Making a bullpup stock

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airgunutty

airgunutty

Member
Dec 1, 2024
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Stilwell oklahoma
Hello I've been working on building a bull style stock to put underneath my hatsan at44. I don't have a plethora of tools or skills to attempt this latest adventure. What I have done so far is to start 3 times and failed 3 times. But each restart was due to different problems and each time I start over I carry that knowledge over to the next. So now I'm on #4 and I'm further along than I have been with my other attempts. The trigger linkage is where the journey takes an abrupt stop. It's close but not right. Spongy sticky stiff are some of the polite words I use to describe it. I WILL FIGURE IT OUT but I did have to step back and leave the trigger for another day. So I did some work on the exterior. A little premature to do the outside before I have the insides working. Hopefully it won't be another lesson of what not to do on the next one. Anyway here's a few pictures of my progress. Let me know what you think. If anyone reading this has done this particular project I would really like to hear from you on possible solutions to trigger linkage hurdles.

Anyway thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you have a good day.

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airgunutty said:
Hello I've been working on building a bull style stock to put underneath my hatsan at44. I don't have a plethora of tools or skills to attempt this latest adventure. What I have done so far is to start 3 times and failed 3 times. But each restart was due to different problems and each time I start over I carry that knowledge over to the next. So now I'm on #4 and I'm further along than I have been with my other attempts. The trigger linkage is where the journey takes an abrupt stop. It's close but not right. Spongy sticky stiff are some of the polite words I use to describe it. I WILL FIGURE IT OUT but I did have to step back and leave the trigger for another day. So I did some work on the exterior. A little premature to do the outside before I have the insides working. Hopefully it won't be another lesson of what not to do on the next one. Anyway here's a few pictures of my progress. Let me know what you think. If anyone reading this has done this particular project I would really like to hear from you on possible solutions to trigger linkage hurdles.

Anyway thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you have a good day.

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Nice idea with the metal flat stock , nice job so far .
 
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Nice work and remember no one makes something new perfect on the first try. Take airgus for example.....if they got it right the first time there would never be a reason for the next model. Ive had lots of hobbies everything from knife making to woodworking to leatherwork. One lesson ive learned is before i use expensive material ill make several prototypes out of cheap easily acquired material. Ive been wanting to make a stock for years and ill prolly make one out of pine from my saw mill. After all if it dosent work out ive made saw dust and firewood and hopefully learned along the way. Ive made several folding knives out of plexiglass just to see if id like the shape and style. Morale of the story have fun and learn and try to keep prototyps as cheap as you can till your confident and step up to expensive materials. Ive beed making all kinds of stuff for decades and still enjoy something handmade that was my own creation
 
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markhooper said:
I might be able to help you with ideas on how to fix your linkage but I need pictures of what you are attempting to do.. what you are using and how you are attaching it..
I like the looks of your stock.. I've never handled a bullpup, just not my style gun..
your welcome to PM me if you want to.

Mark
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Thank you. I'll PM you later this evening. Here's a couple of photos of this latest configuration. I'll do better pics with an easier to see background later..

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I've made 5 stocks for my 4 bullpups that came with plastic stocks so far. The first one was glued up scraps of softwood. I still have it. I wanted my hand further away from the trigger so I modified it with a glued on block and some bondo and painted it black. Not the prettiest but it works. Two are cherry, and 3 are glued up pieces of old church pews.

I make furniture and do finish carpentry as a hobby so I have lots of tools. But I could do the inletting with either my drill press with forstener bits or, preferably, a plunge router. If you do not have a router I would get one. The Skill combo kit (fixed and plunge bases with one motor) gets good reviews and is about $150. I saw a Wen on Amazon for just over $80. It would probably work, the motor is big enough. Whenever possible you want 1/2 inch shank bits because 1/4 inch shank bits slip in the collet which can ruin your project.

With a plunge router you want to make a U shaped cradle for your stock blank for the router to ride on. You will clamp or wedge the blank securely to the cradle before routing on it. An edge guide will guide the router so you can cut a straight line at the necessary depth. It's best to take "small bites", not try to remove too much in one pass. With a half inch wide bit no more than 1/4 inch at a time. A plunge router with some chisels to square up things should do most of the work. If you google doing mortises with a plunge router you should find useful videos illustrating this. Mortises are essentially what you need to do. You may need a half round bit for the barrel channel too. You can do mortises with a cheap straight bit but one made for plunging will cut better. Or you can drill out part of the waste.

For exterior shaping I like a flapper wheel on a right angle grinder. No need for anything fancy in the way of brands. Harbor Freight is fine for this tool. Be careful, it will remove wood quickly. 100 grit should be coarse enough.
 
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JimD said:
I've made 5 stocks for my 4 bullpups that came with plastic stocks so far. The first one was glued up scraps of softwood. I still have it. I wanted my hand further away from the trigger so I modified it with a glued on block and some bondo and painted it black. Not the prettiest but it works. Two are cherry, and 3 are glued up pieces of old church pews.

I make furniture and do finish carpentry as a hobby so I have lots of tools. But I could do the inletting with either my drill press with forstener bits or, preferably, a plunge router. If you do not have a router I would get one. The Skill combo kit (fixed and plunge bases with one motor) gets good reviews and is about $150. I saw a Wen on Amazon for just over $80. It would probably work, the motor is big enough. Whenever possible you want 1/2 inch shank bits because 1/4 inch shank bits slip in the collet which can ruin your project.

With a plunge router you want to make a U shaped cradle for your stock blank for the router to ride on. You will clamp or wedge the blank securely to the cradle before routing on it. An edge guide will guide the router so you can cut a straight line at the necessary depth. It's best to take "small bites", not try to remove too much in one pass. With a half inch wide bit no more than 1/4 inch at a time. A plunge router with some chisels to square up things should do most of the work. If you google doing mortises with a plunge router you should find useful videos illustrating this. Mortises are essentially what you need to do. You may need a half round bit for the barrel channel too. You can do mortises with a cheap straight bit but one made for plunging will cut better. Or you can drill out part of the waste.

For exterior shaping I like a flapper wheel on a right angle grinder. No need for anything fancy in the way of brands. Harbor Freight is fine for this tool. Be careful, it will remove wood quickly. 100 grit should be coarse enough.
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Thank you very much for taking the time to comment and offer suggestions. But I am disabled and on a limited budget. I have less than $10 invested in this project so far. That's including the bipod that I got for $6.

Thanks again for the suggestions though.
 
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Ranchibi said:
Looking really good!
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Thank you. I like how it is turning out so far. Something caught my eye that I wasn't going for. To me it kinda looks like a shark. The indentions on the fore grip resemble gills and the butt stock looks like a tail kinda. So I think this is going to be a Hatsan BullShark. 😃 hahaha or another kind of BullS if I don't get the trigger linkage to get with the program.
 
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I like the idea of the modular stock with bolt on components. I'm not quite sold on the flat stock pistol grip, but what I've found making stocks in the past is that they're very time consuming and you have to be very careful that you don't make any mistakes along the way. With a stock that was make up of multiple pieces, not only would you be able to easily change it's appearance, but you could work much faster since if you made a mistake it would only affect a small portion of the work.
 
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Well I got it to work. I still need to iron out a few wrinkles but it works. One thing I hadn't considered was how much it threw off my scope. I made my own rail extension and didn't give it any additional height hoping to just push my zeroed scope forward and go with it. Not so much. About 15in. high. I'll have to shim the front ring and that should square that issue.

I really had to clear my mind to get it wrapped around the trigger and in the end its the fine tuning of the parts to make each section smooth.

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Well I got it to work. I still have a couple of things to iron out but it's working. I am so stoked. Waiting for paint to cure and then I'll put it together. The problems are there is a bit of slop at the front portion of the trigger linkage near the dummy blade but that's fixed by reducing the space that the rod travels in. The other issue is my rail extension. I'm attempting to use the existing screw hole that held the rear sight and a mounted nut on top of the barrel band to secure an aluminum flat strap. My hope is that by keeping my scope as close to the barrel as possible I can avoid the holdover/under issues. It may not be possible to keep it that low depending on how line of sight ends up. I tried to account for that by angling the butt stock a little low.

So what have I actually accomplished by doing this build? Well I have taken a 49.5in. rifle and reduced the overall length to 37in. and the stock is 10oz lighter than the oem stock. I feel like those are both benefits.

So the only thing left is to make sure my gun can remain a lead laser when it's sitting in it's new ride.

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It's funny how each part of this build has its own unique hurdles to overcome. Take the extension rail for example. Seems like something that would be pretty straightforward. Quite the opposite. I think that the piece I'm using is too thin because I keep warping it while trying to make the grooves to give the rings a grip area. Didn't think this was the part that would give me the most headaches. Go figure for a scope to be accurate the mounts need to be perfect as well. Hmmmm .....It's driving me crazy. So it's back to the ole drawing board. Great thing is that I'm the project manager and I don't have a deadline, so I'm still on schedule. Haha. I need a fabricator in my life. They should have 3D printing places like a kinkos type business. They probably do somewhere just not in my area.

Thank you for following my journey. I hope you all have a wonderful day.

Mike
 
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