Originally Posted by BobinNH
....the bedding looks like nothing to write home about,but hey shoot nevertheless.

You should see the bedding on this one - the barrel channel has been opened up and someone attempted to "splatter" on bedding compound. It looks like it was flung on with a stick - very uneven with lots of gaps/voids. The stock has what looks like water damage in a couple places where the finish has worn through and the checkering is almost gone from wear. Other than bluing wear on the bolt handle, all of the metal is in very good shape. As rough as it is, I can't help but want to do something with it, but as good as it shoots I always back up and ask myself why.

A couple of years ago I was cruising the gun shows looking for a clean pre-64 stock to replace this one. At a Helena show, a gunsmith had a custom for sale that was made by the late Jim Lewis of Butte (formerly Idaho). She was helping his widow sell off some of his stuff after he passed and this one looks like it was almost finsished - all of the metal had been bedded to the wood (but was missing) and the stock looks like it was in the process of having the last coats of oil rubbed in prior to checkering and final assembly. She told me it was for a pre-64 so I bought it, but the action screw spacing now looks to me like it's post-64. It's inlet for a Super Grade style rear sling swivel and has a rather short forend with a nice ebony tip set up for a barrel band front swivel. She also told me he made all his own metal and this one appears to be inlet for one piece bottom metal. Now I'm not sure what to do with it - I would like to finish it out someday but it's lookiong like a bigger project than I initially thought...

Bottom stock:
[Linked Image]

Anyway, I suppose I've hijacked this thread enough blush