Stock inletting

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Could someone tell me what it costs to inlet a barreled action? I can finish the stock but to inlet it is beyond my skill level. As you can see it has a fluted barrel.

[Texas by God]

I know I'm jealous. Google is your friend for how to but books rule. If you lived close I'd help you do it yourself. Details please. A decent gunsmith would probably charge $100+ depending on the barrel channel width. You have some nice makins there.

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[nekshot]

You could inlet the top pc in first. Then if you want more then a single shot inlet the bottom pc. Some times breaking a new project into smaller bits is easier to take hold of!

[10-x]

Is stock semi inlet? Prussian blue and inletting tools make it kind of easy. Unless one has issues with using hands makes a good project. As posted above, get a book and take it slow. Good luck.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

While I have done some inletting in years gone by, I just can't work up the gumption to start on this project. As I often tell my friend Buckshot, I have reached the point in life where I only want to pull the trigger. That point will come to most of us. I do sincerely appreciate all of you input. There are a great bunch of guys on this forum. And Texas, I do think it would be fun to spend a few days with you whether we did any work or not.

[Uncle Grinch]

Inletting a pre-fit stock isn’t really hard. It’s just slow and tedious when done right. I’ve only done Mausers and always start with the bottom metal. It’s important to use some type of inletting dye and guide screws to keep things aligned. Get yourself some rasps of different shapes and courseness and a barrel rasp or scraper. Only remove material that shows contact from the inletting die. I use a steel straight edge to keep things straight.

[pertnear]

It appears from the picture that your stock is semi-inletted. If that's the case & you are not opposed to pillar & glass bedding, that is not too difficult a task for DIY. You MUST be careful glassing & fitting the edges where the epoxy bedding might show. Open up barrel channel & rough it up. Pillar & glass the action first then glass bed the barrel. Wrap the barrel in tape to mask the flutes & glass bed the barrel to float.

Looks like a great project! Be sure to post pic's of your final results!

FWIW

[RustyReel]

My guess is it will be pricey to have someone fit the two pieces together for you, assuming you can find a smith willing to do it. It is not rocket science but it does take time and when someone is charging you buy the hour, dollars will add up.

Looks like a Richards Microfit stock. I've done a few of those for Mausers. Action inlets were always close (and I only buy 2nds) but barrel channel depends on what it was cut for (GI or "starter"). I found that the outside shaping, sanding and finishing required more physical activity than the inletting.

If you decide to inlet you should be able to get by fairly cheap, especially if you only plan on doing one stock. Some inletting black is the best thing to use, a couple of guide/inletting screws and a hobby carving set will get the job done.

Best of luck and show us your finished project!!!

[gnostic]

I think inletting any stock is a job for a skilled craftsmen. I've tried it and glass bedding several times without success. Shop around until you find a gunsmith that can handle it. The last time I bought that service, was 20 years ago and I paid over a $100...

Somebody here pointed out, that the stock blank is a Richards Microfit. They're on San Fernando Road in Sun Valley Ca. that's LA. They'd know who does inleting and what you'd expect to pay...

[pietro]

.

I can certainly understand (BT, DT) wanting to farm a job out ILO doing it myself (like vehicle oil/filter changes).

Contacting REAL gunsmiths (NOT AR part-changers) to ask for a quote should cost you nothing except a little time - but I would suggest asking if you could see an example of their work, should you like someone's price for the job.


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[22cf45]

Always remember you usually get what you pay for. Expecting someone to do a really nice job of inletting this rifle and bottom metal for $100 is maybe asking a little too much. I doubt a good inletter would touch it for less than $200 and that is only if the pre-inletting isn't screwed up. Glass bedding is no big deal but adding pillars is a whole 'nother story to do it right. If it is a hunting rifle, the value of pillars is somewhat questionable in my opinion.
FWIW
Phil

[Texas by God]

While I have done some inletting in years gone by, I just can't work up the gumption to start on this project. As I often tell my friend Buckshot, I have reached the point in life where I only want to pull the trigger. That point will come to most of us. I do sincerely appreciate all of you input. There are a great bunch of guys on this forum. And Texas, I do think it would be fun to spend a few days with you whether we did any work or not.

I hear you. When I was messing with a lot of Mausers I had a military stock that I cut the forend off of. If I had to had to shoot a project I'd use that because it fit any barrel. That's free floated.
Oh and a Mauser is already pillar bedded - if the rear action screw spacer is present.
Sell it, you won't have to look at it!
Thomas

[Minerat]

Check to see if you have a gunsmith school close. The instructors and advanced students will usually take something like this on as a teaching project if you pay for parts and materials. I had a Ruger 77 .22-250's barrel cryoed, trigger job including hardening, carbon fiber inlay bedded and parkerized for $200. The cryoing was $150 of the cost.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

It looks like a stock inletted or nearly inletted for the action, with a channel a shade smaller than the slimmest barrel anyone is likely to fit. I would prefer to fully inlet the action first without the barrel fitted, and then continue with the barrel fitted. But you should be able to do it the way it is.

You do need some kind of spotting dye. (It is generally pernickety and aggressive to pick on someone's spelling, but the word "die" might lead you onto the wrong track.) I'd avoid anything oily for parts you may want to glass bed. Harold E. MacFarland, my first gunsmithing author, used to recommend cream rouge, but that was before taste shifted to the natural look. A thin paste of plaster of paris and alcohol would probably work fine.

The Browells bedding tool is made up of hardened steel washers separated by rubber ones, just resilient enough to let them tip slightly and present an edge, with a knob handle at each end. Its superiority over any conventional round wood rasp has to be experienced to be believed. Two sizes would be useful if you want to do all-wood bedding, which hardly anybody does nowadays. If you plan for the barrel to be floated, or full-length glass bedded, one just a shade smaller than the barrel where it takes leave of the wood will be enough. You also need a chisel or gouge or two My favourite little flat chisel is one I made myself from a high speed steel parting tool blank, on a belt sander. It has an almost razor-thin bevel, so vulnerable it can never be hit with a mallet.

Wood to metal bedding just might be as good as glass bedding. But I can't think of any circumstances in which it would be better. I suppose I am something of a luddite in my preference for full-length bedding. I certainly don't like a fully-floated barrel unless there is space to get out water and debris. The often quoted thickness of a business card will allow water to stay in place by capillary action, and water is pretty solid when things happen at extreme speed. Just try high diving from a hundred feet. Then sometimes, it freezes.

For the same reason I would fill the flutes with wax or something, rather than use tape, which does have some thickness, and may get depressed into them.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

The flutes are what concerns me. I used to use my milling machine to start the barrel channel but sadly I no longer have the mill. I think maybe Texas has the right idea. I recently sold a project I had been looking at for over twenty years. It involved a BSA cadet Martini. It was a relief in a way. I do have yet another project lying in wait. It is a very nice Rolling block and a beautiful 45-90 barrel. I remember way back in the early '60s it cost me a $100 to get a Springfield 06 action and barrel fitted to a nice piece of walnut. I must say it did look like the wood grew around it. This barreled action would make a beautiful rifle if finished, especially with the Mauser double set trigger and magazine lever release. I think my friend bought the barrel from a clearance but I don't know from whom he bought it. The barrel is in 243 Winchester.

[Texas by God]

I learned that you inlet the bottom metal first, then use headless guide screws to inlet the barreled receiver. Cut, scrape, file, chisel, sand and bam your done (eventually)! That will be a very nice sporter in a great caliber.

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[Ballistics in Scotland]

Overlength guide screws are practically essential, and while you can buy them, you don't have to. Mauser guard screws are an uncommon thread pitch, but you should be able to find a long screw or threaded rod which will screw in far enough for good alignment before it stops. Between a mild and unhardened male thread and a pack-hardened action, it would take a lot more force than that requires to damage the threads in the receiver.

For glass bedding a fluted barrel you might do it in two stages. Shrink a piece of Teflon heat-shrink electrician's tubing over its full length. That is its own release agent, but leaves nothing to impede adhesion of glass bedding two. When you do that, fill the flutes with wax or something. Even car body filler, which you can chip and scrape out with a piece of sharpened brass rod, and ordinary release agent on top of that.

[Walter Laich]

I did some minor inletting work on my cowboy shotguns--enough to realize that the skill needed to do a great job was not going to be found in me even if I had the time/desire to do the studying and practice.

My shotguns came out fine but they're working guns and get dinged up all the time.

I would farm this out to an expert realizing experts get paid well

[Wayne Smith]

Talk to Waksupi (Ric). I know he's retired (again) but this is what he likes to do. He just might be willing to take you on.

[55fairlane]

Over on the accurateshooter forum there is a great guide with pictures on how to build a rifle stock complete with inletting templates and all.....a must read.....

Aaron