Thread: Add weight to synthetic stock

I'm wanting to add some weight to my rifle stock, easiest way would be to fill it up with lead shot, but I don't have any of that sitting around, and looks like you can only buy it in 10kg bags.
Fishing sinkers or dive weights is another thought, but not sure if they will actually fit (and I dont have anything on hand to try).

Has anyone done similar and have any ideas I can try?

No idea how much weight it's possible to add in the butt cavity, but any weight added will help it sit on on a rear bag and bipod better.

What fits will probably depend on the rifle, have you unscrewed the butt plate to see how much room there is?

I stuck a couple of old lead paperweights inside the butt of a synthetic Savage Mk2 to improve the balance and it worked pretty well.

Whatever you have lying around that will fit is worth experimenting with I reckon.

I don’t know about adding weight to a rifle stick, but if you want a smaller quantity of lead shot, Google “diving lead shot NZ”. There are a few options, but expensive.

what's the rifle ? and what are you trying to achieve ? tighter groups ? less recoil ?
Sometimes synthetic stocks won't shoot well off a bipod becos the fore end is simply not stable enough (too much flex).
You can stiffen up the fore end by bedding job that extends down thru the ribs. This will add a little bit of weight too.
If you're end game is tighter groups I'd be going for bedding job before adding weight anywhere else.

I had the same thought with my RCBS powder trickler, it seemed to be a bit light and tended to move around a little too much, so I packed the base of it with fishing sinkers and blu tack.

If you want something more permanent, try fishing sinkers and blu tack until you have the weight right, then replace the blutack with silicon.

small ball sinkers (i used lead shot) in a ziplock bag to the desired weight, then mold to the cavity shape with a bit of duct tape and to stop the bag tearing.
I ended up with 350 grams in it iirc with heaps of room to spare. depends how heavy you want it

I stuffed a sheet into my old Tikka stock to try and take some of the hollow sound out when banging it on trees in the jungle. I'd say you could add a kilo to that in lead no sweat

i just cut a few shot gun shells to bits and used that

also used newtech bog to hold it in place
it worked well

Depending on the shape, you could snip lengths of solder into the cavity? Otherwise I have some very soft roofing lead that I can drop you next time I'm passing through (this weekend)

Fill it with glass blasting media

Wont it sound like a set of maraccas?

It’s a fine powder, so it’ll fill the hollow completely. I used it to fill a rear rifle rest, heavier than sand by volume.

Get a wooden stock, then you can add a bit of weight and be cooler at the same time.

You can buy 4.5mm ball / lead shot for air rifles. Go to garage get some old wheel weights too. Definitely melt and cast to shape for max effect, though normal skirted airgun pellets can be hammered into any mould. But they are often a lightish lead alloy, not heavy pure lead.

And don't leave weight material loose or softly padded inside the stock, or your shoulder won't benefit from reduced recoil with the added weight.

Put any stiff filler in front of the lead to ensure the weight is as far as possible towards the rear of the stock, helps balance the rifle even better for each gram you add.

Originally Posted by MSL

Fill it with glass blasting media

How about West Coast iron sand? Density almost twice that of normal sand.