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Paul Leverman

This is the first B&C stock that I've seen. From what I understand, it was made sometime in the last century. I went to the B&C website, looked around, but couldn't find this particular stock. No surprise if it is as old as I am led to believe.

Client wants it fitted to his Parker Hale Safari. Seemed like a fairly straight forward job. From what the website says, their stocks are a drop-in with possibly minor fitting. No different than any other bedding job.

Tell me what you think.

The first photo shows the front king screw hole and recoil lug area.



Second photo shows tang area.



This was a brand new stock, not used before. It had what I assumed to be some sort of black paint covering the internal surfaces. It was thinner and not textured like the exterior finish. It was probably just a protective coating, as it was not bonded at all to the fibreglass, it scraped off with a screwdriver.
The interior finish is good, there are some minor flaws, but nothing serious. It looks solid and well made.

The third photo shows the recoil lug and area covered in red lipstick as an indicator of contact points. It shows up well and transfers easily, and there is no mistaking where the rub and high points are. The fourth photo shows the tang treated similarly.





It's now ready to put the two together and see what's what. I don't usually install the king screws, as I just want a general idea of how much and where the stock needs to be relieved. Normally, you don't have to paint the recoil area as heavy as I have, as it's more the metal around it that needs work. But on this particular stock, I was not getting any transfer at all in the lug area, and just a very small amount in the tang. Very confusing to me. You could feel the action bottoming out, and it was a solid fit, but nowhere was there lipstick. The next photos show why.





The action was bottoming out on the pillar, inside the king screw hole, with a very light contact area on the bottom of the recoil lug. The back and sides of the recoil lug were nowhere near the stock. Nor was the flat area behind the lug. As it turns out, the only contact was at the tang and the pillar.





Airborne bedding. Can't imagine the problems someone might have had trying to figure out why his groups are so large. Not really sure if that fibreglass would have stood up to all the recoil concentrated on the pillar.

So now the fun begins. One of my main concerns is whether the cheesy alternative to MGB will stand up to the challenge.