What material for homemade buttstock?

[moroza]

I'm halfway done with a homemade rifle stock, now ready to make a buttplate. I see universal grind-to-fit kits on the market, but none are quite big enough, so I'm thinking to source a raw block of _______ and make one from scratch. Will any old rubber work if frozen first? If not, what should I get and how to shape it? Casting might be in some ways preferred, I imagine, but I have no experience with that.

Read More

 

[Kruel J]

I REALLY read that wrong at first…..

 

[Stomper]

I REALLY read that wrong at first…..

Yeah, I'll refrain from my usual schtick and roll with your inference….

I'm halfway done with a homemade rifle stock, now ready to make a buttplate. I see universal grind-to-fit kits on the market, but none are quite big enough, so I'm thinking to source a raw block of _______ and make one from scratch. Will any old rubber work if frozen first? If not, what should I get and how to shape it? Casting might be in some ways preferred, I imagine, but I have no experience with that.

Just how danged BIG is the end of that stock you made that you can find a large enough piece of material to fit it?

 

[moroza]

2x5" oval-ish.

 

[RVTECH]

Are you making a butt PLATE or PAD?

If a soft PAD then just find a solid or corrugated style and shape to fit. Something that MIGHT work is a chunk of thick bedliner material. That stuff is pretty dense and might work - and pretty cheap or free.

If you are making a PLATE then that is a different issue and you would have a myriad of things you could use - hard plastic, steel aluminum, brass.

I guess I am just a little unclear as to what it is you are actually making.

One of my projects is I need to extend the stock on one of my Winchesters about a 1/2" as whoever re-stocked it cut it a bit short and I need a little more LOP for my long ape arms!

 

[thorborg]

Brownells has literally dozens of just about any type of recoil pad you could ask for including spacers ( @RVTECH ) of all colors. most stop around 5 5/8 but several go to 6" or a little more.
When figuring the size, include the angle at the toe as a flattened off toe looks just plain tacky and unprofessional.
Also (back to spacers) I've used black UHMW from a local plastics company to great success.

This one I used wood and recoil pad


This antique I didn't want to alter the stock so fit an extension and recoil pad so I could replace the original butt plate if needed



This one kicked hard so I just glued on some rubber. it helped a lot



This 2 inch UHMW extension was on a stock cut for a small person. while it added weight it helped the balance with the scope on. along with the recoil pad, it added3 1 1/4 inches for a 14 3/4 inch LOP (just my size)

 

[MacReady]

I remember Larry Potterfield of MidwayUSA had an old series of gunsmith videos on Youtube and I distinctly remember buttpad installation being one topic he covered. IDK if those videos are still up or hidden behind a paywall now, but (no pun intended) i'd personally start with some instructional videos first.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

I'm halfway done with a homemade rifle stock, now ready to make a buttplate. I see universal grind-to-fit kits on the market, but none are quite big enough, so I'm thinking to source a raw block of _______ and make one from scratch. Will any old rubber work if frozen first? If not, what should I get and how to shape it? Casting might be in some ways preferred, I imagine, but I have no experience with that.

Do you need padding for recoil reduction? If not using a contrasting wood is a unique and beautiful looking way to go. If you are looking for a recoil pad type this wouldn't work of course. Here is ebony as the butt plate but you could use regular mahogany or whatever you like.

lknlnljn.JPG

• ilikegunspdx
• May 14, 2023

 

[RVTECH]

Here is ebony as the butt plate but you could use regular mahogany or whatever you like.

Very nice! I've seen ebony used before as both spacers and buttplates.

I was thinking of ebony on my Winchester '66 Comem but because its already gold washed I'm planning on making a buttplate out of a stick of 3/4" brass flat stock and it will match the gold (somewhat). That should give me the xtra length I need!

 

[Koda]

I'm halfway done with a homemade rifle stock, now ready to make a buttplate. I see universal grind-to-fit kits on the market, but none are quite big enough, so I'm thinking to source a raw block of _______ and make one from scratch. Will any old rubber work if frozen first? If not, what should I get and how to shape it? Casting might be in some ways preferred, I imagine, but I have no experience with that.

if your making a buttplate rubber wont work. Rubber might make a good butt-"pad".
For a buttplate you can order black "delrin" material to what size you need on McMaster Carr. There might be better plastic material but my imagination escapes me right now.
Delrin is cheap, easy to drill, file, cut, sand etc. you can shape it as needed. The downside is Delrin is its naturally slippery, so you will want to checker or texture the part that contacts your shoulder.

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

 

[moroza]

Ah, I didn't know the difference between a plate and a pad. In any event, I decided not to bother at all after shooting it with just the butt of the stock rounded off. This gun has such mild recoil for the weight - milled-receiver M72 (Yugo RPK) weighing 12-19lb depending on the magazine - and I'm accustomed to far worse - M91/30 Mosin with its original steel butt - that it'd be hardly worth the trouble, besides everything else on my to-do list. Thanks for the suggestions anyhow!