Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles RJ Renner American Classic makeover

Several years ago I had some custom stocks made by a fellow in Eastern Idaho with patterns made by Chris at Walnut Grove Gunstocks. He made them okay but his design influences were all from the 50's and they came out rather thick. They fit me and felt okay but after getting a Ruger 77 made up as a pre-war German Sporter by RJ Renner I realized how clubby they felt in comparison. Actually most every modern factory made stock feels clubby in comparison to that pre-war Sporter style. So I talked to Roger to see if he couldn't slenderize one of those custom stocks on a Model 77 .25-06. My main request was just to put it on as much of a diet as it could stand. The rifle came back a month ago but it's been so rainy every weekend I only got a chance to take pictures today.

The main points he did were:
- Slim down and shorten the forend to make the Ruger magnum contour barrel seem slimmer. He took about 1.5" out from behind the ebony tip and reattached the tip so we could still use the existing sling swivel hole.
- Leave the comb height the same for scope sights but slim the whole buttstock down, especially the rather thick comb and cheek piece, and thin and move back the nose of the comb.
- Reduce the diameter of the pistol grip which was downright bulbous but reuse the original ebony grip cap and add in those nice scallops he does around the tang and floorplate.
- Rechecker with a full wrap around point pattern at 20 lpi.
- Anything else his eyes caught that would help make it more graceful.

The pictures hopefully show the aesthetic differences but the really dramatic change is the way it feels. It's like night and day to how it was and that was the main goal of this project which Roger achieved perfectly. The forend is so much more slender and graceful and the pistol grip feels much better in the hand while retaining the somewhat more closed aspect which I asked for since it positions my hand to the trigger better for deliberate shooting. All of the carving only took 4 ounces off and being as this is a Ruger .25-06 with a magnum contour barrel it was a chunk and will always be a chunk but it hefts so much more nicely now.

Anyway, on with the pictures.

Before and after. Notice the length and thickness of the forend and the shape of the wrist, pistol grip and comb. We had to sacrifice the original checkering but it was replaced with a very nice wrap around point pattern. Also, little things make a big difference, such as where the bottom line of the stock intersects the trigger guard. He raised that line ever so slightly but it adds to the gracefulness and lines of the overall shape.





Right side. Note the difference in the cheek piece. He raised the bottom line up, slimmed down the thickness a good bit and continued the line into the wrist. I didn't catch the light quite right to really show it but hopefully you can see how the forend is shorter and more slender to make the barrel look longer. It gives the whole rifle a bit racier appearance.





Another view of the cheekpiece showing how it blends into the sweep of the wrist. Roger redid the whole thing, moving the back end forward, the bottom edge upward and trimming a good bit off the thickness. He also took some wood off of the other side of the butt to keep a balance. These pics also show the recontoured comb nose very well. The flutes were taken out as the whole nose was slimmed way down and moved back about 1/2".






We only get six pictures per post so a few more to follow.

Closeup of the cheek piece. Not sure what the little squiggly is coming off of the top - even when he makes mistakes and lets his Dremel tool slip Roger does it gracefully. Note the shape and thickness of the grip cap compared to that thick slab it used to be. He even added a nice sculpturing to that.

This gives a good view of the wood as well. Of the three stocks I had made this one has the kind of wood I love the most. Not all fancy with fiddleback and such but just nice lines through it. I would have really liked to have a nice red pad put on but the original stock maker but that big black spacer in there so there wasn't much we could do there without taking the LOP down way too short.





Detail of the wrist where the scallops were added to blend in the reduced girth of the wrist with the tang area.





A view of the wood on the left and a better view of the thinned down comb nose.





And finally, another big shout out to Roger of R.J. Renner. He really is a great guy to work with, he tells you when he'll be ready to accept your project and he meets that commitment, then the turn around is very quick, only about four weeks for this one. He knows his stuff when it comes to stock making, he was telling me on the phone all of the little things that the eye doesn't really notice but that make big differences to the overall effect. Outside of one overriding instruction - "make it more slender" - I basically gave him carte blanche to do what he wanted and the results speak for themselves.

A wow.....your project is very impressive. Ruger should take note but then lefty model 77's are no longer with us.

Mr Renner did very nice job on correcting the origional stock's flaw's ..That is now a beautiful American Classic stock.
Congrats!

That is a very nice rifle congratulations! I have three RJ Renner ruger 77 rifles and each one handles like a dream.

VERY Nice!

Impressive!

Everything Ive seen done by them has been great!

Nice...for a money is no object fixer. Price of the rifle I'll bet.

Beautiful rifle, Jim!

Very nice results. Thanks for sharing the pictures and story of your very nice Ruger 77.

That's just damn sexy!