I am about ready to tear into my stock and drill a hole for my mercury tube and am wondering if yall have any ideas as how to keep the hole in the stock at the same angle as the bore?


Joe Oakes

If you are using a drill press, with a padded vise, insert a 1x into the barrel channel in such a way that the edge extends past the jaws, with a level, plumb the stock. Drill your hole center, it will be aligned.

If you are drilling by hand, same thing, on padded bench vise. Use a hand drill with a bubble eye in the grip. Drill straight down, using a stool to stand on. Go slow and keep the eye centered in the circle, it will be close enough.

If you have access to a horizontal boring machine, plumb the stock as with the drill press. just now call it level.

Now if you have a synthetic, suggest you make very sure the stock is not hollow, by drilling a small hole first. If the stock is hollow, you will need to install a tube to hold the recoil reducer. More fun with this than you may want to get involved with.
Ed