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Home made AR-30 Adjustable Stock

fred007

Private
Full Member
Minuteman
Aug 1, 2011
15
0
62
USA - Midwest
My son has an AR-30 that he recently used in a precision rifle class. During that class, it became apparent that the stock is really in need of replacement. We learned about the Adapter that Armalite offers but it showed as out-of-stock on their site and we thought of an alternate. I shot a M1A with a Sage EBR stock and it was sweet. The adjustable cheek rest and stock was great to have during the class. This gave us an idea and we thought we could adapt the Sage adjustable butt stock to the AR-30. We machined a piece of aluminum to replace the portion of the factory stock that fits into the gun and worked on mounting the Sage forward mount to that blank. We knew we would have to remove the pistol grip mounting stud, and also learned that to clear the bolt we would have to mount the Sage receiver upside down. This meant we had to rotate the rods holding the butt plate and notch out the receiver. Once we got things fitted up, we had a friend who is an excellent TIG welder weld the blank to the Sage mount. We then trimmed the stock rods to about the same length as the factory stock and bolted the adjustable mechanism in place. Right now, it looks like it will be an effective stock but we won't know for sure until we shoot it a bit. Here are some pictures.
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Re: Home made AR-30 Adjustable Stock

Good job. I had a m1a in the sage ebr stock. The adjustable stock and cheek rest are great very comfortable. The only thing that I didnt like was the excesive play once it was locked into place. Now you have me thinking.
 
Re: Home made AR-30 Adjustable Stock

got to looking at this again, is that alum wielded to steel? if so im afraid that the wield and the difference in materials under the strain of recoil might fail, i know this not a .50 but keep eye on wield, id take some glazing puddy and put on wields, the glazing puddy will give before the wield does, then you know where to look for potential failure of wield. but i dont know, cant ell from pic but your description did say tig wielded, so penetration of the wield is not bad you would have had to wield this in AC current scene it was aluminum, just becarefull if the wield braking and id hate to see a piece of aluminum in a shoulder blade,

Very Respectfully

I am extremely interested in out come of the stock!!
 
Re: Home made AR-30 Adjustable Stock

It is TIG aluminum to aluminum. The Sage components are anodized with a really tough coating. It took a bit to get it off without removing too much metal. Cleaned the aluminum with a stainless brush and TIG welded. Welds should not be a problem, but will keep an eye on them. My son painted the raw aluminum pieces today with Duracoat flat black and that makes it look much better. Hoping to fire it tomorrow and see how things go.
 
Re: Home made AR-30 Adjustable Stock

We also noticed that using a bolt to hold down the stock slider stop eliminated the jiggle we have on the EBR. Since this solution does not really need to be adjustabled on the fly, the bolt solution seemed easiest to implement. Still adjustable, just need an allen wrench to make the adjustment.
 
Re: Home made AR-30 Adjustable Stock

Very nice.

Aside from the slightly inadequate butt stock how did the rifle perform? Not much is said about the AR 30 here and I would be interested to hear some of your general comments about it.
 
Re: Home made AR-30 Adjustable Stock

Took it out to the range this weekend and the stock performed well. No negatives, just shot very well. One nice thing is the adjustable cheek rest, makes the fit into the rifle a whole lot better than the factory stock.

For the rifle itself, my son shot it about 600 rounds during that week long class and had no issues. He was able to make some nice hits out to about 675 yds using reloads with the Sierra 168 gr BTHPs. We reloaded some of the 175s and tried them this weekend but don't have enough experience to comment yet. He generally likes the rifle and really appreciates the muzzle brake. Firing next to him, I don't care for it as much :) but it seems to really help with the recoil. Have a Vortex Viper FFP mounted on that and had no issues with the rifle or the scope at all. Given the amount of shooting we did in 5 days that seemed like pretty good performance to us.
 
Re: Home made AR-30 Adjustable Stock

Im glad to hear it, yea i liked at it a second time and for some strange reason it looked alum. to steel. sorry glad it worked!!

Where theirs a need their is a salutation waiting to be found. i applaud you