Easiest way to enlarge barrel channel ?

[Jackal]

Hello everybody. I recently came upon a new laminate stock for my old Ruger M77 tang safety. My only problem is that my rifle has a thick varmint barrel and the stock has a sporter contour channel. I have to remove a lot of wood, and my sanding seems to get me nowhere.:banghead: Is there some trick or little tool that makes this process faster or easier? It is a Boyds varmint stock and wow, is it gonna take some work. Never quite seen a wood stock with so many dings, dents and deep tooling marks.

 

[Jim Watson]

Brownells sells a tool for the job
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/productdetail.aspx?p=6796&s=16654

At one time they had a tool that used a short section of round Surform rasp on an offset handle but I do not now see that in their catalog. You could get a replacement round Surform and improvise a handle for it. I don't think the actual Stanley file with handles would work. But I am not a stockmaker.
http://www.stanleytools.com/default...10"+Surform®+Round+Replacement+Blade

 

[Grump]

Bad News...

The "easiest" way is to pay someone else to do it.

The next "easiest" is to do the woodworking version of milling it out with power tools. Routers are risky even if you can get a proper-sized bit (ONE little snag and you're 12,000 RPM towards having the bit blast out the side of your stock). Other power machinery might work but is not usually in the home hobbyist's workshop.

A Dremel tool, spinning like a wheel to make the cut with the axis of rotation horizontal instead of vertical (stock upright) is tempting, but the motor is not really up to that big of a bit and that big of a job.

Hand tools with offset handles, as mentioned above, are much less easy but far easier to control. It's a stockmaker thing.

If you don't know wood that well, have a pro do it.

 

[Jackal]

Well, i just started chiseling away. I will also get out my dremel. The chisel seems to be working ok.

 

[RecoilRob]

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=130203

I just installed a .920 bull barrel in my 10/22 walnut sporter stock using the above tool. Worked great.....although slowly. But, slowly is THE WAY to get good results without screwing up.

The Gunline Tool takes a very fine chip (you can almost see through it) with every stroke and it is only a matter of making enough passes to get the barrel fitting the way you want.

I chose to not free float the barrel and ended up with the forward 4" of stock in contact. Shoots great.

My vote is to not always choose the fastest, but the best way to doing a good job.