Hollowed out Laminated Utra stock????????????

[ccoorreeyy]

I have been thinking of reducing more weight of my USH with laminated stock.  I had the barrel fluted and I took the weight out of the stock and have been thinking about hollowing out the butt some (remove wood) to reduce the total weight more.  Has anybody done this before?  I wonder how much I could remove and still have enough strength to handle the heavy recoil it has.  Any thoughts?

[ccoorreeyy]

Nobody got any insight on this one?  Tim?  Fred?  Anybody?

[Bill3006]

I haven't done it, but I would think you could hollow out the butt quite a bit. Look at the hollowed out area of the plastic stocks as maybe a guide. The laminated material should be as strong as the plastic. Good luck, let us know if it works.

[Hammerspur]

I've not done it but it certainly could be done.
Doubt you would get away with hollowing one out near as much as the plastic ones are though... couldn't trust a skin of laminate wood only 1/8'' or less thick!

That begs the question "How much could weight be reduced anyway?"... Probably not much, not enough to be worth the effort is my guess.

Personally, I find the USH kinda' muzzle-heavy already; near 50/50 balance between the two hands is much more preferable, IMO

[ccoorreeyy]

Yea I agree, the muzzle end was very heavy.  I had it fluted and it shed about 1.5lbs and is close to balance now.  I just like to fiddle and think I could lose another couple ounces in the wood.

Pictures of the before and after in this thread if interested.

http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php/topic,125521.0.html

[Fred M]

I have hollowed out both Lam stocks on my 257 and the 6x47. I also removed
excess wood on the outside. Including milling the barrel octagon I removed
about 2lbs from the rifle. The 257R total weight with the 3-9 Sightron scope and Burris rings is 7lbs 5oz and is really well balanced.

You better watch out when you hollow out the butt that you don't come out the side. As long as you have a 1/4" of the Lam wood left your stock will be ok
to stand the recoil. You need to fill the bolt hole with a fitting dowel lest
your speed bore will run into the existing hole. This dowl will also be a guide for the new hole.

I don't know how much weight I removed from the butt alone, guess 5-8 oz. I also replaced the recoil pad with a thin plastic checkered butt plate.

[Hammerspur]

Yep! Fluting looks good and makes yours unique.

Have you checked out Fred's buttstock work for trimming excess weight from without!

http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php/topic,97911.msg1098514264.html#msg1098514264

[dumgunny]

   You could just do what the Aircraft guys do to save weight. Drill some large evenly spaced, holes horizontally through the stock in graduated sizes, or just cut the center out to "skeletonized"  the butt section.
DG