Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Rifle blanks

If any of you are in the market for a custom build and you are looking to buy a blank, contact my friend David Boles. He is thinning out his stash, as he decided he will no longer be cutting wood. I know the number 72 and number 53 blanks have already been sold. Other than those, I am not sure. I am sorry, I cannot tell y'all which ones. If you are interested his contact is:

email: qualitycutoutlook.com
phone: (530) 586-1329

Wow.

Yes.. no other words.

hard to find wood like this- there aren't anymore trees!

Damm

Oh man! Lovely!

There's some special wood right there!

What kind of wood?Cut when? Aged how long and how? Measured moisture content? Price?

He can answer all those questions as he is the guy with the wood. I can’t tell you because I do not know.

10-4

Oh, Lord, lead me not into temptation…….

Wow indeed. I know next to nothing about custom stock builders.... are duplicating machines used to get close and then the hand fit and finish? Price range for a good stock maker to do the work?

Again wow.

i don't know the exact steps, but I know that a machine is used to cut the wood and shape it down into the "correct" shape of a stock so you have a basic pattern to start from. From there I imagine that it is put onto a stock duplicator which give you the three dimensional shape. once you have that, it goes into a vice so you can begin the proper finishing which involves sanding and checking the stock. Obviously by the time you reach the checkering process, the barrel and action has already been fit and shaped into the stock. As far as labor charges for a custom build (not including the parts for it) I won't go there...you don't want to know. Here are a few pics from a custom build my gunsmith did for my daughter:

I hope she cherishes it and thinks about her dad fondly every time she picks that beauty up for the rest of her days.

I am curious about the names of reputable stock builders who are still accepting work along with ball park price ranges. My guess is that finding a high grade wood stock rifle already for sale would likely be thousands less expensive than falling in love with a wood stock blank and then commissioning someone to turn it into a dream rifle.

Very, very nice work.

I got a "woodie" looking at those blanks . . .

Me too!

You got wood? Yup!

Nice. Thanks for posting.

I'm not so sure about that idea. I'm in the same sort of boat in that a buddy of mine posted a pic of a gorgeous post war FN Mauser that was built in the golden age of FN and I can't get it out of my head. I've looked online for similar examples but none of them are exactly what I would like. I have several donor rifles I could re-barrel and build up to exactly what I want but I want a stunning piece of wood on it. I'm going to use it for every hunting trip I go on, regardless of the chance of dinging or scratching it because it should be used. I figure under a grand for the blank and then over a grand for the stock work. Maybe I'm miles off with my guessing but from what I'm finding online, I'm not going to find a really nice custom rifle with the features I want for anything under $4K unless I happen to walk into a gunshop with a sleeper on the rack for cheap...

30 something years ago I walked into a gun shop and saw a Model 70 Super grade 30-06 with stunning wood on it. The price was 800.00 something and my don't use the credit card for something you can't pay off right away unless it is a need rather than a want mantra kicked in.

If I had a time machine I'd go back and tell myself to break that rule this one time. I've enjoyed some nice rifles over the years but I think my hunting memories would have over all been better if I'd just hunted everything with that 30-06.