I’m guessing it was put together by one of a handful of guys from Alaska. The common denominator being that we all worked for the same shop at one time or another. Turning the receiver like that on a mandrel with a radiused cutting tool was standard procedure to “lighten” the action but mostly to remove the billboard so we could stamp the shop name on it. We used Bansner stocks almost exclusively, boss was good buds with Mark Bansner.
It was pretty SOP for us to pick up a village beater for pennies and turn it into something we wanted on the cheap using takeoff parts or whatever we could get a discount on. It generally was the unspoken rule that it was okay as long as you weren’t flipping them for side money, though it was known to happen from time to time.
I got a pile of Bansners that were warranty claims, guys cracked them or whatever and Mark would send a new blank for free. He told me he didn’t care what happened to the old one as long as the customer was taken care of so I’d glass them back up and rebuild them with carbon arrow shafts and save them for my projects. Had a shoebox full of Leupold scopes and one Swaro guys gave me for mounting their new scopes while they waited or if they were broke and they wouldn’t care to send them back and tell me to toss them. Barreled several of my own guns when guys would bring in a rifle to be rebarreled because the original barrel they’d had screwed on was a big heavy pig. They’d want a new precontoured blank and not want the old one so I’d cut the shank off and reprofile it, then rethread and chamber to whatever. A guy gave me a Brown Poundr off a Brown custom 700 he’d bought at a garage sale. The stock is a disco special, it’s copper metalflake with what I assume is real automotive paint, professional paint job but looks like a lowrider. He pronounced it the ugliest thing he’d ever seen and offered to sell it to me for $20. We worked a swap for me doing his chamber cast and telling him what caliber his new rifle was in exchange for his ugly stock. Someday I’m going to build me a 280 to put in it.
Anyway I’ve probably said at least enough and maybe too much. But I bet that’s where it came from and as you may have guessed I wish there was better money in being a gunsmith because the side benefits are great.
