Back in 2006 I was visiting home and went out to see my great-aunt at her place, where I deer hunted as a kid. The house was built in the 1870s, and includes a spring in the woods down the hill. An ice storm had hit the night before and the forest was a bit of a mess. Regardless, I wanted to walk around and see all the old deer stands and soak in the memories. Most of the men who occupied those stands are dead now or live far away. As I got to the spring I saw the old sugar maple that grew beside it had split down the crotch in the storm. It looked as though there might be a bit of figure to the wood laying there on the ground. My cousin said he planned to turn the lot of it into firewood, but wouldn't mind if I used the chainsaw to slab off a bit for whatever project I might be able to use it for. I used it to fit up a gun!







Several years ago I bought a No. 3 in .223. I sent it off to JES for conversion to my favorite big game round, the 9.3X62, and then sent two blanks from my well dried maple to Custom Rifle Stocks in Aaronsburg, PA. He did a great job profiling the blank and drilling the hole for the stock bolt. Between kids, work, and general adulting it took a couple years to get this one done, but I'm pleased with the results. I still need to inlet some sling swivel studs, and perhaps some day I'll checker it, but for now I plan to enjoy the last three weeks of deer season with it! I love the fact that now I get to kill deer in a Alaska using a rifle stocked with wood that grew about 150 yards from where I killed my first buck, with wood from a tree men who were my heros walked by.....you get the idea.

I slimmed down the forend and added an ebony tip. It was apparent the factory lever would be a problem with the No.1 style wood and any sort of recoil so I cut off the tail of the lever and had a tool and die micro-welder weld it back on to my specs before filing and bluing it. With the Vari-X III in weaver mounts, it weighs 8 pounds on the nose loaded. The weather here has been pretty poor for any sort of accuracy testing, but sighting it in at 50 yards produced some one hole groups in-between bouts of wind blowing the target over. It seems to like 250gr Accubonds and Varget. Now I need to go blood it.

Awesome!!

Superb, on so many levels! Looking forward to seeing the hero pics with it.

Nice.

I have a #3 in 223 that I have been playing around with ideas of a custom job. Actually fitted a butt stock to it and halfway through shaping the forearm, but put the parts aside until I really figure out what I want to do with it. I have shot a deer with it already. Just trying to figure out the caliber I would have it rebarreled to if I go that route. Love it as a plain #3, but also think it would be really cool in a fast twist 22 something.

That is simply fantastic. Thanks for sharing. Truly a special rifle.

Very nice, you have some skills for sure.

Beautiful!

I love blued steel and figured wood or any kind, but...wow! What a beautiful rifle you have built with a beautiful story of coming "full circle" so to speak. An heirloom for sure, congrats!!!!
AC

Awesome!!

That is really nice!

Thanks for the kind remarks fellas.



Can't wait to see how your project works out! Proportionally, a 24" barrel would look better if one were to stick with the original forend length, as one of the faults with the original No. 3 which I carried over to my rifle is the length of the forend in ratio to the barrel length. I planned to shorten mine to a more aesthetically pleasing length, but after drawing and mocking one up I discovered that for my long arms something nice to look at wouldn't be practical for use. I need more length, so it is what it is. My rifle's forend is the factory length including the ebony tip. This was my first work with ebony. The stuff is like cast iron!

Another thing I had to work out was the stock color. It seems alot of maple stocks on modern guns end finished like a gym floor. I took a hint from the world of traditional muzzleloading and stained the wood with Laurel Mountain Forge walnut color stain before finishing with a genuine tung oil finish.

Great wood, and the fit looks better than factory. What type of application(single/multiple) did one use to obtain that color and finish?

That’s a truely beautiful rifle!
Checkering, would give it a completed custom look.

Jeezuey that's nice! And I love the backstory too. Good juju in that gun now!

That's pretty special looking. I think everyone would like one like that.

Absolutely gorgeous! Tell us what You did to bring out the contrast in the wood. Glad You kept from the woodstove, nice bit of connection to home and family there.

That’s purty purdy. 😁 Love it

Nice!

I did three coats of stain and then seven coats of oil. The tung oil finish mix I made didn’t develop any gloss until the fifth coat. I knocked it back a bit but left it fairly glossy. I’m curious how well the Burris rings in weaver mounts will hold up, as I’ve never used them much before. As this project went along I accumulated Weaver, Redfield, and original Ruger bases but I like the looks of the Burris/Weaver combo the best.

Really nice , I
Love the #3’s customized. I have a few , I use sulphuric acid to stain maple. It turned reddish and soaks deep Really nice job

Do you mean Aqua Fortis? I considered it, but experiments with test pieces showed it was much darker than I wanted. It also apparently gets a greenish tint over time if not properly neutralized.

Its a Beaut!

I've not much love for blonde maple stocks, but a bit of stain or aqua fortis on curly wood.......simply Beautiful.

Stunning looking rifle. Where you sourced it from is very special

Very cool

Just wonderful work! That's an heirloom beauty.

Great looking rifle and an even better story.

That is very handsome maple.

That is an incredible piece of wood.

Thanks again for the compliments fellas. One fun aspect of this project was working around some of the flaws in the wood caused by worms. There were a couple worm holes filled with basically packed sawdust, and a couple spots with smaller, open pin holes. I treated the sawdust portions with wood hardener prior to finishing. The pin holes I filled with epoxy resin dyed black, which was then sanded down before finishing.

I love the wood, story, and the work. A rifle to treasure and hopefully pass down through generations for many to enjoy.

super cool!!!!!!!!!!!

Beautiful rifle

That is some kind of nice.

Wow! that is cool on so many levels.... the lever treatment is the best I have seen on a #3 with a pistol grip... clever and well done. Makes me want to shop for a #3

If you do, drop me a pm and I’ll explain the whole lever process. It was pretty simple. I can post some close up pics of that as well if anyone’s interested.

Yes, please. Closeups of the lever detail would be cool. Be Well, RZ.

OUTSTANDING!

Thanks for sharing the story of the wonderful rifle!

I'm having trouble finding my pics from when I reworked the lever, but this shows how it started out. I mocked it up first with a piece of heavy wire bent to match the curvature of the tail placed here and there along the bow until I figured out exactly where I wanted it. Then I sent it to a tool and die micro-welder. The advantage of micro welding is that you have much fewer gaps in the welded metal.

Somebody did a magazine article on doing that conversion to the #3 back in the 1970s or early 1980s and called it a #2. The author replaced the clunky #3 stock with a #1 buttstock and forend.

I'm happy with how it turned out and wouldn't hesitate to so modify another one.

Found a #3.
Thinkin about same trigger guard mod now.
Thanks for the detail pics

Cool. Be sure to post it up!

A most enjoyable thread! Thanks

Spectacular an so many levels! A rifle like that, with the accompanying back story is bound to be possessed with good spirits. Just being in the woods with it has to bring a smile.

As beautiful as the rifle is, the backstory adds another dimension. Thanks for sharing it with us and congratulations on a beautiful rifle.

I love the rifle. I even love the long stock, it looks like a classic English stalking rifle.

Very special.

Thanks again guys. The closest I've come to killing anything with it yet was to flop down prone at a doe running way up a hill in January. There was just no shot there unfortunately. As soon as work slows down here soon I'll get a set of talley swivel studs inlet.