I'm moderately chuffed with the result of a bit of experimentation with a walnut SR stock that I got from Dave(state).
The stock as bought from Dave was for a Mark I, and had been shortened in a previous life, with the butt-end drilled for lead weights. Since the shortening cut wasn't square to the stock when viewed from above, and it felt to me as if it needed the missing length replaced (I have three other SR stocks for comparison), the question was how to do it.
It was also an opportunity for a bit of mutilation to the comb/cheek piece to improve (I hope) the general look of the stock in that area. I'd thought that the SR stock was a bit ordinary looking, particularly when compared to the gorgeous Pro-Sport effort, and being fortunate enough to have a PS here to use for inspiration, I sallied forth...
This and this are the end result. Reprofiling the cheek piece area, particularly at the front, here and here to echo the curve of the forend in front of the trigger guard (probably better seen on the overall picture of the left side) got me thinking about how to tackle that extension piece, and what you see is the result. The sycamore has a lovely bit of tiger-striping on it which is only visible from certain directions, and were it not both hard and heavy, would make a cracking stock in its own right. The extension is screwed and glued to the walnut, since the screw heads would be hidden under the recoil pad. Getting the profiles of the convex curve on the stock to match the concave curve on the extension wasn't easy, especially as sanding tended to change the curves from simple curves to compound curves, exaggerating any gaps between the mating faces.
There was a swivel-hole which was filled with a sycamore plug, visible here. The sweep of the joint between the walnut and the lighter wood is the way it is because I think it looks better than a straight cut. It also repeats the sweep of the back of the cheek-piece. The pistol-grip cap is there simply to finish it off.
Despite the curve of the cocking link protruding below the forend, I think that the way the stock tapers away to the front does a lot to improve the lines of the rifle... here.
It's much less clunky looking than the regular effort; there is a picture here of both a walnut and a stripped beech stock for comparison, and the difference in the cheek pad area between standard and modified are pretty clear.
The one aspect of this bodgery that is not entirely satisfactory is the proximity of the cutaway for the breech and the bear-trap button to the top of the chequering panel on the right-hand side, here. I didn't have much option; the stock is for a Mark I, and so the cutaway had to be extended considerably to accommodate the button. The grooves in front of the trigger guard were also reworked a bit at the back end to repeat that sweep of the trigger guard area.
I apologise if some of the pictures are a bit on the gloomy side; should anyone be interested, I could probably do some brighter ones
What do you reckon?
Does it work?
Opinions welcome on how it might have been done better
Pete
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Originally Posted by steven
