Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Got my Savage done........

Been asked for a closeup of the finish, and method/material used on the 30-06......

Stock was sanded down which removed the paint and texture that it came to me with. This stock had been ridden pretty hard and had a few gouges and scratches to be fixed. The original plan was to just paint it but after doing the routing work for the bottom metal, ADL to BDL, it was apparent that some depth was needed for the height of the mag box to work properly without binding the action, so I built up the area with Marine Tex. That left me no choice but to redo a texture on it. After "bedding" in the bottom metal, which was after bedding the action and floating the barrel, I washed the stock down with rubbing alcohol, and applied a thin coat of Marine Tex using a notched trowel. The Marine Tex used was the gray version, which is almost black right out of the can. Being too dark for my liking, I tinted it down to the gray color it is now with white 2 part epoxy.

After troweling it on I used the sponge out of a TSX box to "dab and pull" the entire wet stock. On the first go round, the Marine Tex started to cure and from butt to forend didn't match in texture. So after it cured completely, I resanded it a bit and devised a plan to get it all done a little quicker. After mixing enough tinted Marine Tex the second time, I put it in the freezer for a few minutes to get it cold and slow down it's cure rate. This allowed me to get it all on evenly, or at least to my satisfaction, and sponge it out with all the same texture.

After it cured out the second time, I took some 000 steel wool and a piece of brillo pad and knocked down the sharp points to give it the smooth bumpy feel it now has. Then, after a good washing with rubbing alcohol, I sprayed two coats of Matte Clear Coat by Rustoleum. The whole thing is a very tough finish that should last for a long time.

It took about an hour or so to coat it and texture it the second time. The second coat of Matte Clear was sprayed on while the first coat was still a little tacky. The Marine Tex will be my choice again for bedding and texturing. It looks a little glossy in the pic because the strong light in my reloading room is shining directly on it for a good picture. In natural light it's quite non glossy.