Anyway to improve a Ramline?

[mannyrock]

Dear Guys,

   I am posting this here because I think that bolt action shooters have more experience in changing out and fooling with stocks than anyone else.

   I have a really nice bolt action, with a beautiful wood stock, that I just can't bear to take out to the woods and beat up going up and down deer stands.  The only replacement stock that I could find (short of a megabucks McMillan) was a Ramline.

   Now, I know full well that the Ramline is a piece of junk. 

   But, is there anything I can do to structurally improve or strengthen the stock itself? The butt sounds as if it is hollow, but I haven't taken off the pad to see.   Would filling the stock with a non-exanding foam, and maybe filling all hollow areas with accraglass help?

   Is there a light epoxy or fiberglass resin mix I can pour into the stock and maybe the pistol grip,  that will actually stengthen the stock?

   I'm not talking about glass bedding the action in the stock for accuracy.  I am talking about improving the stock itself.

   Thanks for all comments and thoughts.

Mannyrock

[drdougrx]

What brand is the action??

[charles p]

Just hunt with what you have.  Builds character.

[goodconcretecolor]

I have a Mossberg/Howa 1500 30-06 I bought off of a pawn shop shelf in 1991. It came with a very good looking wood stock but had a ridge in the barrel channel that really messed it up. I swapped it out for a Ramline stock and glass bedded the action using Brownell's Acraglass gel. I first tried a pressure bed which shot small groups but point of impact changed a lot depending on how i held it. Then I tried free floating. The group size doubled but the point of impact was consistent. A few years later, I read about using Dow "Great Stuff" insulating spray foam as a bedding compound as follows.
Remove barreled action from stock and clamp the stock so that the forearm is free and the stock is supported by the butt and just behind the recoil lug. mask off all off the visible exterior parts of the forearm along the barrel channel and cover the barrel with paste wax as a release agent. Hang a 15 pound weight from the front swivel. Fill the barrel channel with great stuff and immediately screw the barreled action back into the stock with out moving anything. Allow the foam to cure for a minimum of 3 days, a week is better. Then trim away any excess foam, remove the weight and make sure your action is not glued in.
The weight flexes the stock slightly and then the stock slightly compresses the foam against the barrel. This dampens the barrel vibrations with out anything solid touching the barrel. I have seen this referred to as dampened free float. I'm here to tell you it works. I got the group size of the pressure bed and the consistent impact of the free float.
Another thing that gave me great results was using a Lee factory crimp die(FCD). I had found only one bullet to give sub-moa groups in my gun. The FCD slightly improved that bullets groups and almost any bullet with a cannelure will shoot well with it crimped into that knurled groove.
These two things, dampened free float and the FCD both made a significant difference. I can't wait to try a Timney trigger.