Texturing a fiberglass stock

Many fiberglass stocks have fairly slick surfaces. Some have textured paint or webbing that allows positive gripping in slippery conditions. Some, like McMillan Fiberglass Stocks, can be ordered from the factory with textured grip surfaces. Some stocks are smooth. In this post, I’m going to apply a textured epoxy grip surface to an HS Precision Remington 700 Police Synthetic Sniper (PSS) stock.

The stock shown in this post is a rescue. I bought it off the internet in poor shape with big plans for its future. It is a HS Precision Model PST012, the most popular stock they make. It is finished in black paint with some texture speckles. Other than these small bumps, it is a fairly slick stock. Handling a rifle in this stock with wet or sweaty hands might be difficult. To remedy this condition, I’ll apply textured surfaces to the pistol grip and fore end of the stock.

In the pictures above you can get a feel for the condition of the stock and what the paint texture looked like.

For this project I am using the following supplies from Brownells:

Before we begin, please take some time to read this disclaimer:

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Any modifications made to a firearm should be made by a licensed gunsmith. Failure to do so may void warranties and result in an unsafe firearm and may cause injury or death.

Modifications to a firearm may result in personal injury or death, cause the firearm to not function properly, or malfunction, and cause the firearm to become unsafe.

Prior to beginning work, it is important to determine which areas the texture should be applied to. To prep the stock for the textured surface, the areas are degreased with alcohol and sanded with some 150 grit sandpaper.

I use 1″ and 2″ wide blue painter’s tape to layout the areas I plan on texturing.

To ease the transitions in the corners I cut a small radius with a razor blade. I used a Sharpie cap as a guide.

Masking the pistol grip area is a little more involved. Since the blue painter’s taper won’t bend smoothly with the contours in the stock. I mask off the the edges of the pistol grip areas with 1/4″ 3M fine line tape. This is a specialty product from the automotive painting industry that works very well. I mask the front edge of the pistol grip. I don’t like texture on the front, only the sides.

I like to use Marine-tex epoxy on my fiberglass stocks. It is easy to work with, clean up and machine.

This is how I plan on working on the stock, I grabbed the muzzle break in the vise so I can rotate the entire rifle around when I work on it. I always leave a garbage can under the work when I am using epoxy.

I use a wooden stock to spread the epoxy evenly over the areas I’d like to texture.

After everything has an even layer of epoxy, it is time to texture it. Back when I used Steel bed, I would wait a couple of hours and use a tongue depressor for this. With Marine-tex, I just use my finger in a disposable glove.

Once the surfaces are textured, it is time to CAREFULLY remove the tape. Slow and steady is the secret here. I use a wet finger to carefully blend the edges.