Was wondering what you guys are using for sealing the barrel channel of a wooden stocked bolt gun. I have heard everything from various oil stains to laquer. I never really thought of doing this because if the weather is going to be potentially foul I usually pull a synthetic rifle out of the safe, but figure it cant hurt to do.
you can brush on varathane into the channel, action inletting, and butt of the stock, using a 1/2 wide nylon brush used for painting with acrylics. i use two coats.
birchwood casey tru oil is the best finish i've used for stocks--i've used it for 35 years now.
you can use it to seal the inletting too, and if you thin it with paint thinner, you can also use it to seal the checkering (though i prefer watco for the checkering, followed by either cordovan or black shoe polish for the final seal, and to accentuate the diamonds--tru oil is a little too shiny for my liking to use on checkering though it really seals it well).
in my experience, tru oil is hard to chemically strip off a gun--unlike some varnishes and varathanes. it is super tough, and when i needed to remove it once, i had to sand it off. i also use tru oil to "fill sand"--which fills the pores of the wood, and have also used it with shellac to create a final finish in the french polish method...
