someguy2800
Member
I have a sporterized 1898 Krag rifle that I going to be making some modifications too. The gun is in a really nice walnut stock and has been nicely refinished, however I don't like how the gun has been fit in the stock. Of course the magazine protrudes right and left out the reciever so the stock is cut out on the right side to clear this, and is rather thin on the left side as well. Also since a krag was originally supposed to have barrel bands to hold the stock it only has two action screw in the front and rear of the trigger guard. There is nothing holding the action to the stock forward of these two screws.
The front of the stock is therefor a bit flimsy and I am worried if the rifle is incorrectly handled or if I fell with it while afield that the stock could be easily broken at the magazine cutout. To prevent this and stiffen everything up I would like to add a 3rd action screw to the gun somewhere in front of the action and have considered a few options.
The easiest option would be to drill and tap a hole in the front of the flat bottom of the reciever. There is space to do so but this would only marginally stabilize the forend since the screw would be behind the front of the magazine cutout.
The second option I have been thinking about would be to take it somewhere to have a 3/8 sight dovetail cut a few inches forward of the receiver on the bottom of the barrel and I could then get a blank sight dovetail filler and drill and tap it for an action screw and install in the dovetail. I would then epoxy a mating pillar into the stock and make a hole for the action screw. Similar to the way the forend on a Thompson Center Contender attaches. I don't have a mill so I would have to pay for this which is not something I like to do on my fun projects.
The third option I'm considering is to epoxy a lug to the bottom of the chamber area using Devcon Titanium putty. I have made a small piece of steel cut from a tube of the correct diameter to match the radius under the chamber. I will thread a short sleeve to the appropriate size and weld the threaded sleeve onto this plate with my tig welder to provide a lug. Then I would remove the bluing from this spot and rough up the metal surface, then epoxy it into place with devcon titanium putty. I like this method due to it being the least destructive to this 118 year old gun, and I can do all this at home, but there is a remote potential that the epoxy could eventually come off and need to be redone.
What do you think? Anybody done this type of thing before.
The front of the stock is therefor a bit flimsy and I am worried if the rifle is incorrectly handled or if I fell with it while afield that the stock could be easily broken at the magazine cutout. To prevent this and stiffen everything up I would like to add a 3rd action screw to the gun somewhere in front of the action and have considered a few options.
The easiest option would be to drill and tap a hole in the front of the flat bottom of the reciever. There is space to do so but this would only marginally stabilize the forend since the screw would be behind the front of the magazine cutout.
The second option I have been thinking about would be to take it somewhere to have a 3/8 sight dovetail cut a few inches forward of the receiver on the bottom of the barrel and I could then get a blank sight dovetail filler and drill and tap it for an action screw and install in the dovetail. I would then epoxy a mating pillar into the stock and make a hole for the action screw. Similar to the way the forend on a Thompson Center Contender attaches. I don't have a mill so I would have to pay for this which is not something I like to do on my fun projects.
The third option I'm considering is to epoxy a lug to the bottom of the chamber area using Devcon Titanium putty. I have made a small piece of steel cut from a tube of the correct diameter to match the radius under the chamber. I will thread a short sleeve to the appropriate size and weld the threaded sleeve onto this plate with my tig welder to provide a lug. Then I would remove the bluing from this spot and rough up the metal surface, then epoxy it into place with devcon titanium putty. I like this method due to it being the least destructive to this 118 year old gun, and I can do all this at home, but there is a remote potential that the epoxy could eventually come off and need to be redone.
What do you think? Anybody done this type of thing before.
