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Hello, and OH MAN!

You can do a lot with a plastic stock if you have the right filler. Bondo and paint will let you build it up or cut it down and fill in, and it'll still be light. You can add plastic fibers or buy fiber-filled plastic body filler like Gorilla Hair, which can be used to fill thick areas. Roughen the heck out of any surface you want it to stick to.

The plastic stock on my Savage target rifle was functional, but just too light. I filled the hollow plastic buttstock with aquarium sand and a few ounces of lead to add stability and reduce recoil.

The lead is right under the buttplate, to give the highest polar moment of inertia without excess weight.

If two guns weigh the same, and the mass is concentrated at the center of one, but more distributed toward butt and muzzle on the second, the second will have a higher polar moment of inertia. It can weigh exactly the same, but take more effort to sweep.

In other words, the higher the "polar moment" is, the harder it is to change the aim direction, so the more stable it is on target.
 
Yes, exactly right.

A good gyroscope has the weight on the rim. not by the axle. That gives it a high polar moment of inertia. That means it doesn't spin easily. But once you get it going it has a lot of momentum and it just keeps going and going.

A Porsche has as much weight as possible toward the middle of the car. Because of the low polar moment, it steers very fast, and doesn't tend to spin out easily.

A majorette's baton has rubber weights on each end which make it spin slower, so it's easier to toss about and catch. Because one end is usually smaller, it doesn't spin about the exact center. That makes it easier to count the revolutions when you toss it up.
 
From your description, I had pictured crotch rockets (I used to ride and race). The gyroscopic effect of the spinning wheels is what keeps bikes up, and more stable at higher speeds. But the same force is what causes bikes to basically detonate when they're thrown off their lines. Those same forces then cause the bike to tear itself apart from the displaced energy.

I remember this cool science experiment from school when I was a kid.

We stood on some kids toy that would spin in a circle (I think it was a Sit-N-Spin). You'd hold a bicycle wheel at the axle (which was longer than normal). The teacher then spun the bike wheel really fast. While it was upright, there was no movement from you standing on the spinning kids toy.
But if you turn the wheel, all of that force was transferred through you, down to the toy, and it would spin you in the direction the wheel was angled. But due to the gyroscopic forces of the spinning bike wheel, it was fairly difficult to actually turn the spinning bike wheel.
 
cmcdonald said:
Your "budget AR" is better than my non-existent AR! So I insist on pics when you take possession!
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Well, if you knew my reputation as a braggart you wouldn't be in doubt about this. Those photos will be up before the AR even leaves the shop.

:rolleyes:
 
What he didn't mention was that it was a flat bottom boat with a shallow draft to navigate rivers. As such, it didn't handle heavy seas well. Trust me, we were like a cork in a bottle.
 
That is awesome. I have had that experience with S&W every time, but to see Mossberg do it too is great.

Congrats on getting even closer to exactly what you want it to be.
 
Keeping you posted. As mentioned, Mossberg said they would send me a new stock. No problem. That was almost 2 weeks ago and still no stock. I'm thinking they need to find a new shipping service. I could have driven there and back in less time. I'm still trying to figure out why it cracked in the first place.
 
Gun manufacturers are busy as hell right now. This has been a record time for gun sales.
 
Frank McCarthy said:
Keeping you posted. As mentioned, Mossberg said they would send me a new stock. No problem. That was almost 2 weeks ago and still no stock. I'm thinking they need to find a new shipping service. I could have driven there and back in less time. I'm still trying to figure out why it cracked in the first place.
Click to expand...

In this case, it's more likely that the stock was never shipped in the first place. They are great with solutions, but often not so good with follow through. You might give them a call or email to check in on it...
 
So I called them this morning. It hasn't shipped yet. It'll ship today. I asked what happened and she couldn't give me an explanation. Customer service is great, but apparently, their shipping dept. needs help. I'd still like to know why the stock split in the first place. It split on top, right behind the safety.
 
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Don't have mine in front of me, but isn't there a seam along the top centerline of the stock? Could have just been a manufacturing defect...
 
I bought it used and as near as I can figure, the gun is about 2-2 1/2 years old. It was obviously shot quite a bit, so I would think if was going to fail, it would have by now. It's the synthetic, pistol grip style.
 
Only thing I can think of is that the stock bolt could have been overtightened. If the bolt and washer put a small crack in the stock where it attaches to the receiver, it may have slowly begun to split upward over time under the stress of recoil...
 
That was my thought as well LES, a possibility. @Frank, glad mossbrtg was able to fix your issue. I know they were very helpful when I needed to change out my cartridge stop and interrupter but it did take like 3+ weeks to get and I did have to call again to see what the status of the parts were.
 
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Yeah, they were great when I had to send mine back. They were also great when I told them about the stock. After 2 weeks of waiting, I called and they hadn't shipped it yet. I was promised that it went out last Thursday.
 
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