It's been a busy couple of months, but I'm finally getting to build this tactical Lever Gat.
I've already made a couple plan tweaks since the Design Sketch. The first is that I am no longer going to have an offset red dot, like the Sig Romeo I had planned. The more I thought about this option and read up on how 3-Gunners build their ARs these days, the more I realized that a LPVO would be more than enough for both short and long-range shots. That means that the offset red dot would add weight and not a lot of benefit.
The second is that I am going to add some "fancy" to the stock that I didn't have in the design sketch. My original plan was to only cut a few inches of the stock to cut weight and get the eye relief I wanted on the Leupold VX-Freedom. I have since decided to make the stock's length adjustable and add some recoil compensation. It's on this stock system that I begin the build.
Now before you get all fussy, I know a .357 Mag lever action has basically no recoil. Just bear with me and enjoy the proof of concept of this recoil reduction system for those of your with some T-Rex killing calibers.
Now some pics and the work.
First, I needed to measure and cut down the wood stock I got from Henry for my Big Boy X. Note the tape near the grip part of the stock, that is the minimum length I need to keep the stock so that I don't accidentally make an SBR. You can see that the cut I made wasn't anywhere close to that mark, but I wanted to measure and mark that first as I considered where to cut the stock so I wouldn't do something foolish.
I used more masking tape to mark and limit the wood splintering as I made the cut and sanded it smooth.
The adjustable and recoil compensated part of the stock is going to be a customized SPS 2 Adjustable Butt Plate. SPS makes a variety of recoil and length of pull adjusting pads for shotguns, bench rifles, etc. I'm going to add hack up and then add some springs to their SPS 2 plate.
It comes much larger than I need, so I marked the outline of the cut down stock on the SPS mounting plate and got to hacking.
Below is how she looked after the very rough cuts were made with my trusty Dremel 4300. Losing some serious weight.
With the major cuts done, I sanded down the SPS mounting plate just larger than the stock and used a wood screw to hold it in place while I marked the stock for holes that will allow the SPS's guide rods to move in an out.
I then used a combination of regular drill and forstner bits to drill holes where needed for the guide rods in the stock. I had to be very careful in placing and drilling these holes so I didn't drill through the top of the stock. The hole for that rod is only ~1/4 inch from the top of the stock.
Below is SPS pad laid in place with the guide rods extending about 2.5" into the stock. This will be the minimum adjustable position. You can see that the butt plate on the SPS is still well oversized, so I'll need to remove much of that material and then shape it and the SPS mounting plate to be the same dimensions as the stock.
I also need to add recoil reduction springs and a mechanism that adjusts the stock's total length, +/- about 2.5 inches. I have a general plan of how I'll incorporate those elements, but as usual, I suspect there will be some audibles along the way.
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