Aluminum chassis in wood stock?

[Toolbreaker]

Has anyone seen/installed an aluminum chassis or v-block in a wooden stock before? I'm looking hard at an unfinished walnut stock for one of my rifles. Would there be any benefit to this over one with pillars and Devcon, or would it be a wash between the two? Maybe even a downside to this? Google turned up one hit for a company that does this as a finished product, but I would like to try my hand at this myself. I'm not committed on this at this point. Just in the "thinking out loud" stage. Any advice/thoughts are welcome,

Jim

 

[tac284]

John whidden makes a v-block that you can purchase from him or brownells. I have one, it's been sitting in a tube for a few years now. It was suppose to go into a stock that my father-in-law had but he scraped that project. I prefer a bedded stock over an aluminum chassis in most situations, unless you have plans to use the stock with different barreled actions.

 

[Toolbreaker]

No, it'll be for just one barreled action. Whidden doesn't make a block for the action that I'll be using (that I'm aware of), so I would have to mill that myself. I wasn't sure if there would be a rigidity advantage to a v-block with an extended fore end compared to just bedding and pillars. I'm not thinking of trying to hold a very tight barrel channel, so I wouldn't imagine that barrel contact would be much of an issue irregardless.

 

[Keith Glasscock]

V-blocks in laminate stocks are common in my experience with Barnard actions. I don't know if my F-open rifle would shoot better bedded, but it does a mighty fine job with the V-block.

On the advice of a friend, I glued my V-blocks in with Acraglas. It flows well between the block and stock to glue the darn thing in tight!.

The installation is very similar to glass-bedding. I use the barreled action as a tool to get everything straight.

 

[spclark]

Jim what action is in your sights for this project?

Alex Sitman (http://masterclassstocks.com/) did that on a walnut stock I bought as part of a (used) rifle package a few years ago. No idea if this is common, or a one-off for the Gilkes-Ross action installed. When I had Carl Bernosky (works closely with Alex) build a Quadlite-based long range rifle for me in '08 on a Master Class laminated stock he pillar-bedded the action screws & bedded the action/recoil block in 'glass.

Both shoot great, no issues taking either out of their respective stocks when necessary, both hold zeros over time.

 

[Toolbreaker]

Thanks for the insight, guys. When I finish my current projects - :- I may give this a try. At the very least, I like the idea of a solid foundation for the action inside of the stock. Alot of it will depend on the amount of wood that will be around and in front of the action. I guess my main concern was whether it might compromise the stock by removing a larger amount of wood in that area for a bedding block.

spclark,

The action is a Winchester M70. I was actually thinking of restocking it in a walnut Marksman-type stock after rebarreling, which lead me to thinking about the bedding block. My other wood-stocked firearms are factory & un-tinkered with, so this would be my first wood-build.

 

[hepburn45110]

Just a thought. Install the block, then bed the action to the block. I've seen it work wonderfully on a fclass rifle.

 

[joshb]

I am doing some stocks myself and I'm working on some sketches for a stock addressing your "strength" concerns. I'd like a block, too. I'm looking at welding the block into an aluminum skeleton, that would then be sandwiched in walnut.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Large pillars, cross bolts, and a correctly done bedding job should fix you up right. A block needs to be bedded anyway and where the pillars are is the only spot thats gonna matter.

 

[LarryDScott]

Why add the expense of the block that your going to glass into the stock when you can just glass the action in ??? LDS

 

[Will Henry]

I did a 40X with an aluminum V block in 1977, if I remember right, and it worked out fine. Since then, I have made aluminum blocks for Winchesters, V blocks for Remingtons and other round action, and half-length blocks for some others. In general, I'm not real wild about aluminum in wood (for no good reason) but at the time, I was convinced. WH

 

[swd]

I think your over complicating things. M70’s are flat bottom so a V block won’t work. Pillar bed it and be done.