Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Mauser build for my son

I'm starting work on a 'custom' Mauser for my youngest son. I'm late getting it done for him, since he's 23 now. This was intended to be done several years ago, and was to be his 'first' deer rifle. Well, for lots of reasons I'm just getting to it. But before I get to the new build, I thought I would show my last build. This rifle was for my middle son, and I completed it several years ago.





This started as a Yugo Mauser barreled action, I didn't have a complete rifle. I swapped barrels to a sporter, I think it was a short chambered unit from Brownells, in 6.5x55. Welded on a new bolt handle, drilled and tapped, new trigger with side safety, and put that into a wood laminate stock from Richard's. I put his initials in the grip cap. The metal was finished with Norrells Moly Resin in black and dark grey.

Looking at this one now, to me anyway, it looks a bit blocky in the stock. I think there is lots of fat I could clean up. He likes it.

But now it's time to get started on my youngest's rifle.

I like it. TY for sharing

The current project started with a Greek FN 30 barreled action I bought. Honestly, I only bought it because it had the FN markings on the side, I had no idea it was Greek until I got it and started researching. Someone had already put a new barrel on, and it looked like they tried to take it off with a pipe wrench. It had no caliber markings, so of course it's gone.






I pulled out this stock, I bought it over 25 years go for a Mauser build for myself that never happened. I'm almost certain this is from Richards Microfit. I also seem to remember that I bought Claro Walnut, but this doesn't look like Claro to me now.

Following along

So here is my plan and set of intentions. I want this to be a 'classic' hunting rifle. I'm not up on exactly which era to say it's a classic copy of, but I can say it's defiantly pre-California style disco stocks with thumbholes, rollover cheek pieces and contrasting wood inlays. Now, understand, I have a couple of those that have been passed down to me and there's nothing wrong with them, but it's not the style for this rifle.
I guess what I'm aiming for style wise is late 40's to 50's style custom. Something that Jack O'Conner would be happy with. On that note, this will be chambered in .270 Winchester. I have a Lothar Walther stainless barrel.
The plan is: 24" stainless barrel in .270, 3-position side safety from Dakota, hinged trigger guard, tastefully classic walnut stock with Ebony or other dark wood forend tip, epoxy grip cap with inlaid initials. The metal will be finished in Norell's Moly-Resin, and the stock will be made as waterproof as possible and finished with an oil finish.

Along the way, I'm open to suggestions and comments. I'm doing all the work myself because I'm a glutton for punishment.

It sounds like you covered all of the bases. I like bolt handles that lock in place when put into safe and stocks thin in the forend and wrist with an open grip. Nice piece of walnut. Personally I’d go chromoly for the barrel but just my personal choice given the classic action and nicely figured stock.

Jack O'Connor liked his barrels to be 22" and the weight with scope to be right on 8 lbs for his .270's. He had heavier ones at first but eventually settled on 8 lbs.

Doing most of the work on weekends and odd afternoons around my real job. I took the barrel off and stripped the action. I turned a quick fixture to face the receiver in the lathe.

The bolt that came with it was straight. I cut it off as close to the root as I could and replaced it with a new handle. This is in the old stock just for looks to see how the angle is.



The military floorplate needed to be modified so the bolt would close on an empty chamber without pushing it down. I marked it and took it to the grinder.






I decided to leave the charger hump. I found some Leupold bases that fit over the hump. Drilled and tapped front and back. The reason for leaving the hump is 2 fold; first I have removed them in the past and I'm not sure I like the overall look. Second, I'm going for an early model sporter, so it just seemed 'right' to leave it.

I also decided to taper the tang in the grip area to give the grip a slimmer more graceful profile. My biggest decision was exactly where to profile from. I decided to mount the safety to the bolt and mark the tang at the far edge of the safety shroud. I am trying to avoid an unsightly gap under the shroud when viewed from the side. I marked it with sharpie and then put a piece of tape around the tang so I could grind it.



From that point I decided to taper it to the bottom of the slot for the striker.


And after:



and in comparison with a military tang:

Very cool.

Hell yeah, nice work! What's it getting chambered in.

Will you be doing any work on the threads, lug seats and other such?

This will be in 'classic' .270 Winchester.

The threads are in great shape, the raceway has already been polished. Lugs have been lapped.

I was just wondering how far down the "blueprinting" rabbit hole you might go.

I'm not a machinist, so please correct me if anything I say here is wrong. I'm out to learn.

What I believe I understand: Since you turned a fixture to face the action you have established the receiver threads in their present state to be the reference. Skimming the action face in that set-up then makes the plane of the action face perpendicular to the centerline of the receiver threads. It follows then that a carefully machined barrel tenon will snug up evenly against the action face with no binding or misalignment. Sounds good to me.

Here are my questions: How parallel and concentric is the receiver thread centerline with the rest of the action body? Are the bolt lug seats on one plane, and is this plane parallel the the plane of the action face? How does the plane of the bolt face relate to the others?

Mad skills sir!

I think that what you believe you understand is indeed correct.
As far as your questions, honestly I can't answer them but I will comment on them and remember this is from my perspective and there are many other perspectives.

This is a Mauser and will be a hunting rifle, not a target rifle. It is my personal belief that a true 1.5 m.o.a rifle is all that is needed in a hunting rifle. I have taught my children to hunt the same way I hunt, by first enjoying the experience even if no game is taken, and second to have respect for the game and realistic expectations of yourself and your equipment. To that end I don't believe I am capable of ethically taking game past 3-400 yards, although I can shoot farther and hit the target quite often. At 400 yards a true 1.5 m.o.a. rifle will hit within 6 inches of where I point it, and that's good enough for hunting. It won't win any target competitions that I know of though. I have tried to instill in my children the same level of responsibility. If at some point my son decides he needs to be able to take longer shots on game, I will advise him to get a different rifle. Actually I'll advise him to practice stalking, camouflage and patience first and after that if he still thinks he needs to make longer shots to possibly get another rifle to do it with.

The truing of the action that you speak of are, in my opinion, much more appropriate to a target rifle where those modifications can make the differences in tenth's of inches needed. And in this case, I don't have the capability to make them. I also have to keep in mind that this is a sporterized military action. It was never made to the tolerances necessary to make the modifications you ask about worthwhile.

One thing you asked about I will do to an extent, but from the point of view of reliability. The fixture I made in the lathe to face the receiver had another function. I bored it out on center while in the lathe and then turned a concentric shaft to fit perfectly in it. The end of the shaft I have threaded to accept a screw. With that fixture I can screw it into the receiver and use the brass shaft to face the boltface while the bolt is locked to the action. This will (I hope) help make feeding smooth and reliable. I can also use the fixture with a flat disk attached to the shaft to face the inner "C" face I think it is called where the barrel actually tightens against. This will keep the breech of the barrel flat and concentric to the receiver, threads, bolt face.

There are several little things like this I'm doing because I can and they don't take much effort. I'm not going for blueprinted at all.

Someday I think I would like to build a rifle that I do the 'full meal deal' on, but if I do it won't be on a Mauser.

Thanks for filling me in. Like I said I'm no machinist but I am curious about how people do these things. I also understand the mechanical version of "horses for courses". I know you're not building a benchrest rifle. Nevertheless I believe you'll beat 1.5 moa.

I'm amidst a similar project for my daughter with a 1909. However, since I am not a machinist, I am dependent upon the expertise of another to bring the vision to life.

The 'full meal deal' as I call it is a different animal. You almost have to start with an unfinished action. It takes fixtures to measure from and set up's in machines to do multiple operations from what I understand. I can't imagine how I would get the bolt rails on plane with existing barrel threads. Likewise the lug seats, getting them lapped for contact is one thing but getting them true so that the recoil impulse is at 90* to the seats is well beyond my meager abilities. On a Mauser action I think this is really hard to do. I could see a Remington or Savage being much easier. And all those lil things add up and can make some big differences if you are needing bench rest type accuracy.

That is very cool and something I expect will be cherished by your sons and grandchildren. Thanks for sharing.

Great thread thanks for posting!

I sporterize a number of Mausers each year, but my son does not want them.

Be grateful your son likes guns.

For better or worse, my 3 sons are like me....we believe all guns are cool, some are just cooler than others.

Yeah, I'm lucky. Son was home from college for a few weeks and we spent lots of time working on the rifle and my milling machine. I got to let him make some decisions on it, length of forearm, ebony tip or not, forearm shape, etc. He's excited.

Just one a personal note, you are a great dad for building something for your kids!!


While my dad and I did shoot together.. it was only target practice with a 22lr, but never hunting.



.

Really nice job on the bolt handle and the tang. I look forward to seeing the rest as it progresses. GD

My hat's off to you sir. I would imagine very few dad's have the knowledge, skill, and equipment to accomplish such an endeavor. Building a rifle for your son, with your son being involved, Is awesome. The memories of the build, shooting/hunting it together, and creating a rifle that your son will probably pass on to his son. Those are memories of a lifetime.

Here is a 98 Mauser I sporterized 1n 1971 for my brother. I bought a semi inletted stock and I emphasize "semi", reblued it myself, had the bolt handle bent and the bolt jeweled, the only thing I didn't do myself and I glass bedded the action and barrel. It shoots very well and it was the 1st gun I ever did.

Awesome Mrfixit! Well done! I know your sons appreciate these rifles!!!

It will probably shoot better than you expect. As long as the bolt isn't jumping madly, Mausers can shoot fantastically. And if they are sloppy in the rear, you can weld up "shims" and turn them down so when the bolt is closed, it is centered. After that, you might do a final finish bolt lap. But so far, so good.

Love these. Wish I had the skills to do that kind of machine work

Very nice work and for a son is priceless.....

Post weekend update:

Got some work done on the wood, I actually started on the inletting a bit back, and have been finishing up on it lately. This was a Richard's Microfit stock I've had for about 25 years or so. I want to say I remember it being a 98% inlet.....but it didn't seem like it. I say that because I have a newer stock from Richards that is 98% for a Yugo Mauser and a bare action drops right in. I'm thinking this one is more like 95% or so? Anyway.... Since I'm not that experienced with this I decided to start and do one part at a time. I started with just the bare action and got it in. Then I worked on the bottom metal, and then after that I added the barrel and worked on it.

As I got the top and bottom closer together, I found I had cracked the stock in the web between the trigger slot and the magazine opening.


This really made me sit and think... I had already realized I had 2 opposing beliefs; First that a .270 in a decent walnut stock didn't need a cross bolt for recoil, and second that a Custom Mauser should have a cross bolt for looks if nothing else.

So now I have a crack behind the magazine well. I decided to drill through the stock at the crack and use a brass screw to hold the crack together along with some epoxy. Since I had to drill it out, I drilled a bit larger hole on each side and used the epoxy to make a faux plug as if a cross bolt were in place. I did this at the crack, and behind the recoil lug. I milled the screws down below the level of the stock and then filled with epoxy. I'll clean them up as I work on the outside.

Now to be perfectly honest, I had already messed up and didn't know it yet. My inletting on top was not level, I had the action going nose down a bit. I had to use a bit of bedding compound around the front of the action, just a little pad, and pulled it down to the mark I had made on the action. After that set up I let the bottom metal a lil deeper to get it all 'right'.

Then sanding the wood flush to the bottom of the metal and starting to shape the stock.



I used chisels to shape the grip area. Before doing that I put the bolt with safety shroud on it in the action in the stock. I took a pencil and marked the outline of the shroud on the stock. My goal is to try not to undercut the stock below the shroud. I had a metal 2-screw grip cap to put on this. I was planning on engraving it with my son's initials or his 'brand' that I found in one of his old books. But it wouldn't fit. The inside line of the grip was too 'flat' and it wasn't long enough for the oval to fit. So I guess I get to make a custom grip cap. In the mean time I have a piece of wood on it to help keep from rounding it off.

This rifle will have not only a grip cap, but a forend tip as well. I bought a piece of ebony, but it looked much more brown than the black I have had in the past. I've read about how oily it is supposed to be and some issues using it for forend tips. I bought a piece of African Blackwood, which is touted to be much more stable and dry. The ebony is on the left, darker blackwood on the right:



I cut the stock and added the tip. I used West System epoxy with the slow cure hardener. I mixed it and used fine sanding dust from the belt sander of the blackwood to mix in and color it. I drilled the cap and stock for a small dowel rod to help hold it.



I am debating using a slice of the blackwood as a grip cap to match as well. The grip cap is more acorn shaped, or more like a tear drop shape. I am open to suggestions.

Very nice

Looks like the cast in the stock is backwards for a RH, right-eyed shooter.

I think it's a trick of the photo...there isn't any cast, or shouldn't be anyway. In person I don't see what we see in the photo. I thought the same thing when I looked at the photo the first time.

On that note, I do have questions about the pitch of the butt. I'm trying to decide if I need to alter anything from the way I got it from Richard's. It appears that pitch is about zero, or in other words the heel to toe line is abut 90* to the line of the barrel. Looking at older ads for Winchesters and such (all iron sighted for what its worth) it looks like there is some pitch built it. Not sure how it should be. Thoughts?

The blackwood grip cap would look great. I'd go with a steel cap myself, but I don't think you'd go wrong either way.

This pic is prior to cutting the stock to add the forend tip. The black is just paint so my son could visualize the overall length and look of the forearm with the barrel.

Wow that is some excellent work, I would've ph ucked it all up with me taking the old barrel off LOL. You sir have some true talent!

Great thread to follow along and a great dad/son project too. Wish I had those skills and some patience.

African Blackwood is an excellent choice. And doing a grip cap treatment in the same species would be an elegant touch, given the species. I'm in the middle of doing a Richards Microfit for a Mark X, and I had to cut off the Bubinga forend and grip cap (sometimes referred to as African Rosewood except for the fact that it is not a Rosewood). I REALLY didn't like the look. Currently fitting a nice piece of Macassar Ebony for the tip and grip cap.

The Macassar is probably a little more stark in contrast, but the stock I'm using warrants it. This link is a pic of the tip, the Macassar, and the Bubinga I cut off.

[img]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KsY5as8b-Xbx4r_9MXXmg0e-SLMAaQTX/view?usp=sharing[/img]

All that and you left it at a 45?

I started hunting with my dad when I was a kid. At the time his rifle was a sporterized 1917 Enfield. He had done most of the work himself, minus having the sight ears ground away and some chrome plating done. He told me about ordering a new stock and sanding it to finish. I remember the gun well. The stock, while not bad looking, did look like a well used bar of soap. He had added a forend tip at 45* and a grip cap and white line spacers all around.

Fast forward to the weekend....I took the stock to his shop to use his bandsaw to cut the tip off the grip (his bandsaw is is really nice and big, mine needs a new blade and I just didn't want to mess with it for this). I'm sitting with Dad and my Brother in the shop, I'm carving carefully on the stock and we are talking about what I'm doing about the forend and grip cap. Dad keeps telling me about the sled he has for his saw and how we can cut a 'perfect' 45 for the forend and even cut one to match on the grip. I politely decline, and he goes on to say he has some thin maple for spacers and even some plastic sheets he had for knife handles in red white and blue that might 'look good' and make it look 'slick and fancy'.

I love my Dad, even when he's wrong.

Sadly the 'Old Enfield' got stolen years ago.

I don't want to completely hijack this fine thread that MrFixIt has going on his build, but frankly, I never once thought of cutting it square. Not because I deemed the angled cut as esthetically superior, but...I just didn't think about it. Didn't cross my mind. Maybe PM me?

The Bubinga treatments were aggravating, but the maple spacers made it worse. Those had to go as well.

Love your project and your understanding the limitations of the Mauser. Unless you have your receiver recarburized, don't lap or cut your lug abbutments.

Sniggly, please don't take my comments as criticism for your rifle. If they came across that way I sincerely apologize. The thought I was trying to convey was that we all have opinions of what looks good or right, and we are all correct.

A question for the group....

Should I reinforce the wrist? Now is the time to do it if I'm going to do it. I was thinking of drilling a hole and using either a short piece of all thread or a carbon arrow shaft and epoxy. Is it worth it, considering it's really not much trouble to do. Or is it worrying about something that isn't a concern?

Oh no. No harm no foul here. Didn’t take it that way at all.

Man I gotta tell ya, I’m just glad to see this forum being used this way. I’m participating here on your thread because the spirit of this thread is what I think of as ‘best idea - perfect implementation’.

Go for it.

Why?

Good question.....my answer is 'uh, just in case'? Honestly while researching for this build, looking at photos and videos I came across the Midway USA video on Youtube. He pointed out that the wrist is the weakest point, and showed how to reinforce it. I guess it seems like an insurance policy to me. Having said that, I don't know of any rifles that have broken like that in my experience.

I suppose I'm asking if others have had broken stocks at the wrist or grip area, is it more common than my obviously limited experience would lead me to believe. In that same vein, has anyone had this done on a custom rifle you built or had built? What if any is the down side?

Sometimes I worry too much, even obsessing about things with very little realistic possibilities. From a personal standpoint I am trying to make this rifle somewhat of an heirloom type gift for my son. I would love to have him pass it down to his son or grandson and tell them that his father made it. To that end I would hope no major repairs are needed between now and then, and it is passed down in well used but original configuration.

Ok I just read what I wrote and realized I have talked myself into doing the reinforcement. Comments and thoughts are still welcome.

I have never broken a rifle at the wrist but have repaired a dozen or so in 45 years of gunsmithing. All were in serious wreck involving horses, ATVs, or a bad fall, except for one. The one had a stock of Bastogne Walnut which was weak in the wrist due to being cross grained and could have benefitted from some preventative reinforcement. GD

It would take a pretty serious "wreck" to break a stock at the wrist.

Update, got some stuff done, some of it twice!

I think I had already shown the addition of the Blackwood forend tip. Well....I got it shaped and found it had a pretty big check in it, a void. It showed and I had to decide to try to fill it with epoxy and try to match or cut it off and try again. I cut it off. and added a new tip.



I used a single dowel and West Systems epoxy 105/206 slow hardener with some of the dark sanding dust.

I had also decided to reinforce the wrist. Is it needed, I dont know. Will it help? Maybe. It didn't take much time or effort so I did it. Since I was adding a grip cap, I drilled from the grip cap through the wrist, stopping before I drilled into the through hole for the rear action screw. I used a 5/16 piece of all thread, and If I remember correctly also a 5/16" drill. It was night tight, but it just barely fit. I poured some of the West Systems epoxy in filling the hole maybe 1/4 of the way, then dipped the all thread in epoxy to coat it well. and pushed it in.







Just for facts, I fitted the forend tip and dowel dry, then drilled the wrist, then epoxied the forend tip and clamped it and then turned the stock upside down to epoxy the all thread in the wrist.

My plan to use the steel grip cap wouldn't work, the cap was too large. Here you can see how much.



I made a rough shape out of thin plywood to keep from rounding the end off while shaping the grip. You can see it is smaller and differetnly shaped from the steel cap.




I don't know why it came out that way, probably my own fault. I started shaping the grip to what I wanted and what looked 'right' to me as I went. I likely could have made it fit.....but it might not have looked 'right' if I did. Anyway I cut a piece of Blackwood and shaped it to match my rough pattern. While I had the all thread in the wrist being epoxied it, I added the grip cap. Only way I could figure out to clamp it to the stock was using blue painters tape. I didn't take a pic of that masterpiece of work in progress, so just picture blue masking tape crudely wrapped around the grip...there you go.

After the epoxy set up I did some shaping. I still have a bit more to go, its still a bit to thick to me. With steel cap for comparison:






That's where it sets right now. A couple of times I went to work on it again and realized I was frustrated and decided to just wait. Biggest issue I'm having right now is the bottom metal. I want a hinged bottom. I was planning on the old Obendorf style lever under the bottom plate. Then I decided to buy a hinged unit already done from Sarco. I got it and I've decided not to use it. It doesn't fit the inletting of the military metal. In addition, the inletting from Richards was a little generous in the front to back length of the magazine box area. I have some filling to do.

So, I'm trying to get my mind right to make my own hinged bottom piece and lever, and fix the inletting. I am currently waiting on a recoil pad and to figure final length of pull so I can get the sanding done.

Coming along nicely. And yes, Richards' stocks can be challenging, I'm currently working on one for a '36 Mexican.

Midway has some. Is on YouTube for gunsmithing Mausers including making a hinged.floorplate.

Well, I thought I might update in case folks were trying to follow along. I haven't got much work done, I'm doing this almost totally on weekends, and we have spent the last 3 weekends busy with other things. We headed out of town going west one weekend to visit son at college, the next weekend we headed east out of state to visit another son and daughter in law and our grand baby. Last weekend was busy with just catching up on chores around the place.

I have done a few small things, mostly on the stock, sanding here and there, working on the grip cap and a few other little things. Somewhere things got a little off track, nothing specific but little things add up. The 'cross bolts' for one, Im not happy with them. the inletting for the bottom metal also, shows a couple gaps. Likewise the inletting around the rear tang on top, small gap that to me looks horrible. It's not that by and of themselves they are horrible, but fixing them will show a bit and its the total package I'm grading here.

Overall I'm getting frustrated with how it looks....I'm seriously considering getting another stock. I am sometimes the laziest and most unconcerned person you might meet, at other times it's like OCD kicks in and perfection is the only acceptable outcome. In this case the selective OCD is making my eye twitch, I think because this is for someone else and not myself. In fact if i get another stock for this rifle for my son I'm sure I'll use this one for me. It's good enough for me, not for me to give someone else.

It's not like I'm giving up on a spectacular stock, or that it was great expense. I've had this one for over 20 years. And I'll probably get another from Richards so the expense isn't too great there either.

Pretty much made up my mind. I'll keep working on the metal a bit and get another stock on order. If folks are interested I will keep updates going when I get back to it.

will be watching for updates.

I'm beyond interested. Please do keep this thread updated if it's not too much of a pain. This is what this forum SHOULD be.

Love this thread, wish there were more like it.

I'm back at it

I did order a new stock, again from Richards Microfit. I'm happy with it. I would love feedback from folks here though. I know that grading wood is a very subjective thing, having said that I would love to know how you would grade this Claro Walnut stock, it is the Old Classic style:




I will tell you how it was graded in a later post, I won't leave you hanging. I will say again I'm happy, and I'm a big boy so feel free to say you don't like it if you feel that way. I'm looking for honest opinions and grading. Richards has the following grades listed on their website:
-Economy
-Standard
-Select
-Semi-fancy
- Grade "A" fancy
Grade "AA" fancy
-Grade "AAA" Extra fancy
-Exhibition grade

The reason I'm asking is that I was able to find very little on the internet about Richards, lots of it negative, but lots of it from a few years in the past. I have used Richards several times and have always been satisfied. I just thought it might be a fun exercise to compare what we think the wood grades against what Richards grades it. The thing about Richards is you don't get to pick your individual blank, you only get to choose wood type (Claro, Black, English etc) and wood grade as listed above. I am curious and thought it might help someone else in the future to sort of align our expectations with what they grade.

I'd call it standard, because of the knots.

I've used Richard's they're always more work than I want. I bought an Exhibition Grade Carlo Walnut from their seconds list. It never made it past bedding. Trying to pop the action out it broke through the rear action screw hole and had a two piece stock of higly figured wood. GS felt horrible about what happened, if I buy from their seconds list now 99% of the time it's a laminate.

I bet they graded it "A".

That looks like a nice blank, has a bit of color contrast, bet you will have some fiddleback in the finished stock.
The bad... as been mentioned the knots lower it a couple grades.
So I call it Select grade
It will make a good stock for a working gun

I've used three stocks from Richard's and haven't had a problem with any of them. The one pictured below was ordered for a project much like yours; family heirloom rifle passed down to my son from his great grandfather, stock was too short by almost 2" for him so we ordered a new one. It's one of their Factory Seconds, graded AA by Richard's, less the fill spot and knot which I expected as a Second. I'll guess they graded yours A.

I going to admit a couple things. First thing is that I almost deleted this thread and started again since I started with another stock. But that wouldn't be the right thing to do. I thought about deleting this because I was upset on how my stock was coming out, it was on a bit of a downward spiral. In all honesty it's not really that bad, but it's not what I was wanting for this project. The second thing I'm going to admit is that I'm not a talented as I want to think and as some people may think I am.

Here's how things went wrong, I tried to copy the excellent work of too many other stock makers. I looked at so many photos of fine custom guns, and stocks and thought 'oh i like that feature' and 'I'm going to do that detail'. Bottom line is the things I had in my mind were not coming out right to my eye. That and the totality of the things I was doing, and doing not quite as good as I had seen them done by others, was making everything look bad to me. So I reset.....and I'm so glad I did!

The stock shown above is a Claro Walnut "Old Classic Style" from Richards. I called and was able to talk to them to find out if they had any seconds in stock that might be able to ship sooner than starting from scratch. Also, seconds are discounted because of flaws. This is a second, but was graded a "A Fancy". I like the grain and coloration on this one, I do wish it had some figure but I'm satisfied. The knots I can live with, and in fact really don't bother me at all. The fact that the defects brought the price down by about half makes it even easier to accept.

The inletting on this stock is soooo much better than the previous one. My foggy memory can't recall exactly what that stock was, but I'm almost sure from looking at it is not Claro, and from working on it I'm almost sure was not 99% inlet. This new one is. The inletting required only very minor scraping to get it done, mostly in the barrel channel to deepen it, the shape was great. One 'issue' was that after getting it bottomed out in the inletting, it still sat a bit proud. I did take down the shelf that the bottom of the action sits on and now it's great. I'm doing some work on the outside, mainly grip area and getting the tang flush.

I'll update with pics after working on it in the shop tomorrow.

Looks like Richards has upped it's game with the inletting, I haven't used them in years, I remember them being a lot of work.
I think that will be a fine stock when finished

They have, and the general overall quality of their stocks has improved as well.

Their site is much better than the old one.
Is it just me or does their "Safari" style have a bit more drop to the butt than their "Old Classic" ?

I’m following this thread closely. So far your work has looked amazing. I don’t doubt you’ll have the new stock where you’re wanting it in time. I put a classic Boyd’s stock on an ‘03 Springfield that cracked the original Bishop stock it came with and it’s not anywhere near as nicely figured as yours. Just wish I knew how to checked now.

I got it right!

Nothing to ashamed about hitting the reset button. I think it happens more often than guys will admit. It also doesn't ruin the project.

We often fail to consider the amount of 'try and try again' that lives and breaths under a fine piece of woodwork. One that catches the eye immediately and begs the hand to touch and feel. Even if this were your 12th attempt...you'd be on the right path, and I'm speaking from experience in other forms of woodworking. Thanks for keeping this thread alive. It's a fine catalog of a process filled with pride in the work, a process most of us would fail to show because of 'man-card style pride' and all that horse malarkey.

Very fun thread. Thank you!

let me show you what I was able to get done this weekend.

For grins I wanted to weigh the stock before i did any work on it. I put it on my digital scale and it came out to 2lbs, 14.8oz. almost 3 pounds of walnut.



First a little about the inletting. I saw this method somewhere else and used it and it works great. I 'paint' the area of the metal im working on inletting with a dry erase marker. Its not near as messy as inletting black and in my opinion safer than a candle or oil lamp.


After getting the dry erase on, just put it in the stock and give a good whack with a wooden mallet. You can see that very little of the wood in the action area needed to be removed:


I used red on the barrel:


I'm trying to show here which way to use the chisel to cut very shallow.


Overall I'm really happy with the quality of inletting from Richards. I only have 3 areas I may want to do something about. First is the area around the front screw hole in the bottom metal. The inletting from Richards got a little out on this:


The second area is on the top of the stock, just behind the receiver and under the safety shroud:


The third area I don't have a photo of yet, but it's the area just in front of the bolt release on the side. The part that would be the little piece left between the release and the thumb cut out. I'll get a pic. I wish it were a bit longer back toward the release. As it it there won't be much wood left there. Not sure if i want to try to add a bit to give it more to see or do away with that little raised portion all together.

After getting the action and bottom metal inletted, I started on the outside with the grip and wrist of the stock. As sent from Richards the end of the grip where the grip cap would be had some extra on it. First stop was to go back to my dad's place and cut that. In order to make it smooth and even I used the front magazine screw hole and the trigger slot cut out itself to pass some screws through and into a 2x4 piece of scrap using some large fender washers to hold it snug. The 2x4 have me a flat area to rest on the bandsaw table. I lined up the cut and carefully cut the dingus off the pistol grip:

Then back to my shop. I marked the flat of the grip area as I lined up from both ends of the stock. Using that straight line I drilled the pilot holes 1/8" and mounted the grip cap. You can see how much is left to take off the grip all around:



With chisels, files and sandpaper I pretty much got the grip shaped. Still a lil finish work to to on it:


after I had the grip cap placed and the grip shaped, I reinforced the wrist with a piece of all-thread and epoxy like I had done with the previous stock.

That's pretty much where it sits now. Updates as I get them done, still mostly on weekends when we're not heading to Arkansas to visit the grandbaby.

👍

Looking very nice.

That will be a fine rifle for your son ....

The only small critique I would have to offer is that the forend looks a bit long for that bbl.

You are absolutely right, it is. But that is just the way it came from Richards, I haven't addressed it yet. The next step will be to cut it back and add a forend tip. I still have some of the African Blackwood that I used on the previous stock.

much enjoying this thread. thank you ...

Looking great!

Yep. Coming right along. Looks very promising!

Thumbs up!

Looking very nice! Gonna be beautiful. If you are up for a little critique, you could file the tang down a little to give the grip a more graceful curve.....

Yes !... like this...
File the wood and the metal down at the same time... 15 minutes and you go from clunky to graceful...

You guys have a good eye! The tang of the receiver has already been taken down, the wood has not been taken down to the metal yet. I hope to get that done maybe Friday.

UPDATE**
Like everyone else I'm sure, I've been busy with things that have kept me from getting much done. But I've made some progress:

It was time to cut the forearm and add the tip, but what length should the forend be? I am aware of 3 'rules' to use to determine the length of the forend; First is the "Golden Mean". The Golden Mean works like this, take the length of the barrel visible in front of the receiver (don't count the shank that is screwed in) and divide by 1.618. That will give you the length of the barrel past the end of the forearm. The second rule I am aware of is to divide the visible barrel length in half and add one inch. That is the length past the forend. In this case the difference between these two 'rules' was about 2". the forend would have been about 2 inches longer using the Golden Mean than the Half+1 rule.
In the photos I'm using the first stock that was already cut it's not the stock that will be on this rifle.





In the end I used the third rule that I am aware of. To me this rule is easier. The third rule is to look at the barrel length along with the stock and cut it to what looks good without measuring. In this case, and I feel I must emphasize that I had marked this rule before using the others, this rule was actually just a bit shorter than the Half+1 rule.

So I measure and marked the stock to cut. My mark is off, the measure was on the bottom of the stock. It's right and at the right angle, just ignore the pencil mark.



I cut the end of the forearm off with my miter saw. And a note, use a very sharp blade. Mine is getting dull and I got just a little tear out which I had to fix. I had a 'kit' that had 1/4" dowels and a drill along with a spot punch. This time since I had used most of the African Blackwood I had on the last stock, I reverted back to using the ebony I had. My tip starts at 2". I like it that length although most say to use 1 1/2". I like it longer because when I round it off it makes it look not too short to me. My project, my preference. Your milage may vary. I drilled a hole in the stock, made sure the dowel would go at least half way into it, then added the punch to the hole, held the ebony up to it and gave it a whack with a wooden mallet. This drilled the hole in the right spot.


I gave the epony a good wipe down with acetone, then mixed the West Systems epoxy with some dark sanding dust and coated the end of the stock, dowel and the hole. Pushed the dowel in and clamped it all together. Just for grins because I knew I was going to sand it all away anyway, I spread some epoxy on the forend just to get an idea how the finished product might look.



After the epoxy had cured, I took it over to the belt sander and rounded the tip and started working on the shape of the fore arm.



I marked the barrel and carefully with chisels and scrapers cut the barrel channel.



You can see in the photo above where the dull blade caused some tear out on the stock. That's gonna have to be filled and fixed later.

Then I started shaping the rest of the stock, rounding the forend etc. I used a compass to mark around the magazine box. The mark was my 'do not pass' line for shaping the stock.



As I said before, the inletting on the stock was great. The outside shaping of the stock was a bit rough, but it is what I expected. Previous photos showed how much could be taken off around the grip area for instance. The outside of the stock was rough, I would say it looked like it had been 'sanded' with about 60 grit. Lots of marks from shaping. Most of that was not an issue at all. The only place that really took some time and effort was the cheek piece. This stock is supposed to have a "shadow line' cheek piece. It was rough.



The shadow line wasn't even. That's not a criticism of Richards, its just a point of fact. I had to use chisels and file with a dead side, or one side of the file was smooth and had no teeth. I have that area competed as best I can. Everything was shaped and sanded.


I inlet some swivel bases. I don't have a picture yet, guess I have to show them as finished. The bases I am using are Talley and about 20 years old. They are not made anymore. They are a hidden base or a smooth base. I get some pics tomorrow.

My inletting around the swivel bases was not great, not even that good to be honest. I had to fill some areas. I also had areas around the bottom metal that needed filling. I will tell you what I have found. I experimented with using clear epoxy and adding sanding dust to make a filler. Using sanding dust from the piece of wood I cut off the forend and mixing with epoxy resulted in a very dark area that really stood out. I tried the same dust with very thin superglue and it also stood out. Both of those experiments I coverd with epoxy like I plan to use on the stock and they were very apparent. I then set about mixing various shades of dust to try to get a match. I found that the filler needs to be about half as dark as the stock before adding superglue. It wasn't perfect but it was 'OK'. After many many mixes, I happened to look over at my wood lathe and see the fine shavings under it from walnut and beech. On a whim I pinched some up and tried it and it was a better match than the sanding dust. I think the sanding dust is so fine it stands out because there is no texture to it. The shavings under the lathe, while also very fine, were not dust and had some texture. In fact I had to work to get some of the shavings into the gaps. It is my opinion that the texture makes more improvement that just the color. I used paste wax on the swivel base, just like I would with accuraglass type bedding epoxy. I wasn't sure it would work but it did. I pushed the savings in the gaps and then a drop of 2 of thin glue, then a shot of activator. I got mine from Rockler Woodworking:


If you get this or similar product make sure you get the thin. The thin is very thin, think rubbing alcohol thin. It runs in deep and fills well. It is soooooo much thinner than superglue from the store. The activator makes it take an instant set. The CA goes in soaking and filling, you have a few seconds like maybe 45ish to get it the way you want it or add dust on top or more shavings. Then one spray of activator and instant hardness.

Here it is after filling and sanding:




I wish I had done better. All I can say is it was my best at the time. I think after a stock finish and using dark metal it will be fine......we'll see.

This is going to be a beautiful stock.

(Edited and split the above post, not all photos were showing up)


I sanded everything down to 320 grit, then 'whiskered' with warm water and a heat gun. I sanded again to 320 and whiskered again. Then final sanding to 320. That's where it sits now. I did weigh the stock again after all the woodwork was done and before a finish. This time it weighs 2 pounds, 11.7 ounces. So it lost almost exactly 3 ounces.


After the sanding I'm ready for finish. I took a break so I can take a good fresh look at it tomorrow. If it still looks ready, I'll start the finish. My plan is to use epoxy to seal the wood, then an oil finish on top. I have some West Systems 105 resin and 209 extra slow hardener. Looks like that should have a 45 min pot life, 3-4 hour working time, and a 24 hour cure time. My plan is to heat the stock and then flood it with epoxy using a paint brush. I'll keep adding epoxy as long as it seems to soak it in. I'll let it cure overnight. Realistically it will be next weekend before I can work on it again, so it should be fully cured and then some. Because I'm using the epoxy is one of the reasons I wanted to weigh the stock, I want to see how much weight the epoxy adds.

So this is where it stands. I'll update again after the stock finish. After the stock I still need to make a latch and hinge the bottom metal, chamber and set the headspace, and then finish the metal. My plan on the finish is Norell's Moly-Resin in flat black. Between the metal finish and the epoxy/oil stock, this rifle should be ready for the outdoors.

Sir,

I'm likely too late but I have a MacFarland two panel checkered bolt handle that I would be happy to send you for this special build. I'll be away hunting for a week but PM me if interested.

Ed

You must be a genius on the drum sander sir! I could never properly round off a forend tip without using the series of concentric facets method! That takes me forever.