Pre-64 Model 70

I'm not really a "typical custom rifle kinda guy" but when a diversion from the doublegun world presents itself, I'm not likely to turn it down, especially when it's a referral from a good friend.  It's not that I don't appreciate a nicely done bolt-rifle, quite to the contrary, I just think that that particular segment of the market is bursting with competent builders and I see no need for another.

The victim is a custom Model 70 (by a well-known builder) that unfortunately took a tumble out of the gun cabinet.  While not successful in its escape attempt, it was the worse for it, with multiple and deep dents to the stock, some of which were in the beautifully checkered areas (ouch!).  Since it was here anyway, the owner wished to have its lack of "snap, crackle and pop" addressed as well.  That is what will be detailed here.  You might want to grab a coffee, it's going to be a long trip.

Some of the dents

With the dents addressed, it was time to address the owner's other areas of concern.  He wasn't happy with the square-fit forend tip and wanted one with a "widow's peak".  This was made with a piece of ebony.  I machined the spur and barrel channel on the mill but it was fit to the stock using smoke and scrapers.

Since ebony is an oily wood, I didn't trust epoxy alone to hold it in place, so I made a "strap" to hold it in place.  This was let into the barrel channel and it's anchored by the swivel stud and epoxy (dyed black so that the strap is not visible in the barrel channel).

With the forend tip secured, the shaping could be done.

The next agenda item was the swivel studs.  The "Dollar Store" look of the Uncle Mike's swivel bases wasn't going to cut it here but I also never liked the look of the exposed screws used in most "custom" installations.  So.....

And the rear....

Next, the cheapo-looking Pachmayr pad (basketweave face no less, UGH!) got the heave-ho.  Naturally, a spurred forend tip needs to be backed up with a spurred Silver's pad, right?  Right.

The owner felt that crossbolts were needed and, given that the rifle's caliber is .338 Winchester Magnum, I was inclined to agree.  I must admit that I used Talley's pre-fabricated bolts because I see no need to reinvent the wheel (at least not this time).  The stock is bolted into a fixture that is clamped in the mill and the fun begins.

The heads of the crossbolts are filed and polished flush.   Wow, they're ugly.

That's better.  The heads were shaped to a convex that is below the surface of the surrounding border.  When the border is polished after bluing, it gives the illusion of an escutcheon around the screw head.

The grip cap came under scrutiny next.  You might notice that the rear screw is not only misaligned, but it's actually off center.  This will not do.

That's better.  With the crossbolts being such a prominent feature of the rifle, and given my OCD-driven need for uniformity, I decided that all of the screws in the rifle would be of the pin spanner type and their heads would be of the same sunken, convex design as that of the crossbolt heads.  After welding the rear hole shut and recontouring the area, I milled the screw hole and pocket for the screw head on center.  I then added a shadow line around the base of the cap by hand filing.

Finally, the lower edge of the cheekpiece looked a bit unfinished.  A simple shadow line cured that.

Now we move on to the action.  The rifle was equipped with a Canjar (non set) trigger.  This is (in my opinion) one of the best aftermarket triggers (unfortunately, no longer made).  The problem is that the trigger shoe, while functional, is aesthetically lacking.  Clearly, this affront could not stand.
Yes, the new trigger IS asymmetrical.   It's a right-handed rifle, so the trigger is shaped for a right-handed user (exactly why the cheekpiece is only on the left side).

The bolt was next.  It was originally covered in "worm tracks" that looked like someone used a Dremel tool on it while resting their hands on a running paint shaker.  Whoever thought up this quick and (very) dirty alternative to proper finishing should be slapped, hard.  They also thought that the extractor would look neat nitre blued (can we just stop with that, please?).  The bolt, extractor and collar were repolished and properly finished, using the time honored techniques of those who've forgotten more about finishing than any "gunsmith" will ever know (that would be watchmakers).  The bolt handle was rust blued.

New action screws (all three) were made to match the pattern of the crossbolt heads, fitted and indexed and then the metalwork was all hand polished, in preparation for rust bluing.

All finished.  The stock was finished in real oil (not Tru-oil), hand cut to 2500 grit finish and the checkering recut.  Here are the "glamour shots"

Notice

Effective immediately, I will no longer offer ANY refinishing of wood or metal as an "a la carte" service.  Far too many people seem to think that the cost to correctly refinish wood and metal is too high (I guess because the buffing wheel and sandpaper jockeys do it for cheap).

I will still offer and perform these services as required during repair and custom operations (to my usual standards, of course) but it is not, nor has it ever been, profitable to offer them as stand alone services. 

As I've said before, I'm a one-man operation and since "simple" refinishing has always ranked high in aggravation and "opportunity costs", it seemed obvious to simply stop doing it.

Leather Covered Pad (with a twist)

The gun is a Holland Royal and the client specified a 14 1/2 inch pull length, nothing unusual there, except that the pull length was 14 inches to the wood and he didn't want the stock cut if it could be avoided.  This meant that the pad had to be 1/2 inch thick.  The pad also would have to be of a construction that was deep enough to get screwhole plugs from, which ruled out any currently available Pachmayr and pretty much anything else.  What I needed was a half-inch thick Silver's no.3 but there is no such animal.  Well, you know what they say about necessity being the mother of invention.  I took a standard one inch Silver's and separated the red, "soft" rubber portion from the black, hard rubber base and removed the needed amount from the inside of the soft section.  I then reattached the pad and base and proceeded as usual.   Why not just shorten the pad from the back?  I'm glad you asked.  Because a Silver's has an oval pocket molded into the pad portion that is deep enough to keep that from being a workable solution.  The gun also had a pretty good example of a badly done leather covered pad, the dreaded leather covered hotdog bun.

Before:

The shortened Silver's pad:

The finished job:

Beretta ASE 90 Stock Repair

This is a Beretta ASE 90 that suffered a broken buttstock through the webs where the hand joins what would normally be called the head.  In this gun, the stock is very thin in this area because of the added frame width, necessitated by the detachable trigger unit.  It appears to have suffered a side load applied to the stock, sufficient to crack the wood.  How it happened, exactly, I do not know but the grain structure in the area didn't help matters any.  There are some that think grain flow doesn't matter in a drawbolt application, they are mistaken. 

After chipping the loosened synthetic finish from the broken areas, the separated parts were prepped for reattachment to make certain that the repair would be as invisible as possible.  Once all was back in one piece, I machined it internally to accept ply and carbon reinforcements.  After that, the inletting was recut, the repaired area was refinished and blended, and finally, the checkering was recut.

Westley Richards LOP Adjustment

This was a new Westley Richards Hand-Detachable in 28 gauge with pull length that was a bit long for the owner.  The original butt was checkered and he wanted the finished product to look original.
It was cut to the desired length and then I shaped the contours of the face of the butt to correspond to the original configuration, then I checkered it at 24 lines per inch (in the factory pattern) and finished the exposed wood to match the rest of the stock.