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Anyone had any recent dealings/experience with them ?


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It's been a few years but my experiences were not great. Inletting was not even close. I was used to Boyd's almost drop-in inletting and was disappointed in Richards.

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I had them cut a stock for a old Herter's J9 (BSA) because they had a pattern for that action. I got a medium-high grade walnut. Inletting was close enough, and the wood was better than I expected. Turned into a handsome vintage type rifle. They don't like to hurry, but I would use their services again. This was 15 years ago, if that could be considered recent.

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Wood on the ones that I received were good, but it appears that a beaver had a go at it before shipped. Inletting was about 20%.

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Every Richards I ever bought or saw was very nice wood, usually better than expected / advertised. They usually need a bit of work to fit them though. I am assuming so that you have a nice close fit; fine for pros, not so much for amateurs. We always called them Richards Maybe Fits instead of Microfits! I would take one over a Boyd's anyday. Boyd's drop-ins are flat sloppy. Their solution is for you to fill the gaps with glas.


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Originally Posted by Craigster
Anyone had any recent dealings/experience with them ?


Their wood is good, generally you get a little better than you pay for.

Their inletting isn't so good, they always need a lot of work and unless you are a better than average stock finisher I would avoid Richards Micro-Fit. The observation that they should call themselves "Richards Maybe-Fit" is an accurate reflection of my experience with them. If you have time and skill they are sometimes the only option.

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I had a poor experience with Boyd's customer service. You might check with Stockys.

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Thanks for the input. Last one I used had to be at least 10-12 years ago. Sounds like things at Richard's are pretty much the same today.


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Originally Posted by Kp321
It's been a few years but my experiences were not great. Inletting was not even close. I was used to Boyd's almost drop-in inletting and was disappointed in Richards.

+1

Boyd’s inletting is as good as Richards is bad. No comparison.

Richards has more wood and style options, which I like. But I’ll never buy another Richards due to their exceedingly poor inletting.

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Originally Posted by butchlambert1
I had a poor experience with Boyd's customer service. You might check with Stockys.


+1 on Boyd's customer service. Very poor.

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Back in the day Fajen was the best followed by Bishop, Richards was always regarded as pretty crummy as far as inletting.

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Originally Posted by WTF
Originally Posted by butchlambert1
I had a poor experience with Boyd's customer service. You might check with Stockys.


+1 on Boyd's customer service. Very poor.


Agreed. They sent me a stock with the barrel channel cut off-center and while they did replace it, they didn't reimburse me for the cost of the return shipping and then charged me for the shipping on the replacement stock. Since the stock was defective, I felt that Boyd's should have paid all of the costs associated with replacing it.

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Originally Posted by 260Remguy
Originally Posted by WTF
Originally Posted by butchlambert1
I had a poor experience with Boyd's customer service. You might check with Stockys.


+1 on Boyd's customer service. Very poor.


Agreed. They sent me a stock with the barrel channel cut off-center and while they did replace it, they didn't reimburse me for the cost of the return shipping and then charged me for the shipping on the replacement stock. Since the stock was defective, I felt that Boyd's should have paid all of the costs associated with replacing it.


The same thing happened to me.

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Do they offer an inletting service whereby you send in your pattern, already glass bedded for your rife, and they then use your pattern with their wood.

I don't see how they could mill a crooked barrel channel. Sounds to me like they are using wet wood and it warps after inletting.

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Got better than expected wood. A plus in my book was that many hours or fitting were needed to bed a Yugo 24/47 revamped to a 240 Weatherby. Anything that is drop in ready has had way too much wood removed. If I wanted "drop in" I'd go plastic.

Last edited by 1minute; 08/26/19.

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Originally Posted by 22WRF
Do they offer an inletting service whereby you send in your pattern, already glass bedded for your rife, and they then use your pattern with their wood.

I don't see how they could mill a crooked barrel channel. Sounds to me like they are using wet wood and it warps after inletting.

More likely sloppy machine set up.

I don't see why Richards can't get a CNC machine to do more accurate inletting. Boyds look more like CNC machined, not sure about what they use.

Or at least set up their machines better.

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Originally Posted by 22WRF
Do they offer an inletting service whereby you send in your pattern, already glass bedded for your rife, and they then use your pattern with their wood.

I don't see how they could mill a crooked barrel channel. Sounds to me like they are using wet wood and it warps after inletting.


Kevin, might give 'em a call, I think they do.

http://www.rifle-stocks.com/frequently_asked_questions.htm


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Originally Posted by 22WRF
Do they offer an inletting service whereby you send in your pattern, already glass bedded for your rife, and they then use your pattern with their wood.

I don't see how they could mill a crooked barrel channel. Sounds to me like they are using wet wood and it warps after inletting.



I got a guy in MN that does real nice duplicating, your wood or his, PM me if you want his number


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50 years ago they were a top notch company. Many of their stock designs were developed by Monte Kennedy and Jerry Fisher. They always had outstanding wood but has been noted their inletting at that time left a lot to be desired if you were not a pro. stock builder which at that time they mostly catered to. They were the only stock company that handled Yama Wood from Japan which was the lightest and strongest wood you could get for a stock and had outstand color patterns in it. We developed a formula which when applied to the wood really enhanced it appearance. In those days Fajen and Bishop didn't even compare with Richards

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Originally Posted by coyote268
50 years ago they were a top notch company. Many of their stock designs were developed by Monte Kennedy and Jerry Fisher. They always had outstanding wood but has been noted their inletting at that time left a lot to be desired if you were not a pro. stock builder which at that time they mostly catered to. They were the only stock company that handled Yama Wood from Japan which was the lightest and strongest wood you could get for a stock and had outstand color patterns in it. We developed a formula which when applied to the wood really enhanced it appearance. In those days Fajen and Bishop didn't even compare with Richards

Yama is nothing but Japanese maple and a very small tree. Blanks were rare because they seldom got big enough. Bigleaf maple has slightly better mechanical characteristics and in wood of equal density is about the only wood that is better than the walnuts. The differences are tiny.

Bigleaf is readily available, but highly figured pieces are usually quite dense, thus stronger...


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