M&P 15-22 ACE stock installed and tested

Gator9329

That Guy
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I have the S&W 15-22 with the pinned stock. It really was a piece of crap stock. I wanted to change it out.

To start, I drove out the roll pin in the stock with a drift punch. I think I heard the rifle sigh with relief as I released it from bondage. The adjustable butt stock came right off like a standard adjustable stock would. What I had left was a polymer lower with a buffer tube that was molded into it. The lower and the tube were one piece made in the same mold. The buffer tube had a ridge along the bottom where the collapsible stock rides. It has six detents in it where the stock would lockup.

I figured that I would have to ad some length to the tube and get rid of the rib to make the ACE fit. I decided to couple the plastic buffer with a short cut off end of a donor aluminum buffer tube to give me the length I need. The plastic buffer tube is hollow. It’s .877 I.D. and 1” O.D. . The aluminum scrap buffer tube I had was 1.14” (O.D.) and 1” (I.D.). It fit up really nice.

Now I needed to make these two pieces fit together. I found a piece of aluminum bar stock in the scrap pile that was long enough and was 1” (O.D.). I figured I could use a piece of hard wood dowel from home depot or a rod of delron instead to make life easier, but I went with the aluminum. I bet either of those would be a great option (It’s only a .22).

The fitment was close enough that you could do this with a file or grinder. It doesn’t have to be too critical. This is only going to be put inside the tubes to couple them. I cut the plug to length and press fit it into the polymer buffer tube on the lower. The end cap of the aluminum tube press fit on nice and tight.

I took my grinder to the rib that ran along the bottom of the polymer tube. I ground it down until I was close to the radius of the rest of the tube. I then used a file to finish it. The ace stock has a round nub that protrudes from the front of the stock to keep the stock from rotating once installed. I could see I was going to need a dremil with a burr tip. I used a fine tip burr to cut out a recess for the nub on the stock. It took a few tries to get it to fit up right.

I am very happy with the outcome. It looks like it could have come from the factory. It fits my shoulder much better. The length of pull is perfect. The best part now is it doesn’t rattle like ****ty ****ty bang bang anymore. The rifle feels really solid.

Total time to do it was about 2 hours. If I did it again I would use a maple dowel instead of the aluminum.

Range report = Shot like a dream. I could get a real good cheek weld on the new stock. The red dot no longer required the half inch riser. I put through a mortgage payment of .22lr and it ran fine.
Cheerz

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Was wondering when you were going to post up some pics of that. Too bad you didn't post any pics of the aluminum rod we made (well, I turned, you watched and drank beer [laugh]).
 
Yeah I didn't get any pictures of it. My focus was other places at that point.
Thanks again for the help with that.
 
It does feel really solid. The fact that we have to have fixed stocks sucks enough. having one that rattled was even worse. I have seen others upgrade to better quality adjustable stocks but you still have to still and pin them.[sad]
 
I had one of those gen4 socom stocks I thing they had a hex screw at the top that you can tighten to lock it in place. At least thats what I thought it did never did get around to using the thing on a real firearm.
 
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