How to take material off synthetic stock

[arbud]

Hi Guys this is my first post here.
Took my my brand new NEF .223 handi rifle to the range this morning. Zeroed at 50 yards with scope and Black Hills 52gr match HP. Everything within an inch which is what I expected having had one of these before.
Took it to 100 yards just to see grouping at this distance and as the barrell heated up (6 shots) it was every where, high low bullseye. Noticed the synthetic hand guard touches every where on the barrell.
Went to the hardware store and got 2 O rings, put them on and made the situation better. But, the plastic is very uneven. Even wtih 2 rings on the barrell I cant slip paper between the barrell and the handguard in some places. I would like to just somehow take material off the handguard even if it turns out to be a little loose. After all of this my question is how do you do this? Thanks for your help guys.

[Paul5388]

arbud,

Welcome!

I thought maybe you were going to tell us a better way to do it!

I have tried everything from sand paper, to rat tail file, to rasp, to bondo file, to die grinder.  The die grinder worked the fastest and if you know how to operate one, it did the job the smoothest.  After it is roughed in with a die grinder, you could wrap some emory cloth around a dowel rod and work it straight again, but I wouldn't even mess around with any 00 grits.  Go for the 80 grit or some such, since you can always smooth it further with finer grit.  The synthetic just doesn't cut real easy.

[oneshotonekill]

I removed some material from my synthetic foreend with a small sanding drum chucked into a cordless drill.  I put the foreend in a vise and ran the drum thru the channel with 60 grit then 120 grit.  It came out pretty smooth and even.  You could probably go finer than 120 but it looked pretty good so I stopped there.