Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Machine cut gunstocks

I have scrimped & saved over the years and now have three excellent AAA walnut blanks, one Circassian and two very hard red Am walnut. They are short of being exhibition, as using them was the intent.

Now I was going to get Great Am Gunstocks to machine them, as the G. Goudy classic design is great, but I see some negative feed back from GAG buyers. Don't know what to believe.

Where [or who] can I get to machine these into finished stocks, complete w/ ebony grip cap & forend, w/ recessed sling mounts and crossbolt, but w/o finish and checkering?

Should you wonder, a pre-64 M70, very latest M70, and an 8mm Rem Mag.

Would appreciate the advice.

The trouble with all machined cut stocks, they may not fit your barreled action perfectly. Usually the inletting is tight so you can fit it to your individual action, but sometimes certain areas may be cut too big and you could end up with unsightly gaps. That is why many stock makers have models made out of plain wood that they will fit to your barrel action and specs then copy it onto a nice blank. I don't know what you have invested in your blanks if you want to chance it, but you could get a semi inlet blank for $100 to use as a model, fit it to your barreled action, then have it copied and have little finish to do. I hope I made sense.

You can send your rifle some places and get a good fit. Tha'ts really the only method I know to insure your rifle will get the fit it deserves.

A forend tip isn't hard to mount, done it myself and I'm tool challenged. But stock makers are set up to do it and can do it quite well.

But who?????????????

But who?????????????

i believe that the honorable Rick Bin might be of service to you here. someone told me that he does stock work.

if you dont know it yet, Rick Bin is the administrator of this site. shoot him a PM.

PS: whats your location. there are a few guys where i live that do this...

Labarr...

You've collected three exceptional wood blanks, I would assume, worthy of having made into fine stocks...for which it sounds like you saved up for a long time and paid the accordingly dear price.

Here's one gun maker who, IMHO, is very capable of this...

http://www.martiniandhagngunmakers.com/

First thing is, he's up here in BC, Canada.

Second thing is, as would any custom stock maker, he would need the blank and the rifle. I don't think there's really any other way to make a stock, particularly a fine one from choice wood. It's virtually impossible to properly fit and bed a stock without the rifle.

You'd get back one amazing piece of workmanship, second to nobody, that would be a treasure. I've seen his work first hand. Enough to make a grown man drool like a baby.

He'd likely be at least a year with it, possibly longer, as would just about any really good gun maker, because they've always got at least that much work ahead of them.

Of course, you can definitely find similarly fine craftsman closer to home (wherever that is?).

If you go to my website, you'll find on the RHS a list of links to websites of custom gun makers, most of whom I'm sure would be able to turn those blanks and your rifles into whatever you want.

http://fishingnhunting.blogspot.com/

Point being, there's no shortcuts...at least not on which you'd want to risk those fine walnut blanks.

This is who I use to get a semi-inlet to build a model from and then have it duplicated. He's a retired gunsmith instructor from Trinidad Jr. College.

"Ed Shulin"
Shulin Stock Works
16511 County Rd 75.1
Trinidad, Co. 81082
719-846-2301

Check with Claude Gatewood, CMG here. His reputation precedes him and he will do a workman-like job...

Actually, you should just buck up and do it all yourself. The roughing-in is easy and will get you pointed in the right direction.

That is a 14-year-old kid doing his second stock, first rifle. He started with a square blank and worked it from there.
art

Kudos to Grayling!!!
That stock looks great!

I agree with Sitka. If one wants precison fit and finish, the stock needs to be done by hand and the maker will need your metal through the fitting stage. With some reading, chisels, gouges, rasps, planes, scrapers, a few drill bits, and a vice, one is in business.

It's a labor of love and a real time sink to start with a plank. The downside is one will gain a new appreciation for fine fit and finsh and seldom be satisfied with what he sees on the shelf anymore. The upside is one can fit the unit to his own body such that it will handle and point to target like a fine shotgun. There is also the satisfaction of pulling it out of the safe and getting those "Oh wow!" comments from friends.

I own a bunch of arms (Winchester, Remington, Savage, Stevens, Thompson, Weatherby, Howa, and Ruger, and the only woodwork that impresses me now came on a Shiloh Sharps. One can not fit a single hair in any of the wood/metal junctions on that unit. It was horridly expensive, but damn well worth it.

If one is impatient though, stockmaking should not be a pursuit. I'm doing some of my own now, but would never take it up commercially, as it would ruin a great hobby. I also understand why a well made stock can run around 2 to 3 grand just for fit and finish.

I've used a few roughed out units in the past, and in every instance there were a couple of spots where a little too much wood was removed. Those spots simply can not be undone. Good luck, and come back with the finished product when they're wrapped up. 1Minute P.S. Here's a shot of my first undertaking (A 240 Weatherby on a Yugo, and the metal was the cheap part).

Shane Thompson out of Soda Springs Idaho has a good inventory of patterns and does a good job of turning. He can get it as tight to final tolerances as you want. I believe you can even send him your barreled action and he will glass bed it into the pattern and duplicate that. But the tighter the tolerances, the higher the cost.

Google should give you his phone number.

Most custom gun builders these days send a glassed pattern stock to an individual like Shawn Thompson as mentioned above and have him turn the stock leaving 3/32s or more wood on it so that you don't run into the above mentioned problems..I do this and it saves me a world of axe and mill time removing the unneeded material..Done right, the stylist is the only way to go.

If it becomes a time thing wherein I need to turn the stock out in a hurry to go hunting or whatever, then I do it the hard way and get it done quicker as most stock turning today by the better stylists are running about 90 days.

There are a few guys out there that can get it damn close and no gaps will show up and Thompson is one of them I am told. That said I like to leave a good deal of wood simply because I enjoy building rifles and although I get high dollar for my rifles its still just a hobby, hunting is my business.