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BEAUTIFUL CURLY MAPLE BR STOCK

12K views 41 replies 31 participants last post by  mrdirtbikerider 
#1 ·
Been a bit since I last posted in the RFC forums. Still visit often though. In any case I wanted to share the latest stock I have just finished. This is a inlet for a full Kidd Supergrade action.

In any case:

IN the beginning our Lord grew a western big leaf maple tree. Nature decided that she would make this tree special. And thus I acquired a beautiful blank to carve/mill this stock from:





Azguy
More to come:
 
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#3 ·
I carve a majority of the stock in the mill. This allows me to keep everything in line. The bottom of the butt and the forend are milled so they are true with ean other as well as both are true to the barrel centerline.

Obviously this takes time and care to maintain this trueness. Here I am fixin to mill the bottom of the butt centered on and parallel, with the bottom of the forend:



I won't bore y'all with all of the milling steps. Suffice it to say there area number of "register" and reference cuts made, that allow me to change set-ups as I go thru the process. These cuts are used to dial the stock in each time any change is made. Thereby maintaining repeatability of truness. You can see all these cuts in this series of pics that show the inletting being done.

I rough out the inlet using 1-1/8" and a 3/4" forstner bits. These style bits allow me to remove a large amount of material in a short time.





Then it's on to using several different end mills, in order to achieve the desired quality of the inlet. The mill has a long enough travel to allow me to do the receiver inlet and barrel channel in the same set-up. This ensures that the barrel channel is true to the receiver inlet.



Azguy
More to come:
 
#5 ·
Now it's time to do the angle cuts. Part of the "fun" in doing this is figuring out the different set-ups. Remember the benefit from milling all of this is the ability to keep things true and in line relative to each other. The barrel centerline is the key and everything is kept true to it. This also means there is a lot to keep track of. I have a piece of dry erase board glues to the top of my mill vise. I keep "notes" as I go, so I don't get lost. I also have a 3-axis DRO that I can set a zero point on and keep track of my movements on the mill.



Set-up for my angle mill table that allows me to mill precise angles on the butt. As well as the proper angles for the forend.






Azguy
More to come:
 
#6 ·
After all the milling, I shape the wrist and grip using die grinders and sand paper. Takes a bit of time but each customer has their likes and dislikes as to how they want this area shaped. In this particular case the shooter will not be gripping the stock. Nor will they be shouldering the stock as they fire. They will be using a free recoil technique and just touching the back of the trigger guard and pinching the trigger to fire. This leads me to leave a generous area behind the trigger guard, as well as relieve the area on the bottom side of the stock adjacent to the trigger. This will ensure that the shooter has plenty of room, without diminishing the look of the stock.

Stock after shaping, before sanding and pore filling.



During wet sanding:





Azguy
More to come:
 
#7 ·
Sometime **it happens. A tiny piece of the walnut burl butt fell out. This required me to sand a small area and drop fill the small void. Can't even tell it was there now.



After a number of hours the stock is mostly done. Other than the pillar and rear tang escutcheon bedding. Beautiful piece of maple dontcha think?






As always I literally brand my stocks. With being in Tucson, AZ? Appropriate, right?



Feel free to pm if you have any questions. Thanks for checking my thread out. Stay safe and well all.:bthumb:
 
#12 ·
Thanks.
That fiddleback maple is as vibrant as I've ever seen. Well done!

TBR
Thanks TBR. You should see this in the sun and up close. Ditto on your statement.

Beautiful stock and...more importantly beautiful work! Did you use any dyes or was that just the natural contrast in the wood?
No dyes. Just the natural beauty of the maple. The pics don't do the wood justice. In the sunlight it is awesome!

Oh, my, George, THAT is beautiful! And it would make a spectacular sporter stock too!

Thanks dbr65. I have a bunch of maple blanks that I picked up in Washington. Don't know if any are as good as this one. But there are some nice ones in the bunch.

Doug
 
#16 ·
Thanks

Very nice G!!! I enjoyed the details of the process as much as I like the finish product.
Thanks Pat. I might should've taken more pics, but you get on a roll and don't remember to stop for a pic.

Very nice, is it for sale by any chance? Not offering to buy on the thread, just curious if it is and I will send a PM.
Nick, I did this for a customer. So it is not for sale as it was gone before I started carving it.
 
#25 · (Edited)
To anyone thinking of having a custom stock built- with George's work, it's not just about the LOOKS. George's inletting is done to the highest precision of ANY stocks I've worked over 40 years of building and 30 years bedding rifles. I've worked on and built my share of 10-22 variants over the last 30 years, pillar bedding many makes of stocks, built from a broad array of materials- Off the top of my head, I've pillar and rear tang bedded Ruger, Boyds, Revolution, ATI, Altamont, Tactical Solutions, Archangel, Hogue, Luxus, Volquartsen, Richards, Stocky's, Bell & Carlson and home made custom stocks with a wide variety of 10-22 actions ranging from bone stock 10-22s to Kidd Supergrades. I've seen inletting from factories that was very good- Revolution and Altamont both do a fairly decent job at inletting and centering the action. I've also seen DIY built stocks that look gorgeous from the outside, and the inletting was downright atrocious. Seriously, A pretty stock is worthless if the inletting is either off center, not level, or the takedown screw hole isn't centered or is angled. I've had to level receiver rails, remove or add material from the floor of the TD area, completely bore out TD holes to center..... pretty much any and every way a stock can be done wrong, I've either seen it, fixed it, or when I can't- I've sent it to George to fix it. A few years ago, my nephew- who is local to me, bought a rather pricey "custom" walnut stock for his all Kidd rifle. It was pretty, but the inletting looked like a 12 year old had gone at it with a chisel and a Dremel. That one went to George... he was less than happy when he saw what he had to work with (I think he called it a "Fencepost"), but in the end, he did a beautiful job. I didn't post it here, because my nephew bought the stock from an RFC member.

I can attest- George's work stands FAR ABOVE every other stock maker for the 10-22 that I've seen, bar none. He starts with precise alignment of the blank on his mill, and inlets with such high precision that in the end, the amount of bedding compound needed to mate the action to the stock is minimal. Literally the floor of the takedown area and pillar (George machines his own, self designed pillars) and the rear tang and escutcheon were the only areas I had to bed on the last two stocks George built for me. I have 2 customs from Sonoran Gun Stocks, and George is currently working on 2 more custom stocks for me- a walnut Pharr clone for my daughters Kidd ULW silhouette rifle, and a maple Pharr clone for a CZ 452 Silhouette for my son.

CLICK HERE to navigate to the build thread showcasing the custom stock George is building for my daughter- a Walnut Pharr silhouette stock, custom made to her exact dimensions.

If you want a custom stock built for your 10-22 or other rifle, and you want the absolute best, hit up azguy. You won't regret it.

Respectfully,

DrGunner
 
#26 ·
Very Nice work

Thanks for showing us how you do it. Making gun stocks is a fun and relaxing hobby for some of us retired folks. They are definitely a work of art. I have been a machinist all my life. But when I showed my wife my 1st. gun stock. She couldn't believe it. That in itself made it all worth while.
 
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