Thread: Build yourself a fibreglass stock

Step fourteen
Recoil pad

Remember how I mentioned a piece of flat fibreglass plate earlier? Well some more of that is required for fitting the recoil pad.

I cut and trimmed a piece so it would fit snugly inside the end of the buttstock, about 3-4 mm inside the finished edge where the recoil pad would mount. I glued this in with a generous scallop of resin ‘glue’ mix and let cure. I then filled that recess with a resin and micro balloons mix, and when cured sanded flush and square for the recoil pad to mount to. This seemed to me to be the best compromise between strength and weight.
Chose the recoil pad you want and mark the holes on the stock for the mounting screws. Drill the holes oversize (around 10mm) as we’re going to use then to pour in expanding foam.

I bought a 2 pack polyurethane expanding foam kit, and used that to fill the buttstock area. You don’t need a lot, only about 4-5 tablespoons is enough to fill the area once it goes it’s thing. Once cured, use the same drill that you drilled the recoil pad holes with, and deepen the holes into the foam to about 15mm deep and fill with thickened resin. This will provide a good stable and strong place for the recoil pad screws to hold on to.

Them just mount and grind your recoil pad as per usual. Be careful though, fibreglass doesn’t handle a belt sander as well as walnut if you get a bit loose grinding the pad!



Oh yeah, and don’t forget to add something inside the stock in order to screw the rear sling stud into! That needs to be done before you close the end of the stock in.

Some people also fill the forend with foam, but given the small dimensions of the BSA stock I chose not to.