Howa bedding

[ejg223]

My good friend just received his new Howa270wsm rifle from Germany.

Now it was my turn to fit a nice stock to it. Goal was to keep the weight down.

The rifle is fitted with a fluted Lothar Walther match #1450 barrel (heavy magnum sporter)

which is not ultra light, so we wanted to save on the stock.

The carbon glass stock was laid up on the light side and popped out of the mould at 678 grams.

 

One problem that is often overseen is, that buttpads and bedding can be awfully heavy. The buttpads we fit are

very light. Most bedding materials are highly filled with heavy metalls and are

completely different in physical properties to the stock material. not perfect!

 

For the first time we tried to bed a rifle with material which is almost identical to the stock material below it.

Aerospace epoxy resin highly filled with fine carbon fiber. One advantage is one can decide over viscosity.

Pillars are not needed as we have wrapped carbon roving pillars integrated.

 

As a little extra my friend wanted a kaiser gripp on his stock, again in carbon.

 

 

In the meantime the rifle is duracoated, the overall weight of the stock with buttpad,

bedding, swivel studs and duracoated weighs 812grams.

The total rifle weighs 3.5kg with mounts no scope.

I'll post pictures of the finished rifle once we zero and test it.

 

Overall,.. it was worth it. The fiber material is not as nice to work with as it does not

flow as nice as with round filler materials but its stronger, stiffer and lighter.

 

edi

[mildot]

wow thats looking good. hope it worth it.

[Guest northernchris]

Nice one Edi good pictures mate,is that the gear we where talking about?

[Ronin]

Looks very interesting Eddie

 

 

This is one of your first stocks that I bedded with Devcon (just for comparison)

 

The new fill material certainly looks as good as conventional bedding filler.

 

 

Would be interested to try your carbon fibre fill epoxy material - would it be compatible with "normal" glass fibre / wood stocks?

 

 

Do you have any plans to market it - or is it too early to say?

[Guest Jarvis]

Edi

 

Can I just ask what are?

wrapped carbon roving pillars integrated.

[ejg223]

Edi

 

Can I just ask what are?

 

Jarvis,

we have a different mould setup to say mc millan. We do not mill out the inlet, we

mould the inlet. We even mould the screw holes meaning we can lay fibers 3-D almost any way

we think is needed. In the screw hole area we improve the compression strength by wrapping a few layers of

pre soaked carbon rovings around the mould pin that makes the screw hole. A carbon roving is like a bundle of fibers

running in one line and comes on a role. It takes about an hour to hand lay all the reinforcing fibers in the action area.

Thats what I meant with integrated, no need to drill out and add metall pillars.

 

Ronin, the devcon looks a bit nicer, maybe also because of the shine. Good job.

I believe it is better to have the resin and hardener mixed prior to adding fillers or

fibers so that the surface is coated with a substance that 100% hardens. For small to medium quantities

R&G in germany have a good selection of materials.

 

Thanks mildot,

Chris ,yes

 

edi

[Guest northernchris]

Edi How durable are the resins when in contact with chemicals etc etc?

[Ronin]

I think that they would both do the same job and keep the action perfectly stable.

 

It only shines when you take the action out of the stock - otherwise who would know

 

If the carbon filler is as durable as Devcon, then who cares about prettiness

[ejg223]

Edi How durable are the resins when in contact with chemicals etc etc?

 

Chris, I'd say they are as durable as you can get with epoxies.

The resins are approved for wind turbine blades and some also fully aerospace approved.

Resin is free of solvents and fillers.

 

edi

[ejg223]

Ronin,

They will certainly both do the job,

the carbon job could be theoretically stronger with less weight.

Like most other sports equipment one will want good performance from a sporting

rifle. This mostly means accurate, handy and light weight. If two rifles are equally accurate, i and many other stalkers

or hunters would choose the lighter one.

In this case the stock that came with the rifle weighed a pound more. That is more than the weight of 4-12x50 swarovski A line scope.

Or one could say that this pound weight would be better invested in a heavier profiled barrel.

 

We run around the hills a bit with our rifles so weight is important but accuracy also.

 

edi

[Guest Jarvis]

Edi

 

Thanks for the explanation.

 

Sorry if this is a question you have answered before but ...... You said "we" .So do you make stocks on a commercial basis, or do you have the necessary skills & equipment etc. due to other commercial composite moulding requirements and stock making is just a side line?.

[ejg223]

Edi

 

Thanks for the explanation.

 

Sorry if this is a question you have answered before but ...... You said "we" .So do you make stocks on a commercial basis, or do you have the necessary skills & equipment etc. due to other commercial composite moulding requirements and stock making is just a side line?.

 

Jarvis,

we, because my two sons 15 & 16 are involved, mainly to get them involved in production from start to finish of "something".

On a very small basis we produce a few stocks as a side line and if my sons wish to expand it they can.

Lets say up to now it has been great fun and I enjoy testing every improvement on stocks.

Mainly I run a small injection moulding company for a mid sized German outfit and am actually more specialized in advanced ceramics, but also

did a bit of aerospace studies in the states. Been playing around with epoxies since a kid.

 

edi

[Guest Jarvis]

Edi

 

Thanks ! As this thread shows you're a very handy sort of guy to know. Having just look at your profile I guess should rephrase that and say a very handy girl to know.

[Wsm]

Edi

 

Is there something you`re not telling us

[ejg223]

that was a good one!

 

all sorted again, and it didn't even hurt

 

edi