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Latest project from Gun Doc's bench
Josh B:
I bought this rifle 25 yrs ago. I've hated the ugly wood since day one, but it's been a fine rifle in all other aspects. About a year ago, I finally decided to do something about the wood. I've been saving off cut scraps of curly Maple for awhile, but I didn't have any scraps big enough for the stock itself. I went to the lumber yard and picked out a curly maple 1x6, cut it in half and glued the halves together to get my thickness. I then epoxied in ringed brass pins in the places that would have screws trying to separate the two halves. Once that cured, I traced another stock onto my blank, did some adjusting on LOP and drop to fit me and cut it out and shaped it. Here's the original wood and the progress of the new stock.
Josh B:
I then shaped and fitted the handguards and pistol grip and sanded to 150 grit. To make the grain pop, I used a water based black wood dye to lightly darken all the pieces. Once that dries, I sanded to 220 grit and applied the red color in two coats. The red dye is alcohol based and is 2-parts red, 1-part yellow, and 1-part brown. You can really see the grain pop with the additional coat.
Josh B:
The next step was to apply 8 coats of tru-oil and really work it into the wood. I let it cure overnight and then steel wooled everything smooth. I used a tack cloth to remove all the dust and debris and applied 3 more coats of tru-oil. Once dried I buffed the tru-oil with my clean finger tips to give it a nice matte luster. Reassemble and the rifle looks way different!
Pat B:
Very nice upgrade, Josh. Beautiful wood.
Hawkdancer:
Heck of a Nice rebuild! But how the heck do you stuff the load down the muzzle??? >:D (lol) (lol)! Good to see you are still kicking!
Hawkdancer
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