Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing fitting an unfinished boyds stock?

I recently finished a Boyds unfinished laminate stock for a Mauser. Inletting was not at all difficult. It did not take a workbench full of tools. It took a few chisels and scrapers, some inletting black, and about 2 hours time. That is the good news. The bad news is that there were gaps that had to be filled with Acraglas gel. They don't look at all bad now that the stock is bedded and finished, but the inletting in the "VIP" stock is generous.

The problem with using a Boyd's finished stock, and I am fitting one to a customer's gun today, is that the finished stock is somewhat clunky in some dimensions -- particularly in the forend shape and around that oversized pistol grip. I would rather have the unfinished stock so that I can reshape it to tailor it to my liking.

The Boyd's unfinished stock is quite well sanded, requiring only some finish sanding and resanding where extensive wood removal is done in the reshaping phase. It is easy to finish -- I used Minwax Wiping Poly on the last one.

Bottom line: If the stock fits your dimensions and you are not opposed to putting some bedding compound in the worst of the gaps, it makes up into a very usable hunting stock. I use them, and I will use more.

Here is the finished rifle:


And here is the area where I probably did the most shaping. I actually cut the grip down to install a steel (Fisher) grip cap:


Clemson