So, it's been nearly 10 years since I started this thread. Plenty has changed over that time - I got married, bought a house, had two kids, and have had several changes of job title. Looking back at the first post, I've still got the same car though!

Anyway, it's finally time I got properly stuck into making a custom stock for myself. So here's a brief update of where I'm at for those who are interested. The rifle to receive the new stock is my Anschutz 1717 Silhouette .17HMR.

First up was a pattern stock, shown set up on my mill/drill for inletting earlier this year. The wood is Totara - an NZ native that is both easy to carve and very stable.

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After a lot of time spent shaping, I got to the point that I was happy with the pattern stock. It's not based on any other particular stock, just a combination of what I think looks good on this rifle and what fits me (emphasis on the latter). This is the first stock I've ever attempted, so dimensions for LOP, cast, pitch, drop etc. etc. came off other factory rifles that I feel fit me well. Having a couple of good reference books also helped.

I'm lucky enough to now have access to a duplicator, and here's the start of the roughing out. I chose a blank with strong mineral streaking and a little fiddleback in the butt (not visible unless planed/sanded). In this tree the best black streaking was in a narrow band adjacent to the sapwood, so there are a couple of compromises in grain layout. The grain is dipping instead of rising in the fore-end (which I'll address by reinforcing the foreend with carbon fibre tubes), and the lower part of the pistol grip goes into sapwood. 90% of this will be removed by the time the stock is down to final size, leaving a small patch on the bottom of the pistol grip only. Not sure yet whether I'll stain the remaining sapwood or leave the contrast - I'll do some trials on scrap.

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First stage of the duplication complete. If the stock looks chunky it is because I left a full 1/2" thickness on all surfaces. This is for a couple of reasons - firstly it gave me a chance to gain experience with the duplicator without being close to final lines (I've never run one before), and secondly it gave me room to reposition the pattern relative to the grain after the first duplication. I'll offset the blank by about 1/4" for the next duplication to better follow the grain.

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One photo of the rough stock wetted to show the colour:

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So that's about where I am at the moment. Next step is to put the stock back on the duplicator sometime in the next couple of weeks to rip down to 1/4" oversize. Then I will let it sit for a few months to allow for movement (if any). After that, down to 1/16" oversize and out of the duplicator for inletting and shaping/finishing by hand in the evenings. I've got some metalwork to do in the interim also, not to mention other unrelated projects. If I can post a photo of a finished rifle stock by Christmas 2020 I reckon I'll be doing well.