Older McMillan A4 project stock

[smoothy8500]

I was looking for a stock for the M40A1 rifle that I often shoot in Midrange and Longrange matches at Pendleton. The current stock was not very ergonomic when shooting long strings in prone.


I came across a well priced A4 stock with the Badger M5 DBM permanently bedded in place, stripped/cross-threaded cheek rest screws, and a textured patio furniture paint job. I wasn't too worried about everything, it just needed some work.

[smoothy8500]

Started grinding out the MarineTex bedding and opened the barrel channel to fit the MTU profile barrel.

[smoothy8500]

Stripped the old paint off.

The older 2 screw McMillan stocks used to have Helicoils for the hardware. Cross-threading and pulling out was pretty common with those stocks. You would think for a USMC spec they could have used something stronger. I used threaded rod connecting nuts as inserts.

[smoothy8500]

Bedded it the other day and need to finish cleaning it out.

[smoothy8500]

In a few days, I'll take it for a spin at Burro Cyn.

[pdaddy]

I hope the weather will permit you to go out and give it a go. Thanks for sharing OP!

[Ronin75]

How difficult is it to get that textured finish on the forend and pistol grip

[smoothy8500]

Originally Posted by Ronin75

How difficult is it to get that textured finish on the forend and pistol grip

That's cast in place by McMillan during production. I've seen it done after the fact by mixing epoxy and dabbing it on the stock with a glove or sponge while it hardens.

[Citadelgrad87]

That came out looking really good.

Well done.

[mtenenhaus]

wow, looks great....congratulations

[smoothy8500]

Made another modification to the stock, so now it's more like an M40A3 "transitional" before they went to the A5. Added a PGW EFR to the front of the stock and cleared the barrel channel a little bit more.

[smoothy8500]

I'm switching from IMR 4064 to 4895 since I just throw and don't trickle my NRA midrange (600yd) loads. I hit up Burro Cyn today and gave 41.0gr with Nosler 168's a test at 200yds. Low node was 40.5 to 41.5 so I aimed for the middle when I throw a powder charge. Good enough, 8 rounds at 3/4 MOA.

[twomanattact]

very cool project and write up. Thanks