Well, I thought I might update in case folks were trying to follow along. I haven't got much work done, I'm doing this almost totally on weekends, and we have spent the last 3 weekends busy with other things. We headed out of town going west one weekend to visit son at college, the next weekend we headed east out of state to visit another son and daughter in law and our grand baby. Last weekend was busy with just catching up on chores around the place.
I have done a few small things, mostly on the stock, sanding here and there, working on the grip cap and a few other little things. Somewhere things got a little off track, nothing specific but little things add up. The 'cross bolts' for one, Im not happy with them. the inletting for the bottom metal also, shows a couple gaps. Likewise the inletting around the rear tang on top, small gap that to me looks horrible. It's not that by and of themselves they are horrible, but fixing them will show a bit and its the total package I'm grading here.
Overall I'm getting frustrated with how it looks....I'm seriously considering getting another stock. I am sometimes the laziest and most unconcerned person you might meet, at other times it's like OCD kicks in and perfection is the only acceptable outcome. In this case the selective OCD is making my eye twitch, I think because this is for someone else and not myself. In fact if i get another stock for this rifle for my son I'm sure I'll use this one for me. It's good enough for me, not for me to give someone else.
It's not like I'm giving up on a spectacular stock, or that it was great expense. I've had this one for over 20 years. And I'll probably get another from Richards so the expense isn't too great there either.
Pretty much made up my mind. I'll keep working on the metal a bit and get another stock on order. If folks are interested I will keep updates going when I get back to it.
