"Both guns, the 7-08 and the '06 are off to the gunsmith for recoil pads, trigger jobs, weather proofing and bedding work."
I can't say on the newer black pad #1's but I have 20 red pad guns plus a few M77s and not one damn one of those rifles has the interior wood sealed. I learned this the hard way. I have a very accurate #1B in .300 Win. Mag. that will put three 200 gr. Speer Hot Cores into a .375" group consistently. I got caught in a very heavy rain shower on an elk hunt in Oregon with it and it soaked up a lot of water. I'm surprised the butt stock didn't split as it swelled up badly. Never saw a legal elk. A few days after the hunt I got several shots at a coyote and never got a hit. None of my buddies could even see where the bullet struck. About a week later I took it to the range and the bullets were hitting just at the top edge of the berm, call it about six feet high. I stored that rifle out in my shed and took it out once a year to see when it shot. At six years after the soaking it was pretty close to where it should have been shooting. I pulled the forearm and butt stock off and removed the pad. There was no sign that the wood had ever been sealed. Just the stain Ruger used to color the wood. I checked out a few other of my #1's and the 77's and none of themshow any sign of ever having been sealed. Just something you might want to check out.
Paul B.
