Stevens 200 stock enhancements?
I'm looking at getting a .223 Stevens 200 and getting the barrel cut and threaded then possibly Parkerized. The overall idea is to just make a small carbine bolt that can be suppressed in the future, but I'm not wanting to get a replacement stock, at least not until I try playing with the standard stock first. Right now my idea involves some kind of epoxy fill in the empty spaces and sink some kind of steel or fiberglass rods on the corners to add rigidity then also open the read of the stock and fill, possibly with a heavy foam and replace the recoil pad, worst case I have another stock at home from when I swapped my Stevens 200 .308 to a Boyd's.
I got a couple carbon arrows that the tips had split from a friend and an anschutz type accessory rail to try to bed into the bottom of the stock and filled all the voids I could with fiberglass reinforced epoxy, and even ended up doing a woven fiberglass wrap on most of the stock from a cheap remington 700 tupperware stock. After spending most evenings for a few weeks doing things, waiting for it to set then shaping and repeating the process over and over, I ended up with a heavier unbalanced flexible stock. It took some flex out of it, but not enough, and ended up adding way more weight than it was worth. Right now it wears a laminate stock from Richards microfit and it far better than it had ever been. I have a hand laid fiberglass stock about halfway built, and it is already looking to be solid, but weighs a ton and isn't even done. It will likely end up living in the laminate stock.
Originally Posted By karlvin08:
I got a couple carbon arrows that the tips had split from a friend and an anschutz type accessory rail to try to bed into the bottom of the stock and filled all the voids I could with fiberglass reinforced epoxy, and even ended up doing a woven fiberglass wrap on most of the stock from a cheap remington 700 tupperware stock. After spending most evenings for a few weeks doing things, waiting for it to set then shaping and repeating the process over and over, I ended up with a heavier unbalanced flexible stock. It took some flex out of it, but not enough, and ended up adding way more weight than it was worth. Right now it wears a laminate stock from Richards microfit and it far better than it had ever been. I have a hand laid fiberglass stock about halfway built, and it is already looking to be solid, but weighs a ton and isn't even done. It will likely end up living in the laminate stock.
One option is to just place steel rods and epoxy just those into the stock instead of filling it. I certainly feel some stiff coating on the inside would help some though filling it would make a issue of weight, or at least enough to where I could move to the idea of painting the stock.
Give it a shot. I have heard some people have had good results, but mine were less than stellar for what I ended up with. I didn't put much money into it as I have all the fiberglass and epoxy on hand for my boat. If I were you though, I wouldn't get my hopes too high, or spend too much on it. Laminate stocks from boyds or Richards microfit aren't very much money and I think they can both inlet for a Stevens. They would work pretty well for what you are doing, and are easy to shorten or reshape if you should choose to do so. They also have some patterns that work fairly well as a camo'ish type finish.
I'm probably going to set a limit of $20 to see what I can do with it, worst case I'll get another Boyd's Featherweight Thumbhole though a different color this time, the one on my .308 is Forest Camo, thinking a Pepper for the .223 if I can't work the stock how I want it.
