Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Ramblings of an amateur gun tinkerer

This is my latest project....restocking a Ruger 77/50 inline .50 caliber. This rifle has been great over the years. Accurate and a great pleasure to hunt with. I have used it to kill more deer than I care to try and remember...however the original straight stock has never really appealed to me once I had purchased it.

I figured it was time to put a new piece of wood on it and make the ergonimics of the rifle a little more to my liking. I started with the scrap piece of walnut left over from the flinter I did that I pictured on a different post. This wood has been off the stump for a considerable number of years and more than ready for some carving. The grain flow is perfect to highlight the addition of the pistol grip and the density is so that it should take a decent checkering pattern. I am going for a stock that is thicker in many dimensions from the original, namely the forearm and wrist. I plan to fluff it a little with a ruger butt pad and a steel grip cap.

When I began this project I had given some thought to how the action was held in the stock. The dinky original screws seemed to be a little bit light duty and they were slotted. Since I take this rifle apart often for cleaning the slotted screws had shown some abuse. My cure for both, right or wrong, was to drill and tap the reciever for a bigger fine threaded stock bolt with an allen head or a torx head. Let me tell you now that a ruger reciever is harder than hell. This I discovered after breaking the first 1/4-28 tap off. Proved positive after the second tap broke. Yes I know how to tap a hole and now I'm out two taps. With some judicious use of a dremel grinding tool and about two hours time I managed to get the broken taps out and save the integrety of the threads already formed. Whew...vulgarities ceased at that point....

Here are some pics so far.....

This is what I started with.....


I did some initial inletting on a bridgeport mill and got it to within 1/32 all around except the barrel channel.


Then I did the old fashion thing with a scraper and lamp black....and a Dremel Tool....



Here is the result of a bunch of hours of inletting the barrel and action...



Today I inletted the trigger guard....
[img]http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c66/wildswalker/50%20ml%20pics/triggerguard.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c66/wildswalker/50%20ml%20pics/triggerguardbetter.jpg[/img]

Next step is tommorrow finish the action inletting ie the hole thru for the trigger....making sure the the safety works properly and making the ramrod hole larger...

More to follow as work progresses...hope ya enjoy my aggravations.....I do....

All systems are go. I oiled one side so the grain will show in the pic. Ready for some shaping and some fluff.

I think maybe a Ruger butt pad and a steel, checkered grip cap will go nice on this rifle.

Anyone got that I could buy?....

WW, looks like it's coming along just fine. BTW, I was going to put a steel grip cap on my '03, but after finishing it, it just didn't look to me like it'd look "right." Your stock's enough different, though, that I think I'd put one on yours. The tighter grip, compared to my '03, would look just fine, I think.

BW, that "tight" grip is subject to change as the whittlin' process begins, lotta wood right there yet. Can't say right now what we'll have but after 3 or 4 hundred "throws" it'll get figured out. This one is gonna fit me like the proverbial glove.

BTW, gonna pm ya in a minute....

Wilds, you sure picked a nice grain pattern to accentuate the pistol grip, could see that in the first pic without the oil.

Thanks for the visit to your shop, hope to stop by again soon.

Very impressive! What a hoot! Tailoring a gun to YOU. No doubt about it - gotta try this soon.

I'm still working on this thing, haven't stopped. Contemplated getting a little bit fancy with some Ebony wood accentuations. Nothing to extravegant just a nice compliment to the style of the rifle. The epoxy is drying as I type this and will post pics soon. I just hope it turns out as planned so I don't eat crow.....hate the taste of crow.

Well folks this is why it's taken a little while to get this back on here. I decided an ebony forearm tip was in order so I set to doing that. I was a little bit afraid it wouldn't turn out so was prepared to take the chop saw to it just in case. This was about the most complicated fit up job I have ever tried to do. I saw a picture of a Sharps rifle with a pewter forearm tip and figured it would look nice in black. All I had to go by was the picture and the rest I had to come up with on my own. One thing I knew for sure was that in order to get the curves to come out right, the fit up had to BE 100%. Since I didn't know exactly where the lines would end up having the right radius shape, it turned into a fit up nightmare. I had to get the inside curves on the ebony to come out symetrical and perfect as well as put a slight taper on it. I then fit it to the walnut from the top down thru the barrel channel. Had to do it that way cause of the shape of the ebony.

Ever smoked a piece of wood over an oil lamp to get lamp black on it? Good thing ebony is kinda hard to scorch and burn. I tried a bunch of stuff and the only other thing that worked well was stock oil....but...that spread out too fast and left me with a missed judgment on fit up. Finally went to the lamp as a failsafe, other than a couple cooked fingers it worked well.



Then the other problem came into play, taking up a lot of time...since I had already done a real good fit on the barreled action, I needed to then fit the barrel to the forearm tip and ultimately come out within a frogs hair of the previous fit up. I almost screwed up and let the barrel down in with a little push to one side...I saw that in time and saved it before it bottomed out. This forearm tip will ultimately end up rounded off on the end...I'll leave it alone for now so that the sqare end will aid in re-drilling the ramrod hole....

Thanks to a couple fine Campfire folks I'll have a steel grip cap and a Ruger butt pad to fit up soon and then I'll continue shaping....The hard part is OVER now and now the enjoyable part begins...Thanks for checking this out.

A suggestion. The next time you contempalte tapping harder steel get gun taps, if they break you can get them out a lot easier.

I am all fixed up by the Campfire on a red Ruger butt pad and a checkered steel grip cap....parts have been recieved, thanks again guys....fitted them and started shaping the butt of the rifle tonight. I believe it's gonna turn out just fine. Should have pics of the final shaping in a day or two...

I have finalized the shape of the rifle the past few days, it is now ready for some fine tuning and a final sanding....what's your thoughts......so far?

Damn! That's some very nice work. Seems my "This old house" projects suck up the time I have for projects like that.

Allen

I like it! I am doing a very similar "post season" project. I got one of the Z5 Omegas with the tupperware stocks. I got a Weatherby "reject" stock for $39. It is rough outside turned and un-inletted. Nice grain but a few imperfections that I patched with some glue and saw dust. I'm not as far along as you and hope mine comes out as nice as yours. I have to try to adapt the Monte Carlo stock to a more straight style that I prefer. My main concern is how the pivot portion of the rifle will look in the wood. I am am definately a rust blue and walnut guy, and am trying to figure a way to dress up that silver painted trigger guard on my gun. I love getting to the point you are at. It is always exciting to see how the wood comes alive as the oil first hits it.

PS - A nice single malt by the fire is a great reward after a well completed project. I have a bottle of 18 year old Glenmorangie that I look foward to pulling the cork on while watching the Olypics tonight. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Man, that's some project you got goin' there......looks great!

Superb......

Thanks Bro.....

Very impressive! You do nice work!

That is pure craftsmanship! Thanks so much for sharing your project with us.

Gene

Man alive!!!

When you said you did stock work, you wasn't kidding! That is some awsome craftsmanship. It makes me want to ease up there, and see just how you do it! LOL!

Jerry, thanks for the phone conversation...great to make new friends...I'll be having a chance (excuse) for you to come out my way in the spring....if you can make it. It'll be great fun for you and the Mrs. A real good chance for us to sit around a campfire and chat about such things as guns and gunstocks....maybe you can bring that foxpro and show me how to use it. I'll holler at ya in a day or two and fill ya in on the details...

Re: the project, I have gone into a metal working phase for the time being. The plan is to make, fit and blue several parts to complete this rifle. Two are simple, a couple of stockbolt screws to fit the action. The others involve how to hold the barrel down in the stock. The original had a barrel band that I thought was simply put....damn ugly... For this rifle anyway. My thoughts are that even though I probably wouldn't have any trouble with just the two screws up thru the trigger guard, it seems maybe a little weak, since the rifle is not put together like a regular centerfire 77 with the 3rd angled stock bolt pulling the recoil lug into the wood. Therefore I need a screw up in the forearm pulling down on the barrel.

By now you know me and I can't settle for just a screw there with the head showing. Now I have to come up with a graceful looking metal trap door about the size of a nickle that flips up revealing a screw underneath. Kinda like the latch on an over and under shotgun or a double. But instead of a latch it will just hide the screw. Of course it will be fitted well and blued. The "problem" is though the ramrod. The piece attached to the barrel will be dovetailed to the barrel and be a ramrod thimble sort of thing with a screw boss on the bottom. I think it is going to be a nicely complicated sort of thing. Good thing I have a bridgeport I can get my hands on....I did think about a wedge pin thru the side but passed on that asthetically speaking. That would be simpler and may remain as a back-up plan. It's off to some grinder dust and some metal filings....more to come soon.