Beware of weakly mounted sling studs

[Wapiti]

Just a heads up for those who might not be aware of how there are two ways to mount sling studs into a rifle's forend.
There's the cheap, easy, relatively weak way of using a wood-type screw, like is used in the butt mounting position, and the stronger way which is to use a captive, countersunk nut on the inside of the forend, with the stud itself having a fine machine thread.
Then there's the bomb-proof way such as in a HS Precision stock, which used machine threads that are screwed into a hidden, moulded-in aluminium rail from the tip of the forend down to the butt. Impossible to rip out.

Anyway, yesterday I was shooting Minah birds that are trying to move in here, and on packing up and punching in the code to the house safe I dropped the rifle.
It had a Magpul bipod mounted to the front stud. The bipod hit the timber floor first, and ripped the screw right out of the plastic. The hit on the wooden floor pulled the threaded plastic right out. It cannot go back in again.
See the bipod here with the short, wood-thread type screw still in it.

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This is a Ruger American 17HMR, a very accurate rifle, I reckon the absolute king of economy rimfires and sh*ts on virtually anything else in its price point, a perfect farm rifle like this in stainless. This thing shoots hundreds of rounds between cleaning, and just keeps on shooting pinpoint and taking out every bird. With some very good accuracy-enhancing bedding features like the moulded in stainless steel V-blocks to bed the action, and a completely solid polymer stock. Very bombproof bit of kit, except for this incredibly crappy cheap afterthought of how the stud is screwed into the plastic forend. What a way to screw up an otherwise tough-as rimfire!
Here, shown completely stripped out. No chance of putting the stud back in as it is.

stripped.hole.jpg (692.98 KiB) Viewed 95 times

So fellas, if you get your rifle out of the stock, check these studs are screwed into a countersunk nut on the inside. If not, take bloody care not to swing a rifle around with a sling stud installed like this, or you might be sorry.
As it was, the Leupold VX-Freedom 3-9x33 Rimfire scope (rimfire range parallax) hadn't moved at all. Lucky me.

[Die Judicii]

Of all people to be caught out by that, I thought you'd have been well aware.
I've been drilling and counter sinking to accommodate nyloc nuts in stock fore ends since I was 17 yo.
I have also at times turned up studs from scratch out of steel and blueing them, or using stainless 304.
But nowadays I have no need of slings or bipods, and have simply removed most studs altogether.

[JDM9691]

I'd imagine JB weld or some king of epoxy would be a quick fix, or are you going to do a propper job?

My sling studs have been fine but be wary of cheap slings. I had my rifle slung over my shoulder, and the metal attaching point of the sling snapped. s**t metal, or just not enough for my 5kg rig. I was slung muzzle up and thankfully I managed to prevent it from swinging into the ground.
Hardly surprising that that cheap slings have cheap hardware - guess I should have known.

[Wapiti]

Of all people to be caught out by that, I thought you'd have been well aware.
I've been drilling and counter sinking to accommodate nyloc nuts in stock fore ends since I was 17 yo.
I have also at times turned up studs from scratch out of steel and blueing them, or using stainless 304.
But nowadays I have no need of slings or bipods, and have simply removed most studs altogether.

Yeah you're right, criticism taken, fair cop.
After buying the thing years ago, and another in 22WMR, I just made sure the barrel was properly free floating and never looked at the thing further.
As I mentioned with the bedding, and how impressed I was with the whole thing as a rimfire for the money, I just never thought of it.

[Wapiti]

I'd imagine JB weld or some king of epoxy would be a quick fix, or are you going to do a propper job?

My sling studs have been fine but be wary of cheap slings. I had my rifle slung over my shoulder, and the metal attaching point of the sling snapped. s**t metal, or just not enough for my 5kg rig. I was slung muzzle up and thankfully I managed to prevent it from swinging into the ground.
Hardly surprising that that cheap slings have cheap hardware - guess I should have known.

JD, I don't have any faith that JB weld will work here, that kind of polymer just doesn't lend itself to anything sticking to it. Not well enough for me to trust it anyway. The poly of the stock that had the threads formed into it when the original stud was screwed in, is gone now.

I will just use a swivel kit and use out of it the threaded nut and tapped threaded stud that comes with it. Hopefully the hole is not too big to allow the little round, knurled nut to be countersunk in from the top, to hold secure.
The stock at the bottom there where the stud was screwed into at the factory is quite thick, the stud is just short of about 13mm long and didn't stick out into the barrel channel. Plenty of meat there, but the poly just wasn't up to a drop with the bipod on.
The bipod is unscathed.

If the nuts that come in those cheapie kits are too small for a proper hold from the inside, I'll just inlet in a small plate that I'll thread with the correct tap - I already bought this tap for some other project I've done.

The main thing is for people to be aware of this, and not the sling putt out on a heavier rifle when moving about hunting, rip out and end up with an expensive scope smashing on a rock.

[Fester]

I should do my.223 Weatherby Vanguard, as I have been carrying it around with a claw sling, and it's not a light rifle.

I wouldn't trust the wood screw stud for much more than a sling, TBH.

I used to remove the front stud so it didn't stick into the stand bag, or worse, wreck the bag.
I never over-tightened the stud when re-fitting, just snugged it up when aligned.
The bugger still feels like the plastic thread is semi-stripped.