Krater:

I just finished refinishing an old single shot 22 that I intend to give to my nephew when he gets old enough, and I took the opportunity to make a small modification.

I drilled 5, 1/4" holes into the base of the stock where they will be covered by the buttplate, and then took my reloading case reamer and slightly reamed the top of each hole. now, I can fit 5 22LR shell flush into the stock and when reassembled, the gun will never be without a small supply of survival ammo when it goes to the field.

I plan on doing this to a couple of other wooden stock rifles also soon in larger calibers.

Great idea. If the ammo is sealed reasonably well from water it should last a very long time. I would recommend changing out the ammo every year or so just to keep it fresh though.

The best use for this reamed out area in most rifles with wood stocks is for a few spare parts.

Other necessary weapons mods: sand down, re-seal and varnish the wood of stocks. This helps to keep moisture and water out of the wood which WILL affect your accuracy. (too many water crossings to remember)

Any weapon that you can afford to, have parkerized. Won't rust like regular blueing does. On AR's this isn't a problem, on AK's it is (O.k. Mikhails ONE failure!)a problem.

Spare parts: keep vital spare parts like firing pin, firing pin spring, extractor, ejector, springs for both, gas rings (for AR's) ON BOARD the weapon. Both full stock AK's and full stock AR's have room in buttstock for these. On a AK you can fit a firing pin, extractor spring and another (??Have to go look) spring in the cleaning kit in the stock. Another nifty item to have it a complete bolt assembly. Let's face it, IF a problem with a part on the bolt assembly does present itself in the field, it will likely be when you need the weapon the most, hence, you will need to change it out quick. Keep a complete bolt assembly in your ruck or on your LBE. It's a whole lot quicker to swap out an entire bolt than to fool around with small springs. That gets your weapon up and running fast and gets you back into the action. You can always can out the busted part in the other bolt later, when time permits.

A cleaning kit kept ON BOARD the weapon is a must also, with a more thorough kit kept in your gear.

Other than that it's up to the shooter and the overall reliability of the piece.

I did the same thing w/m .22 single shot, which I got for my 8th birthday. I wasn't real bright though; wrapped them in alum. foil and when I remembered them about 15 years later, after numerous rainy, wet hunts they didn't look real good. All of them fired (more or less), but it could have been a wasted effort.

Return to The Alpha Group Web Page