In reality, my 10/22 build is almost completed now, despite me not having gotten around to even really starting on the parts involved, or the instructions for doing so, or whatnot. What can I say? I am having more fun building than writing.
However, I have encountered one last problem that I thought outside of my abilities to fix… but I might be wrong, and that is where you guys come in.
So my receiver is completely assembled, with the bolt, barrel, trigger group, and everything else inserted. I have fitted it to the stock (and boy did it take a bit of fitting, specifically around the lugs in front of the magazine well), and inserted it into the stock, but the takedown screw hole in the stock does not line up with the corresponding screw hole on the receiver – the latter is about 2-3mm forward of the former.
Not knowing a damned thing about really fitting stocks, and not being willing to experiment on rather unforgiving plastic and rubber (I bought a Hogue stock – it was cheap, and will hopefully be replaced with wood in the future), I finally threw my hands up in despair and took it to a local gun shop, who agreed that relieving some of the stock behind the receiver would let the entire assembly slide back and engage with the screw hole properly.
This is where the question comes in – both the Blackhawk stock Better Half has and the Hogue stock I have threading in the takedown screw hole, however, talking with @TL671, I am no longer convinced that the threading on the screw hole on the stock is important.
So, if I were to stick an appropriately-sized drill bit in the screw hole in the stock and elongate it a bit towards the front, would anything break? Does that screw hole need to be snug on the stock? Would it matter if there were a few millimeters of slack for the stock’s takedown screw hole? The receiver is damned-near-impossible-to-install-or-remove tight in the stock by itself, so with the screw cranked down and the receiver held in place, I kind of have to wonder.
And saving the money / time necessary to let a legitimate gunsmith unscrew my mistakes would be shiny to. What do you think?
“This is where the question comes in – both the Blackhawk stock Better Half has and the Hogue stock I have threading in the takedown screw hole, however, talking with @TL671, I am no longer convinced that the threading on the screw hole on the stock is important. ”
I’m pretty sure it is not necessary so long as the screw is tight. My Tapco T6 stock hole is not threaded and is not even a close fit to the screw. There is about a 1-2mm gap between the screw and the screw hole in the stock on all sides.
You could always fill the hole with epoxy, let it harden, and then drill a new hole in the correct position.
PT wrote:
I am not a gunsmith, nor do I play one on TV. That being said, if I encountered this problem on a rifle I was building for personal use, this solution would give me a warm-and-fuzzy. Simply drilling a new hole, without filling the previous hole with a structurally-sound material, would give me a cool-and-goosebumpy (not quite as bad as a cold-and-prickly, which I would take as an indicator that what I was about to try is a Really Bad Idea [tm]).
Could you re-thread the hole if you needed to?
bluesun wrote:
Just drill undersize and get a tap. It shouldn’t be hard to tap plastic.
IIRC from the years before the Australian government decided it was suddenly too dangerous for me to keep my 10/22, that hole is occupied by a CAPTIVE screw/bolt with the shank smaller than the threaded end.
Once the threads had been unscrewed from the receiver, the bolt would retract enough for the receiver to be removed, but the bolt stayed put unless you carefully lined it up, and uncscrewed it from the stock.
Make sense?
@ PT: So as long as I countersink the screw head properly, we should be in more or less good shape… I suppose I might be able to manage that.
@ AuricTech: Well, it would not necessarily be a “new” hole, per se, simply an enlargement of the existing hole in one direction, and not by a lot, which is the aggravating part.
@ bluesun: I am sure someone could, but I have precisely no experience doing so. Furthermore, given that the hole will end up looking something like an oval, I am not sure threading would matter any more.
@ Sendarius: So the threading is just there to ensure the screw does not go wandering off when disassembled? That seems reasonable.
@ Linoge: “Well, it would not necessarily be a “new” hole, per se, simply an enlargement of the existing hole in one direction, and not by a lot, which is the aggravating part.”
In that case, I’d say fill it with epoxy and then drill a new hole in the correct location. That should keep things nice and professional looking, prevent any excess “wiggle” that might be caused by an oblong hole, and keep everything structurally intact (even if it is only a .22).
I know it’s most likely just a cosmetic consideration, but if you’re building it from scratch you might as well make sure it looks good, too. It shouldn’t add much work at all, so why not do it right?
And now that I think about it… “So, if I were to stick an appropriately-sized drill bit in the screw hole in the stock and elongate it a bit towards the front, would anything break?”
Possibly the drill bit, if the distance you have to elongate the hole is less than the diameter of the hole. They aren’t made for lateral stresses, and that always seems to introduce them, in my (admittedly limited) experience. That could be another reason to fill it with epoxy – it might be easier to do that, sand down any excess epoxy after it cures, and drill a new hole than to try and elongate an existing hole.
@ Linoge:
Yes, that’s my memory of it.
Best check the bolt/screw.
I remember it as a fairly large cheese head, with a thin diameter shank, and a larger diameter threaded section at the tip.
However that WAS over fifteen years ago. BTW, I still despise and detest the elected weasels (and their successors) that forced me to give up that sweet rifle.
“…I still despise and detest the elected weasels (and their successors) that forced me to give up that sweet rifle.
As well you should.
@ Jake: It turns out that I only had to elongate the hole by at most 3mm, and you cannot even hardly tell I did it; I did not even have to re-countersink the screw head in the stock. Considering that, I may go back and fill and redrill the hole, but, honestly, I doubt it.
I have done this kind of thing before with drill bits, and while it would be a Very Bad Idea (TM) with the really thin ones, once you get above 1/8″ or so, and are gentle, and run the drill at max RPM, and only do this on soft materials like wood or, in this case, plastic you can nudge holes bigger than they used to be. May not be the best way, but it works with the tools I had on hand.
@ Sendarius: Your memory of the screw is accurate – I always wondered why it was not threaded all the way up, but now it makes sense, especially given that, on closer inspection, the stock hole was not actually threaded, but was instead a little smaller than the threading on the screw, which lends credence to the “just there to hold things in place” argument.
@ rickn8or: Agreed. No lawful person should be deprived of arms and it is wholly justifiable – if not understandable – to hate those who would do so, or who would seek to do so. Should you ever make it to our corner of the States, Sendarius (unlikely though that may be), you are welcome to some quality time with ours.