Homemade stocks

A few of us went to a youth prone match today and as with any trip to another club, you learn so many little things.

Ok, this is an equipment centric post, sorry.  Getting youth to shoot should not be focused on equipment!  But....we need to have functioning equipment first right?  One of the guns I always suggest when they ask me what to get for a youth is the CZ Scout.  It is light weight (5.5 lbs), small and amazingly accurate for the money.  I am not current on the whole CZ marketing strategy as the move from the 452 action to the 455.  Based their website, the Scout is still based on the proven 452 action which is a good thing! Any used or new Scout will work.

Other than a Cricket, it is the smallest, commonly available 22LR for youth today weiging in at 5 lbs vs the Cricket's 2.5 lbs.

The purpose of this post is to share my story with making a youth silhouette stock.  The take away can be; how easy it is to make a quick and dirty stock as well as how you can make a stock to help withe head position, cheek weld.

Material was to pieces of Baltic birch plywood glued up.  Cut the blanks to the desired profile before gluing them.  Rout out the inlet and bed (fit) by using

bondo.  No need to get fancy.  the hardest part is keeping the "depth" of the stock the same as the factory stock so the factory action screws and metal fit on the new stock just as they did on the old stock.  Measure twice, cut once.

Then get out a rasp and a cold beverage of your choice and shape the stock.  The next day sand, file, rasp and repeat for the right size.  If I were to do mine again I would make the "wrist" of the stock smaller.  Otherwise, it works great.

To the right, if you look closely, you can see the bondo.  Bed the action with bondo and save yourself inletting in plywood.  Not fun!  It took me a work week of evenings to get this stock made.  Then let the shooter pick out their favorite color at the store and have some fun.  Always make it fun!

The shape of this stock lets the kid get the heel of the stock into their shoulder while also getting their head holding the stock and gun more steady.

It does not need to be beautiful.  if they can get their head in the right position and hold the gun with more bone on bone support and less "muscle" hold, they will be far more excited with the results. 

Next up on the Scout is figuring out how to put iron sights and a rail on it!  We saw a Scout fitted with an aftermarket rail and iron sights and it looked like a very promising 5.5 lb target gun for 3P.  Or, if your child is bigger and ready for a gun ready for 3P, you can buy a CM-2 Youth aka Cadet. Here is some info on these guns but they weigh 7.2 lbs and now we are getting into a heavier gun.