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William Suter

Well-known member
Not how you were raised but a rifle stock. LOL!!
I'm looking at a Manners stock for my Howa. My action has a carbon fiber barrel and at the front of my stock the barrel measures 1.030. The Manners is used so the price is decent but the barrel channel measure .990 at the front. This means I will need to open it up at least .050 or even a bit more to get my barrel to fit the channel and maybe more to float. I keep thinking it isn't that much but I don't want to screw up a good stock or compromise the integrity of the fore-end either. What do you think?
 
I've opened up a lot of stocks, mostly McMillans, but Manners are built the same, ain't gonna hurt a thing.

Lay the barrel in/on the channel, & run a Sharpie along both sides of the forend for a reference point.

I use various sized wooded dowels, conduit, and/or sockets wrapped with different grits of sandpaper.

It can be somewhat time consuming, but easily done. Don't be scared to give it a generous float.
 
I've opened up the barrel channels on a fair share myself an I've seen a few that were really thin out towards the end of the stock. I know or should say, by the pictures he sent it shouldn't be a big issue, just some sanding and I have a box full of paper and different size diameter dowels to do the job. I just replaced a new stock because I had my head where it didn't belong and messed up a bedding job. I took a short cut and paid the price but that's a story for a later date when I want to tell on myself. He's dropped the price a little, maybe he will drop it once more or someone will buy it before I do. Its a want, not a need but it sure is nice. LOL I just want to make dang sure I won't mess this one up.
 
From an aesthetic point of view, I don't like it when you have to open a barrel channel up so far that there's no "flats" on tops of the forend towards the tip.

Structurally I'm sure it's fine. I have sanded the tops to make the flats, but those were on painted, not gel coated stocks, that I re-painted.
 
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