I’ve had several inquiries regarding the process of my stock build. Since I recorded the process with photos, I thought I’d share it here.

First, I bought the straightest 1x6 of hardwood I could find at Home Depot. In this case it was red oak. There are better choices, but this is what I used and it seems to be just fine as long as it stays dry. I cut the 8’ board into three equal pieces and laminated them together.



I let it dry for about 30 hrs., unclamped it, and cleaned up both long edges with a table saw. Next, I traced the outer contour of my McMillan stock from my Savage .308 onto tracing paper with a pencil and changed the top line to accommodate the 10/22 receiver. I also added the little hook on the butt stock for prone position shooting. (Honestly, if I could afford it, I would have just bought a McMillan A5, but I had more time than money). Then I cut out the shape and tacked it into position on my laminated hunk of oak with tiny bits of masking tape and re-traced the shape onto the wood.



A band saw would best to cut out the contour, but the closest I could get was a “borrowed” sawzall. (I actually sneaked it home from work one day while my boss was out of town, but I brought it back when I was through). I drilled some 1-1/4” holes in the wood in the sharp corners for starting points and relief spots.




Then I cut the rest of the shape with the sawzall. Here’s where I got caught up in the project and forgot to take some pictures, but next I channeled out the top to make room for the receiver and barrel. I took precise measurements with a micrometer and tried to copy the exact dimensions of the original 10/22 stock channel, oversized for the barrel of course, to accommodate the bull barrel. With a straight edge, a sharp pencil and a router, I routed out the stock from the top plane to fit the action and the barrel.

This part gets a bit squirrelly. One of those wooded vise-top tables would have been a great help, but I had to improvise. For router guides, I used scrap strips of ¼” thick plywood. I had no table vise, so I sandwiched the rough-cut stock between 2 triangular pieces of drop 2x4 (notched out at the center of the 45 degree cut line) with a C-clamp. (Actually 4 corners of 2x4 and 2 C-clamps) Then I nailed down 2 strips of plywood flush with the top plane on both sides of the rough-cut stock. With additional straight cut strips of ¼” plywood and some finishing nails, I had my router guides.




Some minor Dremmel tooling and sanding and the barreled action made a decent fit.




Next I filed and sanded to round out and finish the feel of the stock.



Ready for texture.




Next, I used sandable auto primer to fill in low spots from wood grain and large pores, then hand sanded to smooth out the whole surface. After that, using masking tape, I masked off the areas that I wanted to be textured and cleaned up the lines with an exacto knife. I mixed up some fiberglass resin, applied to the texture areas, then quickly spread sawdust into the wet resin and hand patted the areas with latex gloves on. When it looked right, I let the resin set up completely hard.





After the resin set up, I sanded off the sharp edges until it looked and felt right.



Next, I primed the entire stock with 3 coats inside and out to seal the wood. I also primed the empty receiver, barrel, and trigger housing.



I laid on some Krylon flat camo green, reassembled, and my first stock build and my first custom 10/22 was complete. I bedded the entire length of the action and the first 1” of the barrel with fiberglass resin.

That's great! Thanks for the write up.

great work!

how much do you charge?

Wow!

Like it a lot, looks like a super good job.

Keep up the good work!

Originally Posted By cwa11is: Thanks for the compliments! As far making more for sale, that may be an option if I can do enough to buy the proper tools. I'm just trying to start my own Art/Blacksmith business, so my wood tools are limited. My specialty is metal, but I would love to do something that relates to our shooting sports community. I'll do some research and figuring and see what I might be able to do. itgoesboom---I have no MKII for reference, but I know I could do it. Thanks again, Chris

That is extremely well done. Out of curiousity how many hours do you have into it?(lumped together as you probably didnt do it strait through)

Out of curiousity how many hours do you have into it?(lumped together as you probably didnt do it strait through)

This one took about a month in my spare time after work while in a regular time card punching job, but I only built it for my personal use and I had to think and improvise every step. Reproduction was not on my mind at all. If I was getting paid by the hour, I probably would have been able to buy 3 real A5's. I do know that it would be much quicker to do another one, even quicker to build several at the same time.

Nice.

wow..just wow....excellent job

great job!

I enjoy reading and seeing peoples work that have true life skills. Great job!

Originally Posted By cwa11is: itgoesboom---I have no MKII for reference, but I know I could do it. Thanks again, Chris

I have no doubt that you could!

I bet you could sell a few of them as well.

Um, wow, I wish I had skill like that.

I can get the wood.
I have a router.
I have a table saw
I have clamps

I need a drill press
I need a band saw
I need skill.

Did you just use normal wood glue?

Hardwarz