wood out where the back of the tang rests in the slot. The clearance needs to be small, less than 1/32 of an inch.
If done carefully, the gap is hardly noticable, yet there is no contact between back of the tang and the stock.
you should have 1/16 to 1/8 gap behind the tang, make sure you install a rear tang bushing as well,
trim it down 1/8 to fit below the wood line, you will be happy that you did, when it comes to range time.