Streak Freaks "Stick Stock" Posts

Sooner or later, most folks who frequent this forum probably get the urge to build their own stocks for a better fit or a different style, or to gain some functional advantage. I'm no exception. But not being much of a woodworker, I had to figure out a way to do it with minimal skills. Moreover, I was reluctant to sink much money into a project that might flop and have to be scrapped.

At the outset, about all I knew was that I had to solve two problems--how to shape a stock without a lot of carving, and how to inlet it without a router or chisels. The stock pattern I settled on took care of the first problem, and the construction method I worked out handled the second.

While ruminating about stock patterns, I was struck by the notion that stocks on the latest 10-meter rifles are all variations on a simple theme. If the fancy hardware is subtracted, what's left is basically a "rail" with a grip suspended from it. I was pretty sure I could reproduce that pattern in wood and get by with no more carving than it takes to round sharp edges.

It then occurred to me that I could make an inexpensive blank and get around conventional inletting by gluing three boards together. If I notched the middle one with a handsaw, the slots and pockets that constitute inletting would form automatically when the boards were joined. No need for a router or skilled chisel work. And if I cut a little of the top edge of the middle board before making the sandwich, a centered groove to start the tube channel in would also appear. I could finish the channel using a dowel wrapped with coarse sandpaper.

What evolved is the "stick" stock, so called because it's built for the most part of 1/2" x 1 1/2" craft or project boards of the kind sold in home centers. They're usually available in pine, poplar, and oak. Many other hardwoods, including walnut, can be ordered in similar dimensions from Rockler Woodworking and Hardware (www. Rockler.com) Poplar is a good choice for a first project. It's harder than pine but still easy to work and nearly as cheap.

Much of the woodwork can be accomplished with a handsaw and sandpaper. Even then, sawing is minimized because the board edges are also the stock edges. And assembling the parts requires nothing more than waterproof glue and some C-clamps. Total outlay for a poplar stock is about $35, including a commercial buttpad.

At last count I've cranked out a dozen stick stocks, all for pump rifles. But I think they'd work for other types, too, with boards sized for beefier actions. In fact, a friend of mine adapted one of my "mistakes" to his Ruger 10/22!

I'll close with two pictures. The first shows what the back end of a Sheridan stick stock looks like as a pile of cut parts. The second is of the finished product complete with pump handle. That's the story for now. I may post a sequel or two on making extended pump handles, adjustable stocks with common hardware, and bullpups--or, in this case, "bullpumps." Hope to see you then.

Streak

I laid the first one out on the side of a cardboard box, using key dimensions I picked off a Sheridan stock. I added a little at the butt to increase length of pull, and made the comb a bit taller. Then I actually cut the thing out and tested it on my shoulder. I became a spendthrift with the next stock and popped for a piece of store-bought poster board. Early on, though, I started making quarter-scale drawings on plain paper and scaling them up, part by part, as I measured boards for sawing. Lately I've gone backwards and enlarge the little drawing right on the top of my workbench (an ivory-colored sink countertop). That makes taking and transferring the measurements easier and more accurate. Pretty simple, really.

Streak

(The first part of this "article" was posted in message no. 1099854026. A parts picture that didn't come through was re-posted in no. 1099866688.) I left off with construction of the basic stock and will continue here with building pump handles and handle extenstions for multi-strokes.

Because the lever on a Benjamin or Sheridan is just 1/4" thick, the middle board of the three glued together for the pump handle blank can't be a 1/2" solid notched out for the lever pocket. A sandwich within a sandwich is required. A 1/4" board is used for the lever pocket and is flanked on both sides by 1/8" basswood spacers to match the 1/2" center board in the stock. Basswood in that thickness can be found in hobby shops.

Drilling holes for the mounting pins so they align with with the holes in the lever is no trick. I simply glue up one side of the pump handle, including the lever pocket, lay the lever in it, and use the lever holes as guides for drilling through the wood. Then I remove the lever, complete the handle assembly, turn it over, and drill back through from the the other side. Perfect alignment every time.

Pump handle extensions make pumping easier. As shown in the first picture below, I start an extension by dog-legging the pump handle so it passes under the stock fore-end. That's done with an angular center board splice connecting the pump handle and the extension. Because both are 1 1/2" deep, 3" boards can be used for a one-piece assembly with no splice, but that means a lot of lengthwise sawing to arrive at the same shape. As will be seen in the second picture, I do use the wider boards with some stock styles but profile them differently.

How far to extend is a matter of personal choice. A 50% extension will reach nearly to the trigger, and that's a good length for a first project. Going longer means making the grip separate from the stock, as in the picture above, and connecting it to the handle extension with a straight metal bar. The bottom of the grip can then be extended clear back to the butt if desired. The next picture is of three rifles with 50%, 90%, and 115% extensions. Levers are open a bit to accentuate the differences in handle length.

A word about pumping with extensions: Long arms aren't needed. The pump handle is thumbed away from the tube at a point ahead of the trigger until the lever is fully opened. then the handle is allowed to fall of its own weight while the thumbing/pumping hand slides down the back of the handle to the end of the extension and pulls the lever home. Alternatively, a rifle with an extra-long extension can be held vertically and pumped with both hands in the way pruning shears are used.

Finally, here's a picture of a TX-stocked Benjamin to illustrate another means of making a 50% extension. The TX stock was cut off at the trigger and what was left of its inletting was gouged out to make room for a three-board insert inletted for the Benjamin. The insert included a short, skinny fore-end to accommodate the Benjamin's stock screw. In this case, the pump handle was a combination of nine 1/2", 1/4", and 1/8" boards, with the interior seven notched at the back end to enclose the stubby fore-end. The handle and stock are flush with each other all around. Time to pause again. I'll be back eventually with posts about bullpumps and about making stocks adjustable with common hardware. 'Til then, Streak

(The first two parts of this article were posted in messages numbered 1099854026, 1099866688 re-posting a parts picture that got lost the first time, and 100052803.) Those posts outlined construction of the basic stock, handles for pump rifles, and handle extensions. In this one I'll move on to making stocks adjustable with common hardware.

Because my stocks were inspired by those on 10-meter rifles, I wanted them to be highly tuneable. And because putting costly commercial components on homemade wood didn't make sense, I'd try devising my own. But being even less adept at metalworking than I am at butchering wood, I had to find manageable means. After much scheming, I arrived at a set of adjusters based on opposed wedges of 1/2" tubing that allowed for changing roll, pitch, and yaw on a stock's butt and cheekrest. Screws entering captive, sliding nuts in the stock were incorporated to regulate the butt's extension and the cheekrest's fore/aft postion as well as the elevation of both. Frankly, it was overkill, and the adjusters were to fiddly besides. I soon scrapped the wedges and other complexities. The first picture below illustrates three methods of making stocks adjustable with nothing more than nuts 'n bolts. Some of the nuts are actually brass wood inserts, coarsely threaded on the outside for screwing into wood and on the isnside to accept standard machine screws.

Adjusters for the stock at the top are T-shaped "slides" nade of 3/8" pine (a standard craft size) faced with 1/8" scrap aluminum. The butt can be moved up or down and the cheekrest backward or forward on the T crosses and vice versa with the legs. The slides fit into pockets created by notching the stock's centerboard as described in the first post. Once positioned, the slides are locked in place with socket-head set screws run through wood inserts to bear agains the slide faces.

The middle stock ditches the slides and simply uses the screws and wood inserts to accomplish the same thing. The cheekrest is elevated and the butt extended with 1/4-20 socket-head set screws adjusted while off the stock. The screws are run through their inserts in the butt and cheekrest until they clear the wood by as much as the wood is to clear the stock. Then the screws are set on top of their stock inserts and run in. The exposed screw length doesn't change. Smaller set screws on the sides of the stock, butt, and cheekrest bear against the main screws to lock them in place. A palm/knee rest attached under the pump handle extension isn't shown but adjusts the same way.

Further, the butt and comb of the middle stock have "pinched" knuckle joints that provide for adjusting pull length still more, and for elevating or lowering the butt and changing its angle. Adjustments are locked in by tightening the knuckle pivot screws, which are 1/4-20 socket-head caps running into wood inserts on the far side of the knuckle's female end. A short saw cut in the middle of the centerboard on that end assures enough pinch to immobilize the joint.

The bottom stock in the picture omits the set screws and inserts, and does all with four knuckle joints that pinch slotted, unfaced slides. Cheekrest and butt adjust for elevation and the butt for extension with nothing more than cap screws, washers, and nuts. Can't get much simpler. The next picture shows the pinch joints close up. Time now for another break. The final installment in this series will feature a pair of bullpumps and detail their means of trigger extension. Stay tuned,

Streak

(The first three parts of this "article" appeared in messages numbered 1099854026, 1099866688 re-posting a parts picture, 1100052803, and 1100134146.) I will finish the story here with a look at bullpumps and a simple means of relocating their triggers.

I'v already confessed my ineptitude in working wood and metal. However, that didn't keep me from trying to bullpup a multi-stroke. The attempt resulted in two shorties that I call "Bullpumps." Construction is the same as described previously, except that I had to find a practical way to link a widely separated trigger and sear with a stock screw between them, and still retain enough wood in the center of the stock to assure its integrity.

In a bullpup, the action is moved to the back of the stock, taking the sear with it, and the trigger has to be moved forward accordingly for a comfortable pull length. I bridged the gap with a sprung pushrod that is attached to the relocated trigger but not the sear. The rod merely bears against the sear when the trigger is pulled. Touching rather than clutching eliminates the need for a swivel connection. Here's a view of a dismounted Bullpump stock from the top that reveals most of the rigging.

As can be seen partially, the pushrod first goes through a boss that holds the sides of the stock together. Then it connects to a slotted plate through which the stock screw passes. On the other side of the plate the rod continues to the sear. The slot in the plate lets the rod move backward enough to trip the sear and forward again to reset the trigger. The rod ends in a small yoke that traps a pin extending below the sear to form a secondary trigger. The original, of course, was lopped off and suspended from the head of the pushrod.

The next picture is a side view of the action with the sear mounted and trigger parts laid out from front to back. That little pin above the pushrod at the head end also enters the boss to keep the rod from rotating and thus prevents trigger wig-wag. I should add that pull weight is no heavier than with a standard trigger.

The photo concluding this DIY series shows my two Bullpumps ready to go. Although their overall lengths are just 25 1/2" and 30", their pump handles are 50% and !00% longer than normal to ease pumping. Because actions on the Bullpumps are set way back, scopes can be mounted without the usual eye-relief and hand placement difficulties plaguing conventional Benjamins and Sheridans. For pumping, one hand can grip the comb (padded receiver on the shorter shorty) and the other the pump handle in perfect opposition, which facilitates the very efficient pruning-shear technique mentioned in my third post. For all those reasons, I consider the Bullpumps my best projects yet, although I'm almost as partial to the two "long" rifles that have the same behind-the-grip handle extension.

The stick stock story ends at last. Thanks for listening. (Photo below.)

Streak

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