Gunsmithing Crafting a custom stock

[AdrianJ101]

Hi guys Im not completely sure if this comes under gunsmithing but my cousin has a birthday coming up and the only thing I can think to do is make a custom stock for his .22 magnum, he's always whinging how bad it looks.

Since Im new to this I was hoping someone could give me some advice on what to craft this stock out of? I wanted to make it myself rather than get a professional to make because mainly if its not that great it wont matter cause it looks terrible already and hes not that great of a shot either

Any help is appreciated

 

[Willys46]

Re: Crafting a custom stock

Runner-up,
That would be a nice gift but I will warn you right off the bat it is an ambitious process. It can be done with simple hand tools, but is pretty difficult. A milling machine helps a great deal.

My suggestion would be to glue a couple 2x4 together and give it a dry run before spending the cash on a nice piece of wood.

Find a stock design you like and start removing wood, then inlet the stock to make sure you get everything straight. Final sand and finish.

 

[ugsly]

Re: Crafting a custom stock

Boyds sells gun blanks for $40 I believe. Just laminate one, but its something to think about.

 

[Mark Housel]

Re: Crafting a custom stock

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ugsly</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Boyds sells gun blanks for $40 I believe. Just laminate one, but its something to think about. </div></div>

That's what I made the stock for my Ruger 10-22 clone out of. This was a school project.

It came out OK, but it was a bit of work.

 

[PCR]

Re: Crafting a custom stock

Mark, Your rifle turned out great. The finish on that stock is amazing.

 

[Mark Housel]

Re: Crafting a custom stock

Thank you Brad

Alan and Bob were leery of that sort of finish on a laminate stock but it worked OK for me.

 

[PCR]

Re: Crafting a custom stock

Mark,

wanna share again what you did to get that finish?

 

[Mark Housel]

Re: Crafting a custom stock

I used a regular polyurethane finish (Varathane) and treated it exactly as Bob process with Pilkingtons.

I did have to soak the heck out of it when initially raising the grain as it absorbed a great deal. (It's a lot of end grain)
I also didn't do the pore filling part since the sanding dust sort of muddies the colors.

But the nature of the laminate was such that there are really no visible pores.

Wet sanded it out to 600 and it looks and feels like the finish we were taught.

Actually I think that you could use the same thing on walnut and get as nice a result for about 10% the cost of Pilkingtons.

 

[Clark]

Re: Crafting a custom stock

Here is a painting of a guy making a stock.

 

[msalm]

Re: Crafting a custom stock

Alvin Linden lived just North of my hometown of Antigo, WI. He called himself the 'wood butcher', but many regarded him as a damded fine gunmaker.