Type 1 National Match Stock Wood Wedges

[Durango56]

I would like to get a copy of GCA article on wood wedges in NM stock to keep with paperwork on my rifle. Anyone know which issue that article is in? Thanks

Information

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[Bob Seijas]

Fall 2011 issue 25-4 "Ask an Expert"

"The regulations on match guns always stipulated “service rifle as issued.” From about 1955 the service shops began to press the National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice, the governing body on what could be done to the rifle, for permission to glass bed the stocks. They had a problem that SA did not: since M1 production was still underway at SA, the SA NM shop had thousands of stocks to choose from to get a perfect fit. The service shops didn’t, and getting the right fit on this critical component was a constant problem that bedding would easily solve. But bedding was not “service rifle as issued,” and SA was opposed. After two years of debate, NBPRP vetoed the proposal.

However, M1 production ended in 1957, and before long the SA NM unit no longer had all those stocks to pick over. In very late 1958 they began to glue small wood wedges into the recoil shoulders of some NM stocks to get perfect fit, and this became standard procedure for the 1959 NM rifles. Since the wedges were matched to the receiver being used, the receiver serial number was usually (but not always) written in pencil in the stock barrel channel to keep them together.

All of a sudden, glass bedding didn’t seem like such a bad idea after all. The question was reopened in 1959, this time with SA support, and was approved for the 1960 shooting season."
Attachment 104218

[Durango56]

Thanks, I appreciate the info.