Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Myrtle Wood stock

Does Myrtle wood make a good stock? I saw a piece of stock blank for sale and was wondering if it would work.
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<br>I am thinking of sending it to Mel Smart to have it made into one of his laminated stocks. Opinions?
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Newguy,
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<br> I had a rifle with a myrtle wood stock a few years back. It was a nice looking piece of wood. I only sold it because I'm a a southpaw and the rifle was'nt.
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<br>MM
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I've only used Claro and English so can't say from personal experience. Jack O'Connor wrote in his book The Big Game Rifle that myrtle wood is somewhat hard to dry, can be obtained with good figure, takes checkering well and is comparable to walnut. I would contact a couple of manufacturers of semi-inlet blanks and see what they have to say about the wood.
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<br>Great American: www.GUNSTOCKS.COM -talk to Henry Pohl-he can also shaped the blank for a nominal charge if you like.
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<br>Don Cantwell: http://www.cmc.net/~cantwell/cantwell.html-Mr. Cantwell is a very nice gentleman that will give you the straight scoop IMHO.
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<br>Good luck.
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Take a look at gunbroker.com 4862921, a myrtle stocked Krag which I eventually bought. Also gunbroker.com 5570917, a myrtle stock for a pre 64 M70 by the same stockmaker, an Oregon gent named Lindholm, both made for Dick Simmons who wrote "Custom Built Rifles" and "Wildcat Cartridges" Wood is quite beautiful but heavy. Guess it could be hollowed out some.

Newguy:
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<br>What Miki said is correct. Myrtle makes a beautifully figured stock. However it is heavy and because of all that figure, unless it's properly dried and the grain layout of the blank is done properly it tends to be a little 'warpy'. Unless I personally saw the blank I think I'd be little leery. My .02

I have worked quite a lot of myrtle and love the stuff. I helped KKAlaska restock a rifle last winter for his first stock job. It is full of all sorts of extractives, pitches and gums, which give it a wonderful camphor smell when being worked. It has as much luster and depth as any of the best stock woods when finished.
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<br>The extractives cause drying problems because they do not allow the wood to dry uniformly. A long-dry blank will not move anymore than the best walnut once built into a stock. It is plenty hard enough and is comparable in weight to good English and strong enough to be used for any slender stock design you might care to use.
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<br>Laminate? Is that Greek or some other language? It sure does not belong in any discussion about a decent stock! But then I say the same thing about ANY plastic! ;-) Laminated stocks are poor options, IMO, because they weigh more, lose most of the intrinsic beauty of wood, checker poorly and I do not like the looks even a little bit...
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<br>But Myrtle is great!
<br>art

Have any of you seen the laminated stocks I am talking about? It is http://www.acrabondlaminates.com/main.html
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<br>It is suposed to look like real wood but be a little more stable. The stock I am looking at is pretty inexpensive, maybe I will try to do it my self.
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It is still a laminate, still not acceptable to MY tastes. If you like them, more power to you! The days of oil finished stocks being used in wet weather and being a problem CAN be over... there are finishes that so far outshine the old oil finishes, yet have oil on top so they look EXACTLY like oil, that there is no excuse for using them anymore in places where it could make a difference.
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<br>I have every reason to believe you can do it by yourself.
<br>art

I have two, both 2 piece for Martini's. One set is outstanding, one set is somewhat plain. Unless stained, it will finish out somewhat blonde, in my experience. Works very similiar to walnut as far as shaping, sanding, etc. Would like to aquire more, but it seems to be somewhat scarce...