Question about a Ruger buttstock bolt hole.....

[Harry O]

I just got a fancy new stock from Great American Gunstock company.  The wood looks good and it will require little work for fitting and finishing --- EXCEPT ---

The hole for the buttstock bolt was drilled wrong.  It is correct at the rear.  It is correct side to side at the front.  However, it is offcenter top to bottom at the front by between 1/8" and 3/16".  It will never bolt up the way it is now.

I could take a round file and elongate the hole at the front third of the buttstock, but should I?  I don't know how important this is.  I would rather not return it unless it is unusable.

What do you think? Is this a real problem or just an irritant?

[longJohns]

By all means send the stock back for replacement. You should not have to go through all the work required to move the hole to the right spot.

[Fred M]

Harry O
I would not send that stock back. It is a simple job to move the hole 1/8 with a rat tail file. The lateral alignment is determent by the tang cutout, so the little play in the hole is not a big deal. If it makes any difference the bolt can be bedded with glass bedding for the best alignment.

[Harry O]

Fred M:  I had that in mind.  The stock was sold as 90% to 95% finished, with fitting and finishing required.  I have done regular stock fitting before, but I did not know if this was considered part of it.  Never had one with a bolt through the buttstock before.  My only concern was if it would ruin the accuracy I already have with this gun.

My plan is to obround the front of the hole, but try to leave the rear of the hole untouched (circular).  We will see how it turns out.

[Fred M]

Harry
The most impotant items in fitting a Ruger stock is a 100% contact of the side panels to the action, the same goes for the forearm against the action. Most of the bolt holes are a bit over size. The bolt should have both a flat washer and a lock washer and the screw should be very tight.

With anything but a perfect fit and 100% bearing accuracy will be lacking.

I have rejuvinated two Rugers , one the #3, had a side panel broke off  and a very poor epoxy glue job. The other had a butchered up forearm. To get a perfect fit against the action I used brown Steel bed applied very thin

I did the #1 stock with steel bed too since there is always a bit of shrinkage on the sides. Make sure you have a very slight relief on the tangue both top and bottom.

You can find some Ruger#1 accurizing ideas on my web page.

http://www.angelfire.com/ma/ZERMEL/ruger1wp.html

[Harry O]

Thanks for the info.  Interestingly, I put a hardwood shim under the front of this gun already.  I have a Ruger No. 3 in 30-40 Krag.  With full loads and the steel buttplate, it gave me black and blue marks.  It also strung vertically.  I read Frank de Haas and fabricated three fitted hardwood shims of different thickness (also rounded top and bottom to fit the barrel and mainspring bar).  I ended up with the 1/32" over size.  Similar to what you and de Haas came up with.  It stopped the vertical stringing.  Anyway, I am fitting a new No. 1 buttstock to it now, but don't plan to change the forearm.

I bought a Ruger No. 3 wildcat recently.  It is a 7mm/30-40 Krag Improved.  Just about identical to the .280 Remington.  It has a custom No. 1 stock on it.  Recoil is a pussycat.  That convinced me to change the other one.

[Fred M]

Harry.
I got the idea of the wood spacer from the Hicks accurizer. I never read the De Haas book. I have the wood blocks on both of my Rugers.

The picture above is a #3 which had the side of the of the stock broke off. As you can see I modified the underleaver. The stock is a #1.

Below are the  the 375Win and 25-06  3 shot groups. The former at 50yards the later at 100yards.

[Harry O]

Finished it.  Have fired it at the indoor range (25 yards) and the felt recoil is MUCH less than it was.  When I can get to the outdoor range, I will check it at 100 and 200 yards to see if I have screwed up the accuracy.  Was VERY careful at fitting the front of the buttstock to the back of the action.

[marlinman93]

 Looks very nice Harry! You did a great job on it.

[Fred M]

Harry O.
That pice of butt stock wood looks pretty nice. Nothing like the looks of a Ruger sinlge shot. You did a good job.

I am revamping another Ruger #1 from a 243 1B to a 7x57 1A. The 7x57 is a a new take off barrel 22" pretty light barrel. Fired it to day and the best I got so far with 6 three shot groups is 7/8" and the last one 3/4 at 100yrds. Not too bad for such a skinny barrel.

Switching the barrels is not what I thought it would be. The barrel had to be set back 0.042" to get it to line up with the ejector. Of course the ejector notch had to be deepened by that much and the chamber deepened by 42 thou.

As is, all turned out not to bad. Only thing missing is an Alexander Henry forearm.
The regular 1B forearm will do for now. I may find a used one or reshape the 1B.