PSL stock modification (possible Bubba)

[grilledcheese]

New member, longtime lurker, great to be here, etc.

So I just picked up a Romanian PSL, and it's just what i expected in a Kalashnikov-type rifle: crude, rude, and delightfully beastly. But as I shouldered the thing for the first time I realized that Romanians must be considerably smaller dudes than me, as the stock was uncomfortably short. With PSL replacement stocks pretty much nonexistent I decided to take some initiative. And here is what I came up with...

First i had to see what exactly I was dealing with. PSL's have a steel buttplate. I was a bit disappointed at first to learn this. The plate is held on by the sling buckle acting as a pin through both sides of a hollow shaft connected to the inside of the plate.


After removing the buckle and pulling off the buttplate, I was very surprised to find that the plate was supported by two steel springs sunk into the stock as a recoil absorber, with small steel disks at the bottom of the holes





I now figured out what I would do. I'm no master craftsman by any stretch, so I had to keep it simple. I've got a couple of MAK-90's I bought over a decade ago with thumbhole stocks that fit me great. A quick measurement showed that the PSL stock needed to be about an inch and a half longer. I had a few small blocks of wood laying around, and found one that was dry with no cracks. I'm not even sure what type of wood it is. A few passes with the saw and a half hour of sanding got me this:


At this point it was a bit too long, but I was being cautious. Next I replicated the spring holes and center pin hole, but went a step further by drilling smaller diameter countersunk holes at the bottom of the spring holes and then drilling even smaller pilot holes all the way through. This was done for the screws that would attach my new extension to the existing stock.


At this point I drilled pilot holes int he stock itself, right into the bottoms of the old spring holes. I cut the extension to the proper length and then used 3 in. stainless steel screws countersunk in the new spring holes to attach it to the stock. Another cut down screw and washer is screwed through the center hole in the stock and extension and into the hollow buttpad post (I might come up with something better for this later).


Here what it looks like assembled next to a MAK-90. I'll try to get it stained and varnished in the next day or so.


Hopefully it'll make Bubba proud.

Thanks for looking,


Jeffrey

 

[Acera]

Good Job, with a coat of stain and varnish you will not be able to tell it was home made. Yankee ingenuity is not limited to the frozen wastelands of the north







No offense grilledcheese I did not mean to imply that a fine southern gentleman was a yankee, just a phrase.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Nice job! You're an *advanced* bubba.

 

[JesseL]

I've heard that Romanian guns; along with those produced by the rest of the Warsaw Pact; tend to have short stocks to better accommodate the heavy winter clothing that's necessary in the region. Your adaptation looks good.

 

[sarduy]

paint it

 

[poorfolks]

or just a coat of primer.

 

[Prince Yamato]

I like the contrast. It says, "It's soviet, but I added an extension". Seriously, it doesn't look bad at all. You improvised without vastly changing the main design, which is what a soviet would do.

 

[jrfoxx]

not bubba at all. Bubba woulda just built up the end of the stock with Bondo, coated everything in grey primer, duct taped on an NCStar scope and kmart flashlight, and called it "good enough fer shinin' and poachin'".

Yours looks like it will turn out nice.

 

[PMATULEW]

What wood?

Looks likes maybe Yellow Pine. It's harder than regular pine but tends to be brittle. It may or may not hold up under the recoil. Only one way to tell I guess.

Two or three layers of plywood glued together might blend better if the prototype fails.

So long as the modification can be un-done in the future if you change your mind, it's not "Bubba'd", it's just "customized".

 

[DMK]

Now coat all the wood with bedliner.

Seriously though, you might be able to match that piece better if you stripped the stock's (and handguards) finish, block sand the stock and extension so they matched smoothly, then refinish it all together.

Also, I think you might need to take a little off the end of the stock to make it more square.

 

[Ash]

I think it should handle the compression of recoil just fine. This isn't a bubba as bubba does only permenant damage that generally reduces overall value by at least 50%.

Ash

 

[grilledcheese]

Thanks guys. The wood is most likely pine as has been suggested (got a lot of that left over from renovation projects), and the modification is completely reversible should the wood fail (although I was considering using glue on the joint). I also considered stripping and refinishing all of the furniture but the stock would not be easily removed. The screw that runs down through the tang coming off the back of the receiver passes through a type of castle nut under the upper arm of the stock, where the end of the screw was cut off and then peened flat kind of like a rivet.
Getting it out might be a pain.
DMK, good point. The end of the existing stock will need to be at least sanded some to get a good flat joint. I'll probably get to that tonight.

I'll try to post a couple of pics when I'm done.
Then I can actually shoot the thing!

(Woo-Hoo!)


Jeffrey

 

[Harry Paget Flashman]

grilledcheese. I went about it a different, more complicated way. I made the stock thicker on the unseen side. Shaping it took forever. I like your mod better but the extra weight on mine helps with an M44 Mosin Nagant recoil.

 

[bannockburn]

grilled cheese

Nice adaptation; though if it were mine, I might be tempted just to paint the insert section matte black, to go along with the butt plate. It might be difficult to match that wood and stain color to the rest of the rifle. At any rate, good job and let us see how it ultimately turns out.

 

[grilledcheese]

Bannockburn, someone else also mentioned painting the wood instead of staining, and I am actually considering it now. Getting the stain to match might be darn near impossible, even though close enough might look okay. Black is a good obvious choice, but maybe even a bakelite orange wouldn't look out of place on a good ole' commie rifle. Well, maybe not. It might actually confuse a few people.
I'll have to think on it a bit more, but I'll post pics of whatever I go with.

Thanks again for everyone's input.



Jeffrey

 

[Kind of Blued]

You managed to abstain from resorting to duct tape, I'd put you on a higher level than the average Bubba.

Bubba Villa?

 

[grilledcheese]

Well, here it is. I went ahead and painted the extension black, and used glue along with the screws on the joint, so it's probably a permanent modification, and I think it looks pretty good. It ain't perfect, but it matches the quality of the rifle. If I come across the right size steel tubing in the future I'll extend the buttplate shaft and attach the sling buckle as it originally was. But for now, I'm happy.

Thanks for humoring me!




Jeffrey

 

[grimjaw]

grilledcheese, I think that looks good. As long as it's solid, function is the name of the game. Good work.

jm

 

[sarduy]

beautiful

 

[Ash]

Heh, heh, the guy said beautiful with respect to Romanian firearms...

Looks good, actually, and it actually seems to fit in with the rest of the Rommy furniture just fine. Just ribbing about the Romanian aesthetic, which I find very crude. However, that is the draw for me, that they are so crude yet function as needed. They remind me of the ultimate in commie production, aesthetically lacking but fully functional.

Ash

 

[grilledcheese]

Agreed. The draw for me has always been the Kalashnikov's simplicity and crudeness, which I'll bet is the draw for a great many people. But I'll say this much---I never knew exactly how crude most Kalashnikovs were until comparing a Romanian AK to a Norinco MAK-90. I'm sure it's sacriledge to use the words "cadillac" and "AK" in the same sentence, but the MAK is damn near a caddy in comparison.
No matter, really. The AK's crudeness is what makes it possible for me to make any modifications in the first place and have the result look decent.

I sure couldn't scratch build anything for an AR!
(That would be a real Bubba)

Thanks again, guys.


Jeffrey