Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Mauser build for my son

Then I started shaping the rest of the stock, rounding the forend etc. I used a compass to mark around the magazine box. The mark was my 'do not pass' line for shaping the stock.



As I said before, the inletting on the stock was great. The outside shaping of the stock was a bit rough, but it is what I expected. Previous photos showed how much could be taken off around the grip area for instance. The outside of the stock was rough, I would say it looked like it had been 'sanded' with about 60 grit. Lots of marks from shaping. Most of that was not an issue at all. The only place that really took some time and effort was the cheek piece. This stock is supposed to have a "shadow line' cheek piece. It was rough.



The shadow line wasn't even. That's not a criticism of Richards, its just a point of fact. I had to use chisels and file with a dead side, or one side of the file was smooth and had no teeth. I have that area competed as best I can. Everything was shaped and sanded.


I inlet some swivel bases. I don't have a picture yet, guess I have to show them as finished. The bases I am using are Talley and about 20 years old. They are not made anymore. They are a hidden base or a smooth base. I get some pics tomorrow.

My inletting around the swivel bases was not great, not even that good to be honest. I had to fill some areas. I also had areas around the bottom metal that needed filling. I will tell you what I have found. I experimented with using clear epoxy and adding sanding dust to make a filler. Using sanding dust from the piece of wood I cut off the forend and mixing with epoxy resulted in a very dark area that really stood out. I tried the same dust with very thin superglue and it also stood out. Both of those experiments I coverd with epoxy like I plan to use on the stock and they were very apparent. I then set about mixing various shades of dust to try to get a match. I found that the filler needs to be about half as dark as the stock before adding superglue. It wasn't perfect but it was 'OK'. After many many mixes, I happened to look over at my wood lathe and see the fine shavings under it from walnut and beech. On a whim I pinched some up and tried it and it was a better match than the sanding dust. I think the sanding dust is so fine it stands out because there is no texture to it. The shavings under the lathe, while also very fine, were not dust and had some texture. In fact I had to work to get some of the shavings into the gaps. It is my opinion that the texture makes more improvement that just the color. I used paste wax on the swivel base, just like I would with accuraglass type bedding epoxy. I wasn't sure it would work but it did. I pushed the savings in the gaps and then a drop of 2 of thin glue, then a shot of activator. I got mine from Rockler Woodworking:


If you get this or similar product make sure you get the thin. The thin is very thin, think rubbing alcohol thin. It runs in deep and fills well. It is soooooo much thinner than superglue from the store. The activator makes it take an instant set. The CA goes in soaking and filling, you have a few seconds like maybe 45ish to get it the way you want it or add dust on top or more shavings. Then one spray of activator and instant hardness.

Here it is after filling and sanding:




I wish I had done better. All I can say is it was my best at the time. I think after a stock finish and using dark metal it will be fine......we'll see.