I wanted to give my rifle a makeover and the rib gave me a $200 gift card to midway for last Christmas. I ended up getting some flush cups, a padded VCAS sling, and Warne rings and basses. They are all steel and I loctited the basses in.



Overall product doesn't look terrible




Since the stock is hollow the epoxy doesn't hold and the zero turn cup doesn't move but the whole unit turns in the threads. The butt pad isn't removeable so I don't know how to put a backing on it



Here is the back of the butt where the bottom swivel would be


The plan was to have 2 QD's on bottom the one most forward to the end of the barrel was for a QD bipod and the rear for a sling. As I was drill down on the drill press the 1/2 in bit clipped the edge of the aluminum block and totally messed the hole up. I filled in the hole with expoxy and redrilled the whole closer to the front




One thing about this Kevlar composite stock is it chipped really bad even when drilling pilot holes








The bad news is I can't find the shells I was shooting last year. This rifle from a lead sled would cut a cloverleaf at 100 yards. I picked up some 139 gr hornady Superformance and they grouped terribly so to mention they would stick in the chamber after firing. I also shot some Winchester 140's and they didn't group well either. My best group at 100 yards was maybe 3.5 inches. One or 2 shots would hit close to my point of aim but then the next couple would be 3 inches right and and inch or 2 up.

I ran 2 index cards together between the barrel and stock. They went freely so I don't think the barrel is touching the stock.

I'm thinking about giving the rifle a good cleaning and trying a heavier bullet unless anybody has some better ideas

What was the round it shot well? Did you bed the receiver to the stock? Even free floated if the receiver has weird stresses when torqued down you can lose accuracy. Looks good! Wonder what the trick for drilling kevlar is? Did it melt?

You say the butt pad isn't removable...everything's removable rip it off and epoxy that cup in place from the back. You absolutely sure there aren't a pair of screw heads hiding down in the pad?

NRD09 said:

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What was the round it shot well? Did you bed the receiver to the stock? Even free floated if the receiver has weird stresses when torqued down you can lose accuracy. Looks good! Wonder what the trick for drilling kevlar is? Did it melt?

You say the butt pad isn't removable...everything's removable rip it off and epoxy that cup in place from the back. You absolutely sure there aren't a pair of screw heads hiding down in the pad?

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The receiver lug is not bedded to the stock, in the event I get a new stock would I have to take the bedding off and re-bed?

The Kevlar didn't melt. I used some gorilla glue steel epoxy and it sets up really fast and I had scotch tape on the upper part of the flush cups to keep the epoxy out of the holes on the top of the limited rotation cups. It looks terrible in person but if I can get it to shoot good then I won't care

My buddy and I looked it over good, there was no plugs to cover the screws.




Full disclosure the screws arnt torqued they are just as tight as I could get them.

Bedding sticks to the stock, only issue is if you wanted to put a different barreled action in that stock you'd have to grind it out again and re-bed. But that's okay because it's an easy couple hour project and very rewarding. Bed the whole action, tang to lug. Torque specs are especially important if you're not bedded, i bet that's causing at least part of your issue. Since you like tinkering you really should spend the $30 or so on a Fat wrench

My remmies dont have plugs covering the butt pad screws, they are like self-healing holes that you just stick a smallish Philips screwdriver through and you can feel the screw head. Never worked on a sendero though. I think you'd notice them, maybe someone else can chime in on how that pad is attached

Quote:

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Full disclosure the screws arnt torqued they are just as tight as I could get them.

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This could be your problem.

If it doesn't have some kind of pillar I wouldn't go above around 45 in/lbs. Or 65 if it has pillars.

Not that hard to get above those values if you're just cranking.

i will check and see if my FIL has a torque wrench and is bedding the action something an amateur can do?

Fishin Texas Aggie 05 said:

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is bedding the action something an amateur can do?

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yes, watch a few youtube videos. I use marinetex, hornady oneshot as a release, and plumbers putty for the screw holes

Patience is key. I buy studs that match the action screws and wing nuts to match. When you apply your bedding compound (devcon or marinetex), factory screws want to push compound in threads of action and the studs will keep this from happening. I also use blue painting tape on stock and shoe polish on action as release agent. You have to set it and forget it or you will make a mess. Also be careful with compounds because they are not all 1:1 ratio. I typically end up repainting stocks after bedding and have had good luck with duracoat airbrushed on. You can also apply splatter paint and put a clear coat over.

CharlieBrown17 said:

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Quote:

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Full disclosure the screws arnt torqued they are just as tight as I could get them.

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This could be your problem.

If it doesn't have some kind of pillar I wouldn't go above around 45 in/lbs. Or 65 if it has pillars.

Not that hard to get above those values if you're just cranking.

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Is there an inch to foot conversion? The only torque wrench he has is in foot lbs.

NRD09 said:

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12 inches to a foot
Not being a smartass, a ft-lb is 12 in-lb, so 35 in-lb is just shy of 3 ft-lb, which your ft-lb torque wrench probably doesn't go down to, so you really need a dedicated in-lb torque wrench

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thanks, i never had to torque anything and i didn't know if the common English conversions still applied

quick physics lesson: if you put a 1 foot long breaker bar on a lug nut in the horizontal position, hang a 1lb weight off of it (assuming a weightless breaker bar, of course) you're applying 1 ft-lb to that lug nut. 2lb weight on that same bar results in 2 ft-lb. extend the bar to 2 feet (still weightless) and hang the 1-lb weight off it you've got 2 ft-lb again
My wheeler fat wrench goes up to 120 in-lb I believe. All you will ever need for stock and scope mounting

so i found a place that has an inch pounds torque wrench.

the stock has 2 metal pillars (i guess) which the screws go through to go into the action, these should be around 60 inch poubs


what about the screws going into the bases on top of the action?

what about the scope rings?


the plan is to give the gun a very thorough cleaning and check the torque values and then try to shoot heavier 150 and 160 grain Barnes vortex ttsx bullets.

Bases to action should be about 30 in/lbs, mount screws about 18-30 depending on manufacturer specs.

the reference I use says you can go all the way up to 65 on the action screws with pillars, 30 max for scope base to receiver, and 10-15 to clamp your scope into aluminum rings, 15-20 for steel

when you are torqueing the action screws you can save yourself a lot of heartache at the range by making sure everything is seated properly. snug the screws up by hand and buttstroke the rifle lightly. tighten the front action screw to 15 or so and buttstroke a bit harder, tighten both to 30 or so and buttstroke as hard as you dare, tighten to 45 and take it to the range. Put 5 downrange and go up another 5 in-lb, repeating until you hit 65 or accuracy falls off. This procedure helps seat the lug, especially since yours is not bedded

So I bought the $20 in-lbs wrench from harbor freight

I've run the collar up and down a few times but I still can't get it to click when it gets to the right torque

Either that or I'm a big wuss and can't even exert 20 lbs of directional force between the 1/4 in drive wrench in one hand and channel locks in the other hand

Just multiply ft-lbs by 12 to get in-lbs.

Log said:

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Just multiply ft-lbs by 12 to get in-lbs.

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3 ft| 12 in
__________ =
Lbs| 1 ft


36 in
_____
Lbs

Dimensional analysis is for winners.

Sorry, I misread that and omitted the 12. I thought you were trying to play a bad trick. My bad.

The wheeler FAT wrench is here

Hopefully I can make progress now

3 shots @ 100



I shot thru some 150 Barnes TTSX's and once the gun got a little fouled it is better. I know the gun is more capable than 1MOA but I just have to do my part

That's promising!