Over the years, I have learned that when at all possible, use machinery. It will save you many hours of frustration and anger, although it can cause you just as many if you fail to properly go about the job. I use a small knee type vertical mill with a special jig I made up to hold stocks. The drill bit is aligned with a another drill bit or pointed rod, then the stock is positioned so the correct angle is achieved, and it gets drilled. Its also nice to have a large assortment of drills because tang screws come in many different sizes. You dont want your tang screw hole to be much larger or the recoil can split the stock, you also dont want it extremely tight, as wood shrinks and swells, it could also split the stock and taking out the screw becomes a pain in a$$. For shorter holes, I often use a hand drill like Yeti describes. I think one of brownells gunsmith kinks books shows a picture of the drilling process. Its a safe and accurate way of doing it, but you have to make sure you set everything up right, otherwise you will end up with problems.
