Home Forums Lever Action Central Lever Actions - General The current RifleShooter Nov/Dec 2023

Has a Ruger 1894 on the cover. In the text, and in the Spec.s they say the stocks are Walnut. I'm finding that dubious at best. That's some butt ugly wood. Looks like the Rubber tree crap out of the South American makers, and the checkering appears to have a Black wash to high light the lines. I know Ruger got away from Walnut with the new owners. The last 77's that went out the door were stained Beech like the Mini 14's and 10/22's.
Its sad that our culture has degraded ourselves to accept "pallet wood" on our firearms. Sadder still, the "Expert" writers don't know the difference.

I never minded a birch stock if the price reflected it. But at these prices Ruger should definitely be using good walnut

Sadly, the price doesn't reflect the downgrade

Wouldn't have a damn thing AT ALL to do with a far FAR dwindled supply of premium walnut compared to 30 or 40 or 50 years ago, nor the increased pricing to reflect the lack there of. Glad all my Marlins were made in the 50's, 60's and 70's and don't suffer from "pallet wood". Business is business, dollars are dollars. Wanna pay EVEN MORE msrp than you do now for a Ruger Marlin?

There's lots of black walnut in NEPA. Whole hill sides covered with it. I'll be burning black walnut in my wood stove this winter. Marlin never stocked standard production rifles in high grade walnut as a matter of course. If you got a nice one it was purely by chance. Most were pretty plain, straight grained stuff.

Yeah but Marlin (the JM Marlin) didn't rake you across the coals with regards to the price of their firearms. Ruger does. Ruger should be using good wood

Sell it to Ruger then if you're so richly graced with it. Betting heavy odds they'd never touch it though because it's too small to quarter saw and get away from the heart and sap wood. Useless for stock blanks. The GOOD stuff, the big older growth, for use on an economical mass production scale, was LONG gone years ago. Might come back someday unless clueless idiots keep burning it for firewood.

The distinction was "pallet wood" as said in the OP. My JM's are clear, nice walnut, from decades ago, not whatever the OP means by "pallet wood" being used now. I recently paid WAY too much for a 90% cut repro butt stock; but it has a hint of stripe in it to match the hint of stripe in the forearm on one I'm getting rebored to 375. I've been looking for that exact piece of wood for a long time. Gotta pay to play now days.

For [bleep] sake, if you two are going to stalk around behind me on this website you HAVE GOT TO get a handle on the context of what's being said.

I don't like the prices either sport, which is why I won't be buying any. But why wish and beg for them to be even higher?

These are huge trees you cousin fuuckin, inbred hillbilly sunofabitch. I didn't say I live in NEPA or that I personally have a bunch of black walnut on my property. What I'm burning was a blow down on a friends lawn that he just wanted removed. Your limited reading comprehension and general stupidity is common among toothless central Apalachian hillbillies whos family tree looks like a pole.

Agreed.

There we go with those fragile feelings and irrational emotions.

Again.

I don't tolerate stupid well. Particularly mouthy stupid. All of us here were posting in this forum long before your stupid ass came along so who followed who ? You don't like it, stay the fuuck out. I'm sure we won't miss you.

Having your ass handed to you by a "new guy" at EVERY turn MUST REALLY sting.

Mashing that ignore button is likely your ONLY recourse to adequately coddle those feelings/emotions.

BTW, black walnut burns slow and cold, which is why most folks just don't.

The walnut was free and a friend needed it gone. I've got plenty of maple, cherry and ash to mix it with. Funny how you think you've handed me my ass. Stupid defines you. Oh and check all your "nicely striped" low grade factory walnut. You'll find much of it was slab sawn, not quarter.

The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.

You'd better come to terms with it then. Maybe you and RAM could offer each other support.. You should become familiar with the term "delusional".

"Hint of stripe" you [bleep] genius.

Damn it man, you just can't help yourself can you?

And as far as sawing lumber don't try to claim you know a [bleep] thing about it. Slab sawn warps, splits/checks as it dries. quarter sawn is FAR less likely to do either. Anybody worth their [bleep] salt in ANY discipline of wood working knows quarter sawn is astronomically more stable. I can't imagine JM being THAT grossly ignorant.

Either way it doesn't change the truth about the OP's bitch and whine. Walnut is not going to make Ruger Marlins cheaper.

Yep, and you'll find factory rifles with slab sawn walnut. Personally I avoid them. Oh and you might be surprised what you learn after working in 3 gunsmithing shops and for a firearms manufacturer for 10 years. You wouldn't know slab sawn from quarter sawn if you had both shoved up your ass. Mouth. You must really enjoy having your ass handed to you though. Now I'm out. Like mathman said, you don't have anything rational to say.

Post up your pics of any one single stock you've built from scratch and we'll have this conversation. Until then, you've got nothing per stock making.

You don't need to make a stock to be able to tell slab sawn from quarter sawn wood dummy, though I have shaped, inletted, bedded, checkered, relief carved, and finished stocks myself.