Stock Making from a blank by hand

...It is just too bad that here in Canada there is only one actual Gunsmithing school and that is Quebec and taught in French...

I don't know how close you are or if it is a money problem or what, but the school I went to is in a suburb of Denver, Lakewood, Colorado. The school is Colorado School of Trades. It is one of the top 2 schools in the U.S. It would be worth a look.


-Chris
 
I don't know how close you are or if it is a money problem or what, but the school I went to is in a suburb of Denver, Lakewood, Colorado. The school is Colorado School of Trades. It is one of the top 2 schools in the U.S. It would be worth a look.


-Chris
Thank you Chris for the info. I will definitely look into it, If life hadn't got in the way years ago i would likely have even been more serious. at 43 and with 6 kids it is tough to find the resources to attend school. But i will look into it, thank you again.
 
George, I usually apply a couple of coats into the checkering to seal the grain on a field hunting rifle. The Tru Oil is cut with Mineral Spirits about 1/2 to 1/2, and wiped out after it set for an hour. If this were a safe queen rifle it would be left alone to show the contrast of the stock wood against the checkering pattern.

Some wood is so soft that it is necessary to apply oil into the checkering pattern when spacing out the lines. Soft maple wood is hard to checker because of the fuzzing of the grain.
 
Hey Les, I haven't visited with you in a while. Missed you at the Shilen Swap Meets the last few years.
 
Hey Butch,

The problem is old age and not keeping up with things on the boards. I still haven't finish the metal on the rifle on the write up. I told Craftsman that I would try to get it to him for a good dull blue job about 3 yrs ago and it is still under the bed in a case. I noticed last week that it was Feb. 2012 when it was fired and the scope set for zero at about 300 yds. I have been having lots of work done on my RV brakes and bearings. It took most of my PD play money to get things ready to go. I may be able to get going in July towards NM.
 
Man thats cool stuff. Can you tell me why you bed the barrel as well as well as the action?
With the precision shooting I've done I've always been thought that free floating the barrel was the only way to go.
 
The free floating barrel is good on bench rest shooting, but on a light weight hunting rifle I like to have some pressure on the barrel and let it fit into a V block just behind forend tip with about 2 lbs of up pressure applied. The sides of the channel is inletted close to the barrel and with no pressure applied to the barrel side ways. The space is like free floating only the amount of a dollar bill to pass around the barrel. This clearance is not noticeable to most people viewing the rifle. On a custom rifle people expect to have the inletting as close as possible. The accuracy of this rifle is great for an light weight hunting rifle. At 8 lbs with the scope it placed 5 rounds into .300 @ 100Yds. The scope is Nikon 6x18 which is heavy. Without the scope and mounts it will weigh about 6 1/2 lbs.

I hope this helps you understand my way of stockmaking. One can use glass bedding to get a location at the V block location by a small business card under the action flat area behing the recoil lug. After it sets up remove the card and you have some up pressure on the barrel. See the write up and view the picture where I show the point that supports the barrel.
 
Very interesting. The rifles we shoot in the competitions I shoot in are anywhere from 10-20lbs. They are all free floated and either bedded or sit in a chassis that free floats the barrel. The thinking behind free floating the barrel is to allow the resonance fequency to vibrate at the barrels natural fequency and thus tuning a load to the barrel.
Very interesting stuff! Thanks for the reply!
 
Beautiful work, Les. I've made a couple wooden stocked ARs and currently working on re-stocking an old sporterized Mauser. Wish I'd met you a few months ago when I was laying out that pattern.
 
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