My Toy
Ultimate Member
I purchased a 3.7 million S.A. M1 Garand, LEAD 1969 refurb. at a gun shop in Baltimore County last year. The rifle is in excellent shape with ME of 1 and TE of 1.5 with the exception of the stock. The stock is almost blonde; probably either birch or beech.The previous owner had sanded the crap out of it and if there were any cartouches they were long gone. The previous owner then applied a gloss finish to the stock making it look like a Remington BDL.
There was very little draw when closing the trigger guard so I was looking for a way to increase the draw without extensive routing the stock in the trigger guard bedding areas as outlined in Kunhausen. In fact if I was inclined to go this way I didn't have the proper tools to make a good job of it anyway. I search turned up mostly use of shims in the bedding areas that didn't seem to permanent or durable.
The stock showed the usual compression of the wood in the magazine and rear trigger guard contact areas. So to see how much additional height I would have to add to these areas I did use shim stock to see how much. About .020" worth of shim gave much better draw and in my mind not so much as to unduly wear the trigger guard lugs.
I found that the head thickness of 18 gauge wire nails averaged 18 to 20 thousandths of a inch which roughly equaled the amount that I needed to increase the contact surfaces on the stock. With a slightly smaller wire gauge drill bit I drilled 6 holes (4 in the mag area and 2 in the rear contact area) and drove in the six wire gauge nails that were cut off to about 5/8" in length. I assembled the receiver with the trigger group which is now bearing against the heads of the 6 wire gauge nails and the draw effort was greatly improved.
Next I masked off the stock just outside of the magazine area of the trigger guard and drilled a series of 3/32" holes (probably 10 total on each side) under the trigger guard in the magazine and rear contact areas. I applied several coats of release agent to the trigger. Next I applied a reasonable amount of Acraglas Gel to the four contact areas working it in to the holes to key the Agraglas Gel in to the stock. I assembled the upper receiver, stock and trigger group and closed the trigger guard to the point where I just started to feel some draw. Next I removed the masking. I stained the stock with Gale Lock dark walnut and Chestnut Ridge walnut plus 4 coats of tung oil.
Attached are some pictures of the finished product. Wish I had taken some pics during the process but I didn't. With my handloaded ball the rifle will consistently puts 5 shots in 2" at 100 yards. My main concern is durability of this arrangement. After three outings and approx. 200 rds. down the tube so far so good. I realize I'm not building a match rifle just wanted to alleviate an obvious problem with this rifle. I'd be interested in any comments.
There was very little draw when closing the trigger guard so I was looking for a way to increase the draw without extensive routing the stock in the trigger guard bedding areas as outlined in Kunhausen. In fact if I was inclined to go this way I didn't have the proper tools to make a good job of it anyway. I search turned up mostly use of shims in the bedding areas that didn't seem to permanent or durable.
The stock showed the usual compression of the wood in the magazine and rear trigger guard contact areas. So to see how much additional height I would have to add to these areas I did use shim stock to see how much. About .020" worth of shim gave much better draw and in my mind not so much as to unduly wear the trigger guard lugs.
I found that the head thickness of 18 gauge wire nails averaged 18 to 20 thousandths of a inch which roughly equaled the amount that I needed to increase the contact surfaces on the stock. With a slightly smaller wire gauge drill bit I drilled 6 holes (4 in the mag area and 2 in the rear contact area) and drove in the six wire gauge nails that were cut off to about 5/8" in length. I assembled the receiver with the trigger group which is now bearing against the heads of the 6 wire gauge nails and the draw effort was greatly improved.
Next I masked off the stock just outside of the magazine area of the trigger guard and drilled a series of 3/32" holes (probably 10 total on each side) under the trigger guard in the magazine and rear contact areas. I applied several coats of release agent to the trigger. Next I applied a reasonable amount of Acraglas Gel to the four contact areas working it in to the holes to key the Agraglas Gel in to the stock. I assembled the upper receiver, stock and trigger group and closed the trigger guard to the point where I just started to feel some draw. Next I removed the masking. I stained the stock with Gale Lock dark walnut and Chestnut Ridge walnut plus 4 coats of tung oil.
Attached are some pictures of the finished product. Wish I had taken some pics during the process but I didn't. With my handloaded ball the rifle will consistently puts 5 shots in 2" at 100 yards. My main concern is durability of this arrangement. After three outings and approx. 200 rds. down the tube so far so good. I realize I'm not building a match rifle just wanted to alleviate an obvious problem with this rifle. I'd be interested in any comments.
