25N stock refinish

spongejosh · Sep 10, 2012

After having a renewed interest in my Marlin 25N I decided the barrel "needed" to be floated for better accuracy. I promptly removed the stock and started sanding away. After about 20 minutes I was proud of my work and put the rifle back together...

Not enough planning showed itself when my assembled rifle acted like a see-saw. That is when I started trolling this forum for a fix or replacement stock options. I saw a thread with pics of a bedded 25 and decided I would try that before buying a Boyd's or Marlin stock.

I decided to pillar bed the receiver with brass pipe fittings and a Miles Gilbert Bedrock glass bedding kit for about $25. I also planned on refinishing the stock so I wasn't too worried about the existing finish while bedding. The finish is Minwax Special Walnut 224 stain and 4 or 5 light coats of Tru-Oil. The shine was knocked down with some steel wool.

Here's my starting point.

Bedding job from the top and bottom.

Stripped and sanded stock. Reassembled to decide if I wanted it blonde or to stain it darker.

After 1 light coat of walnut stain.

Finished rifle on the bench (as a comparison to the starting pic)

And a picture of it in the sun after a day at the range.

spongejosh · Sep 10, 2012

Also some non stock related upgrades I did were polishing the trigger and experimenting with some springs to get it where I like it. I removed the front sight post and fashioned a plug out of the stock screw so the hole is filled. The cheek rest is made out of some 1/4" ABS plastic molded with a heat gun and sanded to shape.

Thanks to all of you guys that posted up similar threads and "how to's". I probably wouldn't have attempted this if I hadn't found this website.

mals9 · Sep 11, 2012

That turned out very nice. How does it shoot with the pillars and bedding?

Mals

spongejosh · Sep 11, 2012

Thanks! It shoots pretty good. I didn't shoot any fancy match ammo for groups but it shoots well with MiniMags. I was able to make some 1.5" groups at 100 yards in the wind.

This last weekend my wife wanted to try shooting it for the first time and she was able to hit 2.5"x6" p-dog targets out to 150 yds. She was making perfect cloverleafs in the 35yd target.

Francotirador · Sep 11, 2012

can you show in a pic?

Can you show where you drilled the hole on the action?
How did you drill it?

That there is great work!

Thanks Franc.

spongejosh · Sep 12, 2012

I just drilled where the original wood screw was. My rifle didn't have the rear take down screw or the hole in the receiver. I had to drill/tap the receiver and drill out the stock.

I'll try to explain it since I forgot to take pictures of the process.

1. Take receiver off the stock.
2. Remove the trigger guard.
3. Put the bare stock upside down on a drill press, make sure everything is square and drill all the way through the stock where the original front trigger guard screw hole is. I used a smaller bit for this like 1/8". You really want the hole to be close fitting to the punch you will use to mark the receiver.
4. Reassemble the rifle minus the trigger guard.
5. Find a punch that fits through your newly drilled hole in the stock and punch the receiver so you know here to drill that.
6. Disassemble rifle and drill the receiver where your punch marked it.
7. Tap hole in receiver.
8. Drill the hole in the stock out to an appropriate size for your pillar.

Next time I have the whole thing apart I can take more pictures.

Francotirador · Sep 13, 2012

Thank you

That works!

Great work again.

Here is mine! 50yd shot.

:bthumb:

25N stock refinish

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