1903 stock fitting guide

[ssgross]

I've gotten a couple different PM inquiries/questions about a thread I did reviewing and fitting a Minelli replacement stock. In answering, I went back and read what I wrote. Well, I've fitted at least a dozen more 1903 stocks since then (no more Minelli's though. They use a spray-tan finish to hide that they use sapwood - from European walnut I think - to make them) and feel like I could have explained better. Also, learned from experience that attention to some subtleties can ease or eliminate frustration.

So here is a new, hopefully improved guide with some hindsight.

Leave the dremmel in the drawer. No matter how strongly you feel it's the only tool for the job, or how steady you think your hand is, you will f&*% it up.

ignore the outside until the inletting is perfect. it's a whole other can of worms. An ugly rifle can easily outshoot a sexy one. Accuracy and outward appearance are mutually exclusive. Plus, you will invariably ding or smudge it all up while fitting. easily corrected if you haven't finished it yet!

Preliminaries:
1) leave the muzzle bed alone initially. It's very sensitive.
2) try the trigger guard. If the magazine doesn't easily go in, use inletting black on the sides of the magazine and open up the stock until it slips in with not too much force. if its already loose, don't sweat it.
3) make sure the trigger guard STARTS in its recess. It doesn't have to drop all the way in yet and you don't need the action for this at first. You just want it aligned for now. If it doesn't even start, use inlet pins, piece of wood dowel, or punches to align the holes in the stock with the holes in the trigger guard, and trace the outside with a very sharp pencil. relieve until it just starts to press in. otherwise if it's just snug...wait and save any alignment frustrations you accidentally introduce when working on the action. if drops right in, don't worry about it.
4) remove the hand guard ring if you are fitting an A3. Use inletting black behind the recoil lug, and along the outside of the receiver where the round part meets the bottom side, and put some behind the tang. Set the action in the stock, purposefully a bit forward. Hold the muzzle in center of the stock and use a rubber mallet and lightly tap the muzzle. Check the contact. Relieve anything on the sides of the receiver ring, under the recoil lug or on its sides so the action actually sets down in. If behind the recoil lug area is not even horizontally, relieve and repeat until it is. continue to check the rear of tang for contact, and relieve as needed to make sure there is contact with the lug (see step 5).
5) relieve behind the tang until there is ~1/32 gap behind it. This can be difficult to do evenly. A large rat tail file works, so does a piece of sand paper wrapped on a dowel. You can use a piece of sandpaper, wrap around a punch of the right diameter and inserted in a cordless drill (tape the paper around the end next to the chuck). Don't use a dremmel, electric drill or air drill. They move too fast and you'll screw it up easily. Cordless drill is more easily controlled for this. Go slow. You now have the for/aft position set. I use a ridiculously razor sharp angled chisel and slowly scrape from each side to the center, then clean it up from the center outward.
6) double check the action screw hole alignment. take out the rear bushing with a punch and your life will be easier. sometimes they use a cheap brass bushing on replacement stocks or none at all. you'll want a steel one (the correct one is actually a large roll pin). sometimes there is a bit of wood below the recoil lug area that impedes the front screw. relieve with a rat file or small curved chisel as needed, careful you don't slip and hit the wood at the recoil lug.
7) Now fit the trigger guard. Get some Forster stock fitting screws with the t-handle (they are cheap on eBay) to save time and cursing, and maring up your nice action screws with the screwdriver. if it doesn't slip in, inletting black on the outer edge, just barely hand tighten your screws (like 5 in*lbs) when you test, otherwise you risk pulling the action forward...goes without saying that whenever you place the action in the stock, tap the muzzle with a mallet to bed the recoil lug in the same position. relieve around the trigger guard's edges until the trigger guard sets in all the way and edge leaves black around the screw holes. in the wood.
8) double check the sides of the receiver in front of the tang wings. make sure you are not very tight there. contact is ok, snugness is not. you want a glove fit that just prevents side/side movement, but doesn't cause significant pressure. pressure will wedge open the stock as you tighten the screws and cause lots of problems.

you now have the fore-aft position set, bedded against the recoil lug. The next steps are iterative. The idea is that there are only 3 contact surfaces, under the tang (and on it's wings are ok), receiver flat, and muzzle bed.

With EVERY iteration, before you touch anything:
a) always tap the muzzle with a mallet to seat the recoil lug in the same position.
b) use no more than thumb-tight (~15 in*lbs) on the screws.
c) always tighten the front screw first, then the rear.
d) use an business card, or a folded dollar bill, under the barrel and make sure it freely passes from behind the muzzle bed to the base of the barrel. mark any areas lightly on the stock with a dull pencil and relieve before you work on any other part. you can use inletting black, but you want enough space that there is no contact when the barrel expands as it heats.
e) check for contact under the receiver ring. relieve as needed. use inletting black here - not a business card. the stock should lightly hug the receiver from here to the rear, but not with significant pressure.

if (a)-(e) check out, then take a look at under the tang and flat.
Use inletting black under the tang, the tang wings, and the receiver flat. Still don't touch the muzzle bed yet.
1) make sure you get some contact on the flat when you tighten the front screw. if not, there is too much contact on the tang or its wings. relieve there until you get contact on the flat.
2) the flat is a fulcrum (teeter-totter) of the 3 contact areas. put a level on top of the receiver, and notice if it moves as you tighten the rear screw. hopefully it does. this means you have room to play with the flat. if not, relieve under the tang and along it's wings until the level just starts to move when you tighten the rear screw.
3) shave the flat until you get full contact left-right, and 75%+ fore-aft. go very slow. just lightly shave it - only a fine powder should be removed each time, more powder at first, less as you go with each iteration.
4) Try not to remove so much that you lose contact when fighting the screws. If you do, don't be tempted to torque the screws more yet. All is not lost. Just stop, read below, and come back to this part later.

Now the final balancing act.

With action in the stock and tightened (15 in*lbs still), hold it muzzle up, grasping the nose of the wood by the muzzle and gently try to pull the muzzle off the muzzle bed. you can use a spring type trigger pull gauge, or eyeball it. you can also clamp the nose of the stock in your vise if you can rotate it to support the butt on your bench or the ground. it should take ~2-5lbs (more is ok) at this point to separate them. If it takes more, and you lost contact at step (4) above, then you can relieve under the muzzle bed until you get contact again, or you hit 2-5lbs. If you have <2lbs and lost contact, releave the tang area until you regain contact at the flat.

the goal is to have even contact under the tang, along it's wings (the wings aren't too critical . just do your best. if there is little or no contact there at all, don't sweat it), 75% of the flat, and 2-5lbs at the muzzle bed.

Once you have this...

1) grind off the top of the rear bushing until it sits just under the woodline. no more than about 1/32 when viewed above.

From now on, torque the front action screw to 30lbs and the rear to 20lbs.

2) grind or file off a bit of the front bushing part of the trigger guard, about 0.010 will usually suffice. You want to make sure the top of the bushing does not contact the receiver when you draw it tight. it can be hard to check. Best way is to go by feel when you tighten the screws. If the front screw "squeezes" to 30 in*lbs, you're fine, just kiss it to a file or wheel to be sure. If turning the screw hits a wall you need to remove some material.

3) lightly shave the flat just one more time, and test the muzzle. you should now have 8-12lbs of pressure. If less, shave the flat again barely, to increase it. If you have more, shave the muzzle bed, but just barely. changes in the bed is VERY sensitive with the muzzle pressure. I use very light amount of inletting black, then I remove material by wrapping fine (800 grit) paper around a punch.

Once you have 8-12 lbs at the muzzle...it's perfect. You can play with the action screw torque to dial in your accuracy like any other rifle, but for a wood-bedded (not glass bedded) rifle, never more than 40 in*lbs. on the front screw (~30-35 seems to always work), and the rear screw almost always likes ~5-10lbs less than the front. Always loosen your action screws you are done shooting. Tighten them at the range before you shoot, loosen up before you leave. Leaving them tightened compresses the fibers as the wood naturally expands and shrinks. You worked so hard to get it perfect, you deserve to have it stay that way forever.

Most of the modern USGI reproduction stocks tend to be fat in the exterior, and have a forend that is misaligned with just about any hand guard you try. For the most part, the hand guard fit is purely cosmetic too (so long as it doesn't contact the barrel). The hand guard ring might need some attention, especially if it presses heavily into the stock. A little is ok , but a lot means the topwall of the forend needs lowered a bit. I can talk about the easiest way to get all this and every other part of the exterior perfect too in another post if anyone is interested.

[Atticus Thraxx]

Copy and pasted, printed and now in my ‘03 binder. Feels like I shouldn’t be getting this for free.Thanks bud.

[ssgross]

Feels like I shouldn’t be getting this for free.Thanks bud.

PM me for my PayPal. I like a beer now and again
Seriously though, this one was pretty easy. You'd be surprised the details that are lost in the dusty shelves of a library. The main "themes" I think I found in a copy of Campbell's book and Howe's "modern gunsmithing", and as all could see from my earlier Minelli thread I picked up the nuance through experience. The key I think is learning the right type of patience. If you're not in the right mood or frame of mind, walk away, don't start, or stop what you are doing and do something else. If you get frustrated with one part, pause and bounce to some other aspect.