BEAUTIFUL CURLY MAPLE BR STOCK

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:

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:

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:

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: