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Magwell · March 5th, 2020, 23:06

New year... New parts!

I decided to change up a couple things on my MK46... the madbull barrel has had some light scratches on the inside since day one (arrived this way) and with a boxing week sale at Redwolf Airsoft on Prometheus Barrels, I couldn't say no. I also picked up some replacement body pins to replace the retaining nut that I lost at OP Valour 2019. Lastly I snatched up an A&K Polymer buttstock. I do like the setup shown earlier in this thread, but its just time to try something new and change up the look of the gun.

For the barrel, I dropped in a 380mm 6.03mm barrel, nearly maxing out the length an inner will fit in the outer and flash hider. FPS did jump a bit, but I was testing with no hop before/after. With hop applied the FPS jump should be minimized.

And on to the stock.. some modification is needed! The butt plate is quite different than the stock MK46 one, and the rear shoulder rest does not 'latch' in the down position and rattles around a bit. In terms of geometry, the top of the stock lines up pretty close to where the buffer tube mounted stock sat but the length is roughly the same as the 'position 3' spot on the buffer tube. When fully compressed the original setup is roughly 2" less than the poly stock.

First impressions are great. The metal on the stock is magnetic but it is soft and quite easy to file through (see below) suggesting iron or low carbon steel. The plastic looks to be a high grade polymer similar to real steel stocks. My only complaints in the construction are the sheer over design of the butt plate and that the stock is a touch loose where it meets the butt plate. After applying some masking tape to the rim where they meet this was completely eliminated though and the stock is rock solid.

So after a few hours of modification, the butt plate is a little closer to the factory one. This is important for a couple of reasons...

1. The plate does not fit properly because it is too wide, rubs quite badly trying to get it to close, will not seat with the bottom pin in and 'hinging' the plate upwards, and the rear pin does not close properly with the extra width.
2. The wires get pinched in a rear wire application, and the butt plate actually gets hung up and won't close

After testing out the rear sling mount (and not liking it) I decided to do a custom sling mount at the rear of the butt plate, similar to the buffer tube butt plate mount. I started by marking and drilling one hole in the top of the poly stock directly behind where the butt plate stops, and drilling a second one through the butt plate itself. this allows some paracord to be looped through and around the metal butt plate and then a loop pulled through the stock for the sling to mount to.

After test fitting, the plate would not close and I discovered that the paracord was pinched on the back of the gearbox. So, out come the files and sandpaper again to create a channel for the paracord to sit.

With the butt plate sorted out, it was time to look at the poly stock and rear plate. I love how much space there is in this thing, but its almost too much. The last thing anyone wants is a battery bouncing around inside the stock. So once again I grabbed some leftover foam from a Gate mosfet box, broke out the hot glue gun and secured some 1/2" foam to one side of the stock. I also tried a few things to get the rear shoulder rest to secure nicely and settled on heat shrink. The wire shoulder rest can be pulled apart by hand, and then slipped out from the holes in the stock to remove it. Three loops of gradually larger heat shrink added enough girth to allow the shoulder rest to actually 'click' into place. It's a nice satisfying sound and it will not budge until needed.

And finally the wiring needed some updating as well. With the mosfet buried deep inside the stock, a simple wire extension is used to allow a battery to be connected and then tucked into the stock.

And lastly a shot of the freshly painted stock mounted on the gun.

All in all, I like it so far. At first it's a little awkward after being so used to the previous stock, but muscle memory just needs to be updated. I found the low ready to be a little better with the length of the stock over the high ready. The corners on the 'stops' for the shoulder rest are quite sharp when they dig into your arm while lifting the butt of the gun up quickly. Some wear or filing would take care of that, but for me the issue is my arm length - my left arm needs to extend fully to get enough clearance at my shoulder. With body armour on, this will probably snag so I'll likely stick with the low ready for the most part.

March 5th, 2020, 23:06	#38
Magwell Trader rating Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: Edmonton, AB	New year... New parts! I decided to change up a couple things on my MK46... the madbull barrel has had some light scratches on the inside since day one (arrived this way) and with a boxing week sale at Redwolf Airsoft on Prometheus Barrels, I couldn't say no. I also picked up some replacement body pins to replace the retaining nut that I lost at OP Valour 2019. Lastly I snatched up an A&K Polymer buttstock. I do like the setup shown earlier in this thread, but its just time to try something new and change up the look of the gun. For the barrel, I dropped in a 380mm 6.03mm barrel, nearly maxing out the length an inner will fit in the outer and flash hider. FPS did jump a bit, but I was testing with no hop before/after. With hop applied the FPS jump should be minimized. And on to the stock.. some modification is needed! The butt plate is quite different than the stock MK46 one, and the rear shoulder rest does not 'latch' in the down position and rattles around a bit. In terms of geometry, the top of the stock lines up pretty close to where the buffer tube mounted stock sat but the length is roughly the same as the 'position 3' spot on the buffer tube. When fully compressed the original setup is roughly 2" less than the poly stock. First impressions are great. The metal on the stock is magnetic but it is soft and quite easy to file through (see below) suggesting iron or low carbon steel. The plastic looks to be a high grade polymer similar to real steel stocks. My only complaints in the construction are the sheer over design of the butt plate and that the stock is a touch loose where it meets the butt plate. After applying some masking tape to the rim where they meet this was completely eliminated though and the stock is rock solid. So after a few hours of modification, the butt plate is a little closer to the factory one. This is important for a couple of reasons... 1. The plate does not fit properly because it is too wide, rubs quite badly trying to get it to close, will not seat with the bottom pin in and 'hinging' the plate upwards, and the rear pin does not close properly with the extra width. 2. The wires get pinched in a rear wire application, and the butt plate actually gets hung up and won't close After testing out the rear sling mount (and not liking it) I decided to do a custom sling mount at the rear of the butt plate, similar to the buffer tube butt plate mount. I started by marking and drilling one hole in the top of the poly stock directly behind where the butt plate stops, and drilling a second one through the butt plate itself. this allows some paracord to be looped through and around the metal butt plate and then a loop pulled through the stock for the sling to mount to. After test fitting, the plate would not close and I discovered that the paracord was pinched on the back of the gearbox. So, out come the files and sandpaper again to create a channel for the paracord to sit. With the butt plate sorted out, it was time to look at the poly stock and rear plate. I love how much space there is in this thing, but its almost too much. The last thing anyone wants is a battery bouncing around inside the stock. So once again I grabbed some leftover foam from a Gate mosfet box, broke out the hot glue gun and secured some 1/2" foam to one side of the stock. I also tried a few things to get the rear shoulder rest to secure nicely and settled on heat shrink. The wire shoulder rest can be pulled apart by hand, and then slipped out from the holes in the stock to remove it. Three loops of gradually larger heat shrink added enough girth to allow the shoulder rest to actually 'click' into place. It's a nice satisfying sound and it will not budge until needed. And finally the wiring needed some updating as well. With the mosfet buried deep inside the stock, a simple wire extension is used to allow a battery to be connected and then tucked into the stock. And lastly a shot of the freshly painted stock mounted on the gun. All in all, I like it so far. At first it's a little awkward after being so used to the previous stock, but muscle memory just needs to be updated. I found the low ready to be a little better with the length of the stock over the high ready. The corners on the 'stops' for the shoulder rest are quite sharp when they dig into your arm while lifting the butt of the gun up quickly. Some wear or filing would take care of that, but for me the issue is my arm length - my left arm needs to extend fully to get enough clearance at my shoulder. With body armour on, this will probably snag so I'll likely stick with the low ready for the most part. __________________ Last edited by Magwell; March 5th, 2020 at 23:23..