I have a Bergara B14 HMR 300 win. I am strongly considering starting to shoot from a tripod. I believe I want to direct mount to a picatinny rail attached to the gun. I see videos all over YouTube where guys add a rail to the front end of the stock but haven’t found any where they do this closer to the center of balance. So here’s a three part question: is there any problem with tapping the stock and adding a rail near the magwell, what is the best picatinny rail for this and are there any cons to using this configuration? Thanks in advance for any help here.
Gunsmithing Direct Mount Picatinny
- Thread starter pkp851
- Start date
I have seen tall bipods mounted just forward of the magwell that are use from a seated position where balance is needed. Shooting prone or off of a bench most of us would use a rear support (Even your offhand fist) and balance is not as important as stability.
Sorry if my question is confusing, I suppose my lack of knowledge and terminology is probably hindering the message. I only reference center of balance on the rifle to give an idea as to where I'm wanting to mount the rail. Most of the tripod setups I have seen are mounted just in front of the mag well, which I assume would increase the stability of the rifle on the tripod. My biggest concern is if this location on the stock will hinder any sort of function of the gun and if this part of the stock has the strength to support the downward pressure from the rear of the gun being unsupported sitting on the tripod.
As long as you're clear of the recoil lug area of the stock (which you should be), you should be fine. Before the prevalence of ARCA rails, many of us were running pic rails just forward of the mag well, so an ARCA adapter could be fitted to the pic rail.
Seems like that rifle has a fiberglass stock. Tapping the fiberglass Will only hold up long enough to take pictures. You need to bond in insert / hard points. Those get threaded. I’d thread them prior to bonding them in.
The HMR stock is not fiberglass, it's molded polymer with an embedded aluminum skeleton.
I don't see why you wouldn't be able to drill and tap the aluminum between the recoil lug pocket and rear sling swivel stud. I plan to do the same to mount an arca rail to the stock. I figure a couple 10-32 button head hex screws should do the trick.
I don't see why you wouldn't be able to drill and tap the aluminum between the recoil lug pocket and rear sling swivel stud. I plan to do the same to mount an arca rail to the stock. I figure a couple 10-32 button head hex screws should do the trick.
Ok, I just got finished installing a picatinny rail to the bottom of my HMR, it's pretty easy and it took me about 20 minutes to get everything set up and screwed down. No special tools are really needed, I got everything for this little project from Lowes, except for the rail that is., This is what I used
10-32 stainless steel button head cap screw (2)
10-32 set screw
10-32 tap set
I used 10-32 screws because that's the same thread pitch as the factory sling swivel studs and a 10-32 screw will fit the slot of an arca plate with very little slop if I want to mount a long plate to the bottom in the future. I ended up using an extra BCM polymer rail section I had in my parts bin because it would allow me to use the same tripod mount I across four rifles and the sloped ends would be relatively comfortable shooting off hand or with a sling.
I did all of the locating and drilling from inside the barrel channel going out since you can easily see the location of the skeleton and accurately mark center. I started just forward of the recoil lug pocket and this put my rail section almost exactly in between the front of the mag well and rear sling swivel stud.
It was pretty easy going drilling through the shell and aluminum skeleton, no major issues there. I tapped from the inside going out but didn't realize that in the rear most hole the tap wasn't long enough to fully thread the hole. I didn't figure this out until I went to thread the rear screw in and it wouldn't go. Not sure if would've been a good idea to run the tap from the other way I used the 10-32 set screw to chase the threads all the way through and it seemed to solve my issue. Hindsight being 20/20 I would've threaded from the outside towards the barrel channel. When you do go to tap the hole, use plenty of oil and go slow.
Fit and finish look good and if I want I can swap the rail out for an arca rail. Easy peasy.
10-32 stainless steel button head cap screw (2)
10-32 set screw
10-32 tap set
I used 10-32 screws because that's the same thread pitch as the factory sling swivel studs and a 10-32 screw will fit the slot of an arca plate with very little slop if I want to mount a long plate to the bottom in the future. I ended up using an extra BCM polymer rail section I had in my parts bin because it would allow me to use the same tripod mount I across four rifles and the sloped ends would be relatively comfortable shooting off hand or with a sling.
I did all of the locating and drilling from inside the barrel channel going out since you can easily see the location of the skeleton and accurately mark center. I started just forward of the recoil lug pocket and this put my rail section almost exactly in between the front of the mag well and rear sling swivel stud.
It was pretty easy going drilling through the shell and aluminum skeleton, no major issues there. I tapped from the inside going out but didn't realize that in the rear most hole the tap wasn't long enough to fully thread the hole. I didn't figure this out until I went to thread the rear screw in and it wouldn't go. Not sure if would've been a good idea to run the tap from the other way I used the 10-32 set screw to chase the threads all the way through and it seemed to solve my issue. Hindsight being 20/20 I would've threaded from the outside towards the barrel channel. When you do go to tap the hole, use plenty of oil and go slow.
Fit and finish look good and if I want I can swap the rail out for an arca rail. Easy peasy.
Excellent. Thanks you for the write, that will be very helpful when I try to do this next weekend.
No problem, I'm pretty happy with the set up. I'll put some pics tomorrow of it mounted in the tripod.
Very nice! I’m heading to Lowe’s this afternoon and will be attempting this sometime this week. One question, did you use a drill press or just a hand drill when you did yours?
I used a drill press but it'd be easy enough to do with a handheld drill if you take your time make sure you're going straight down. BTW I got 10-32 X 3/4" screws.
long ago thread but thanks for the write-up. I'm going to do something similar to put a direct mount on my krg bravo.
i'm hoping it will be sturdy enough to use as a barricade stop also.
i'm hoping it will be sturdy enough to use as a barricade stop also.
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