Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires 457 stock refinish ???

With a bit of luck with the post office being on time I should have my 457 American on Friday. It's going to be a little cool here (28) but I have a shooting bench on my deck so I can step out and take some shots to at least see if it has promise. If it shoots as well as I hope then I will decide what to do about the stock finish.

drover

Here’s a picture of the first coat of Tru-oil finish on the butt stock. Still tacky in places but after three days of drying it’s started to finally flatten out and dry to the touch, probably another three or four days before it can be handled. I did move it out of the closet and re-hung the clothes back up 🤣.

drover, hope you can post a picture when you get your new gun on Friday.

Will do - here is a link to the ad where I bought it. It's hard to tell what the wood may look like underneath the mud but Iam not seeing any indication of figure in it.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...re-fs-cz-457-american-22-lr#Post19154906

I ordered mine online, sight unseen 🤣. When I open the box and saw it I knew first hand what everyone meant by “mud finish”, in the darkly lighted building it just looked brown. I didn’t really care at the time because it’s mainly for hunting and a little target shooting and since I don’t baby my guns, it’ll be marked up in short order. When it showed it had the potential to be fairly accurate was when I decided to strip the brown off. Here’s a couple of pictures of when I first bought Mud Hen home and a couple targets, CCI standard velocity 40gn 1070 fps, my first 5 shots out of it at 25yds after I bore sighted and mounted the scope, the other’s at 50yds after putting about 75 rounds through it, right after this group my next was terrible and then I noticed the scope had moved on me. The CCI’s worked pretty good for me in this rifle but you may get different results.




I looked at the pictures of your new gun, to me it looks like there’s some grain under the finish. Take a bright light and look at it when you get it in hand.

Did you get your gun?

Well the first coat of Tru-oil was dry enough to handle after sitting for about nine days. I got a little side tracked chasing squirrels after finding a piece of leftover ebony I had used for another project. Probably not everybody’s cup of tea but I decided to add a cap to the pistol grip, not perfect, but it looks ok. Then I got the idea to inlay a squirrel. While hunting last year I found a late 1800’s piano that somebody had dumped out in the woods and I was able to remove and save the ivory from the keys. So this is what I’ve been working on the last couple of days. I think I’m going to try and do something with the butt plate too. 🤣

following... like the grip cap... now for an ebony fore end Tip!...

I wish I could do that but I don’t have the tools, I do have an old horn butt plate and another piece of 1/8” ebony I might try using to replace the original with. I’m not sure what the thinking is putting a recoil pad on a .22 rimfire.

You sure do good work! That is quite an improvement on that stock after one coat of Tru Oil. I can’t tell for sure from the latest pictures, but have you put any on the checkering yet?

I’m picking up a 457 later this afternoon. It has the classic muddy finish. Not sure if I’ll live with it or try a similar refinish.

I haven't made time for a trip to town yet, I will likely go in and pick it up on Thurday.

I did talk to the FFL and he said in his opininon it wasn't as bad as some of the ones he has seen.

Nice job on the grip cap - I wish I had that much patience and skill.

drover

No there isn’t any finish in the checkering yet, probably the last thing I’ll do to the stock.

There’s definitely lighter brown finishes in some of the pictures I’ve seen and it depends on the lighting when you’re looking at them.

i find the 457 LOP a bit short for me... i have a 1" Limbsaver "grind to fit" (size medium) recoil pad Part #10542, leftover from another project.. it has a nearly the same curved shape on the face as the CZ's butt pad... i think it would look fine on a 457... if the medium don't fit, they may offer a small?...

For me rather than fit a new longer recoil pad I would just make up a spacer to adjust the length of pull, I’d keep the original pad since the one that comes on the gun is pretty nice.

I finally picked up the CZ457 yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised it could pass as a new unfired rifle, there is not a mark on the wood or metal.
The other good news is that the stock finish is not as muddy as some others I have looked at, it certainly wouldn't qualify as a great finish but it is good enough that I can live with it. The wood does appears to be fairly plain underneath the mud.

The barrel sets perfectly aligned in the channel and has a minimal amount of free-float, testing bedding by loosening and tightening the action screws while holding my thumb on the barrel at the fore-end the bedding feels solid. I ran some patches through it and mounted a scope and planned on shooting it to establish an accuracy baseline before doing anything more to it.

Today has turned out to be a beautiful blue sky however the temp is only 28 and winds are 15 -20 mph so shooting will have to wait for a better day.

I'll get some pictures up in a few days.

drover

Man, that's great drover. I can't wait to see the photo's and the groups. What scope are you going to mount?

I am happy that you are satisfied with the stock. But a piece of me was hoping you would try the OOOO steel wool approach that Mule Deer suggested. So I could decide if I want to attempt it. 😋

Congratulations on getting your new gun and hope you enjoy it. If you can live with the finish I would, stripping a stock isn’t all that much fun. I steel wooled the first coat of the Tru-oil down today and hopefully will get the second coat on her tomorrow. I fitted a butt plate from a old horn Browning auto 5 that I lamented to a piece of ebony and turned down some old butt plate screws to fit it. Didn’t turn out quite like I expected, the horn is heated and pressed with the Browning script and the process compacts the horn completely through it, you can’t sand it far enough down to completely remove the lettering. When you polish it you can still see it under the shine. I’ve never did this before and so I found out that you don’t believe everything you read in Hobby Gunsmithing or Home Gunsmighting Digest. 🤣😂🤣

I put the second coat of Tru-oil on this morning. The old bottle I had was drying extremely slow so I bought a new bottle yesterday and it’s drying time looks to be much faster. So live and learn, start with fresh Tru-oil.

FYI, using a radiant heater I’m able to get the Tru-oil dry in about four hours. I was able to get three coats on her today.

Have you had a chance to shoot your new gun yet?