Help on Steyr SBS tactical stock fix?

[rocko]

Not sure if any of you are familiar with the Steyr SBS/SBS tactical rifles, but basically they are a nice all around rifle with a horrid POS stock. Unfortunately, since they are not nevery common, there really aren't any aftermarket stocks for them aside from a $600+ McMillan. To give you an idea how bad the stocks are, simply resting the rifle on a bipod is enough to have the fore end of stock flex enough so that it touches the barrel - and this is on the 20" standard weight barrel - I can't even imagine the 20" and 26" HB versions... Other people have reported this as well, so I know it is not just mine. If I do shoot it from the bipod, after 6-7 shots the stock warps so that it touches the barrel even when the weight of the rifle is not on the stock - hell it even happened to me when shooting from a bag with the bipod folded up. However, it is fine (shoots great, actually) when shooting from a bag without the bipod attached at all.

So.... I'd like to salvage this if at all possible - I really want to be able to use a bipod, and find it silly that any rifle billed as a "tactical" pretty much can't be shot from such. I was wondering if there is any practical way to stiffen the stock without adding too much weight. I was thinking of filling the empty channels in the interior of the stock with fiberglass or trying to run some sort of steel or aluminum rod through the ribs or some combination of the two. However, I'm not sure how I'd be able to ensure that all my holes are lined up for the rod, or if it would really even work. Most of the bending seems to occur at the foreend, but I'm thinking the rods (if this is even a feasible) would need to go back to at least the front lug, otherwise it may still be flexing enough further back down the stock to yield the same results.

However, I'm also considering just selling the rifle or trading it in to get a 700 LTR. Because of this, I really don't want to risk destroying the stock, so I don't want to jump blindly into something when I really don't know what I'm doing. Steyr is in between importers now, so even getting a factory stock is likely to be difficult - besides they'd probably charge an arm and a leg for this POS anyway. As I said, there are no other replacements that I've found other than the McMillan (which they make, but don't even advertise on their website) and selling just the barreled action for this rifle (assuming I really f*** up the stock) would likely be difficult.

Anyway, sorry for the rambling - below is a picture of the stock's interior. Anyone have ideas/opinions, or should I just sell it? Or better yet, is there a decent mid-priced aftermarket stock that I may have missed?



TIA,

Rocko

[George Stringer]

Rocko, I think I would try glass bedding about the first 1-1/2" of the void and then free float the rest. Once it's floated enough to allow a business card to pass between the barrel and the ribs you may not have the problem anymore. George