New Carbon Fibre F Class Stock - opinions sought

[ecomeat]

a further thought.
if bend has to occur, at any level, it might be preferable in the forend than the bedding area.
keep safe,
bruce.

Bruce,
I confess that I don't know precisely where the McMillan bent. I walked in the door of my man cave.....saw it......nearly died and got the bloody thing out of there.
In hindsight I should have used a spirit level, straight edge etc and ascertained just "where" my problem was.
In reality I just panicked!

[ecomeat]

I guess with their "custom option" I could get Joe West to make me the shape that I like, but do the barrel inletting for about 1.5", or even bigger. Then I could just add carbon fibre till it was well clear of a 1.25 straight cylinder.
That way, as per Jason's suggestion, it would be/should be , pretty easy to keep the correct shape, and still add enough carbon fibre to stiffen the whole "half circle"
How thick are the individual layers of carbon fibre that are available ? And where can I get them ? Do car panel repair shops sell it ? Hopefully I don't havetl break into Wild Dog to get some ?
Actually I think it could be time I picked Marks brain on the sourcing and use of carbon fibre as well. I know he mainly did the metal work, but hopefully he might be able to give me some good advice.

Dave, if a forend was stiffened on the bottom with multiple CF layers, could it then be routed out to give me two rails at the front ? Or would it just be a bloody awful mess with carbon fibers ripping and tearing and looking like a dog chewed it ?
We don't use much carbon fibre on this cattle stud !
Tony

[DenisA]

Tony, those 2 stocks that are shown look to be Precision Rifle and Tool Low Boys.

Denis,
Near copies, oFf a good operator in the UK
The green one at the bottom is from Joe West in the UK....he has got a pretty fancy website at www.joewestriflestocks.com

Thanks for the link Tony, I haven't seen their website before.

Is it a lot easier to get a stock over from the UK?

[ecomeat]

[/quote]Thanks for the link Tony, I haven't seen their website before.
Is it a lot easier to get a stock over from the UK?[/quote]

I hope I can answer that tomorrow ! It certainly looks like it is. According to Mik, they don't have any issues with these murderous stocks.
I bought two top end scopes a few years ago from the UK and it was quite painless. Receipted Royal Mail delivery and I got home from town to find a $3000 Schmidt and Bender scope sitting on top of my roadside mailbox in the rain !

[Fergus Bailey]

Fergus,
Thanks for the input. I can't miss hearing what the Benchrest world has experienced, but would like to ask this :
How do the numbers of fully metal or aluminum stocks, including the DTA's, the AI's , the many tube guns etc.......manage to be accurate when there is clearly no softer, inner core to absorb ANY recoil or movement ?
I have never fired one, but I am sure that I have read many Internet posts where these rifles can repeatedly shoot bug holes.
Don't get me wrong..........I am hearing what you guys are saying....... but I just can't rationalize in my own mind how a softer "recoil absorbing/vibration dampening core" can be seen as essential, yet these rifle styles mentioned are basically solid metal.
Help me out here !
Tony

Tony

Short answer is that I dont have enough firsthand experience to give a definitive answer - and there are certainly a LOT of nuances at work in these discussions. However I think there are 2 different issues being rolled into one with the question.

Regarding alloy stocks/chassis, etc, they simply dont get used in most classes of short range BR due to weight issues (if nothing else). In longer range BR, a variety of chassis/tube guns, alloy billet stocks, etc do get used and seem to shoot fine. And lets not forget that the most accurate rifles available (BR rail guns) are made predominantly from steal and/or alloys. I think that from those examples, we can conclude that no matter the theory, empirically they work.

However on the issue of a composite shell with no filling, they just flat-out don't seem to work in the arena of ultimate precision shooting sports (in fact when you look at the market - there are virtually no unfilled composites offered that I can see - and I believe that is also telling). I have shot a number of FILLED composite stocks and never had any accuracy issues I could trace to the stock. But running a composite shell with no filling seems to be "a bridge too far" in the precision shooting sports.

So I do not believe you can extrapolate from an alloy/steal stock working well, that ergo a hollow composite shell will work (manage vibration) equally as well. It may be that the stock you are considering will in fact work to your satisfaction. At the end of the day its your money and you get to spend it as you see fit - but I would be very uncomfortable if it were me. I would want to see a few other guinea-pigs with runs on the leaderboard before I invested any money in that stock.

[AlanF]

Fergus,

I don't have any experience with carbon fibre stocks, but am finding that welded rectangular hollow section steel (1.6mm gauge) is quite okay for stiffness and for F-Open at least, I can make weight even with the inclusion of a machined steel barrel clamp. I'm of the opinion that RHS steel is a better option in terms of stiffness/weight ratio than machined aluminium for stocks. Clearly carbon fibre is the best by this measure, but there are penalties with that in terms of cost and ease of modification. With RHS I can make the pieces with drill, angle grinder and files, and take them to a good local welder - total cost well under $100. Machining of barrel clamps is a bigger cost - mine were $110 a pair.

Alan

[bartman007]

With RHS I can make the pieces with drill, angle grinder and files, and take them to a good local welder - total cost well under $100. Machining of barrel clamps is a bigger cost - mine were $110 a pair.

Alan,

All you need now is a spray paint job that looks like Carbon Fibre and you're made. You could probably sell one to ecomeat for half the price he's paying now.

Let me know if you need help with the marketing

After all you do have the runs on the board, so the gear clearly works. A paint job will only make it better at getting Super V's.

[Brad Y]

Pimping a gun is very important. Even if you walk off the line with a shit score, its all about how good your gun looks at the end of the day.

[ecomeat]

I have never been a pretty boy so never worried about the look (NQ thing I guess). What colour is your stock??? I would always buy black from now on for any modifications required.

I know that Alan says he was born a kiwi, but has anybody ever probed the high probability of some sort of genetic link between him, Dave as per above, and Rod Davies ?
Other than extraordinary shooting records, could there be something else that they share ?
There is possibly even more relatives out there that I haven't met yet, coz I just haven't been to enough shoots.
Tony

[AlanF]

When they start giving you points for a paint job, I might take it more seriously.