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Working with Gunstocks 07/29/2010 - By Tim Whealton
Stock work will show off your skill and build your business if you do good work!
Working with Gunstocks
Working with gunstocks comes with the territory for the gunsmith. For some it is what they wish they could do all the time, others might be happier if guns didn’t have stocks. Personally I enjoy stock work but I don’t seem to make much money when I do. It just seems that there are not many shortcuts when it comes to quality stock work. Maybe having a business plan would be a good idea so you would know what to avoid and what to seek. Of course if you love the smell of walnut and the beauty of a wonderful feathered crotch ( I’m speaking of a type of walnut!) you have found your place in life and will soon be famous for things of beauty. Lets break this broad category down and look at the jobs that frequently come in the gun shop.
First question is should this gun stock be refinished or repaired. Maybe it has collector value and the refinishing will actually hurt the value. Maybe it has little value and is not worth the price of refinishing, or maybe the wood itself is too far gone for refinishing or repair. This is often the case with old guns that have oil damage especially in the grip area. The gun was oiled and placed back in the closet after each use and the excess oil drained out of the action and was absorbed into the grip. The natural resins that bind the wood fiber together dissolve and the wood crumbles. The worse part is this is the area that receives the full force of recoil and needs the most strength. If this is the case you probably will have to replace. If the wood is still strong but turning dark you might be able save it with a couple of old time tricks of the trade.
First you can try using a thin volatile solvent that will penetrate the wood and rapidly return to the surface to evaporate. Brownells sell whiting that will absorb this oil and keep if from going back in the wood. The oil soaked whiting (like crushed chalk) is scraped off and the process is repeated until you stop getting oil. This is an outdoor project because most solvents that dissolve oil are flammable and very smelly.
Another method I like is simply placing the stock on the dash of my truck with the rolled up. Better have some absorbent paper under the stock or oil will dripping off your dash. You will be amazed how much oil will come out of the wood just from being in the sun.
Fitting guns is a term used to explain changing the stock dimensions to fit a particular shooter. This line of work requires a through understanding of shotgun shooting as well as the gunsmithing skills involved in changing drop, length of pull, pitch and cast off. These specialist are usually in attendance at major shooting events and do a brisk business while there. Many times the fitter will have a try gun which is a shotgun with an adjustable stock so the shooter can adjust and try until he finds the perfect combination of drop, pull and cast. Then the dimensions are measured and recorded so the shooters personal gun can be modified. Attending one of these events is always beneficial and can open up opportunities for learning as well as future business. A proper gun fitter n will have to be a competent shooter, coach and gunsmith to be accepted in this line of work. That won’t happen overnight but a good one will never have to advertise to stay in business.
Recoil pads and sling swivels are two of the jobs that show up frequently in the shop. While these two jobs seem simple they are high in nuisance value and anything but perfect work will show up and make you look like a novice or worse. Just think of how many guns you have looked at over the years that lost value from a crooked recoil pad or a sling swivel off center. Both of these jobs also carry the risk of damaging a fine stock so a little extra for insurance might be a good idea.
The sling swivels must be installed on center and secure but without any chance of splitting. Choose a drill that slightly smaller than the core of the screw you will be installing. Counter sink this hole at least 3/8” with a drill that matches the outside diameter of the screw. This helps prevent the screw from pulling up the wood as it tries to pull itself into the wood. Apply steady pressure downward while starting the screw for best results. For the swivels that have a nut on the back like on the forearm make sure it doesn’t contact the barrel. Also make sure to secure the swivel in the nut so it cannot possibly come out. This is a potential disaster when the swivel breaks and the rifle swings around while the shooter grabs to stop it. A drop of locktite or epoxy on the threads should do the trick.
Most of the time before you can fit a recoil pad you have to cut the stock to length or at least flatten the surface. Seems everybody has a different method for this and you will have to pick something you are comfortable with. For sure it is a lot easier to cut than put back so make certain of your measurements. Length of pull is measured from the trigger to the middle of the pad. Pitch is easier to determine by placing the gun butt down against the wall or vertical straight edge and measuring the muzzle deviation from the vertical at 26 inches. The correct method for measuring pitch is the degree of the butt from the centerline of the bore. I find it easier to explain and tell how much I have altered pitch by using the wall to muzzle measurement. Old Winchesters and others that feel so good are 84 degrees. Most guns have a little negative pitch. This allows the butt to fit onto the shoulder with a better fit and makes for more consistent gun mount. Measure other stocks and try them out on the customer. After all the idea is to fit the gun to the customer and make him happy. I use masking tape and mark my cut with a marking scribe that holds a pencil and cut with a very fine cut hand saw. By letting the saw do the work with minimum pressure and holding both parts until the cut is done I get excellent results. Cutting through the tape helps to minimize the saws effect on the finish and makes for a smoother edge. Find the cutting method you prefer and practice on old stocks. You want to be confident before that customer comes in with the Superposed grade 12 and wants it 5/16 shorter with 1 3/8 pitch.
I cringe when I read some of the old instructions for installing recoil pads. Some of them actually recommend grinding the pad while it is on the stock. Never try this on a customers stock. There are several jigs that allow you to set the angle on the pad and hold it securely for grinding while the pad is attached to the jig. Practice on old stocks by cutting off the stock and refitting the old pad. The more pads you grind and fit the better your skills. This is a much safer way to learn as opposed to wrecking a customers stock. Don’t forget to seal the end of the freshly cut stock. The customer will thank you after he spends the day hunting in the rain. Just go slow and allow the sander to cut the pad. If you hurry heat will build and the pad will smear. The finished job should follow the lines of the stock and not have overhang or undercut. Most pad manufacturers have instruction for grinding their pads. They know what works best for their product and their instructions will help you get a great job. If the old screw holes in the stock interfere with alignment of the new pad then drill then out oversize and epoxy a hardwood dowel in the hole. After epoxy has hardened cut off flush and start over with new wood.
It seems that I am seeing more shooters lately seeking recoil reduction with the stock mounted recoil reducers. These are sealed units that have moveable weight inside that distributes the recoil force over a longer time period which takes the peak out of the recoil cycle. If the unit has mercury for the weight remember that these units only works if the muzzle is pointed up so the mercury is in the back. Don’t put this type in a rifle that will be used from a tree stand. Some of these use the bolt hole already in the stock but you can also drill a hole for it if needed. These are large holes and require careful layout. Additional units can be installed in a recess routed into the forearm under the barrel. This can also balance out the gun but does add a little weight.
Glass bedding is very popular but not very well understood. While I don’t want to write another “how to” about bedding I think it might be more beneficial to go into why. For a rifle to shoot the same spot every time the receiver must rest in the same place in the stock every time. It should be a home without stress but secure enough to maintain the gun in this perfect cradle. Before we had epoxy this was really hard to achieve with a wood to metal fit. Wood expands and contracts with the temperature and humidity. Epoxy to the rescue. While liquid it conforms perfectly and hardens to the mirror image of the receiver. Pop out the receiver, trim of the excess, reinstall the missing parts, and you are done. But does it shoot any better?
If the problem was wandering zero or the gun wouldn’t stay sighted in then maybe, but if it didn’t group at all it probably still won’t. For sure epoxy bedding will help and never hurt accuracy it won’t cure problem in other areas. If the problem is a bad barrel then all the epoxy in the world won’t help.
So you have decided to glass bed but which type is best? Do you want to pillar bed? Which type of epoxy? Which release agent? A lot of questions but with a little information you can make the best selection.
Select the epoxy that is the easiest to use. There are lots of other bedding agents that are excellent. Brownells says epoxy is like a beautiful woman, follow directions and everything will be wonderful, do it your way and there will be hell to pay. I have used Marine Tex, Micro-Bed, Bisonite, J-B weld and West Marine products. They all worked well and if used carefully will do a great job. Bisonite was the only bedding used by the All-Guard gunsmiths for M-14 match guns for many years. My favorite is acra gel from Brownells. Mixes one to one with plenty of working time and stiff enough to stay put. I also like the vibration absorbing quality of Acra-Gel and I can get it when I order it.
Spray release from Brownells is the best release agent I ever used. No cleanup, easy to apply and fast. Just don’t forget to use it! Not just on the action but any other parts that might come in contact with the epoxy. I rub it on the stock finish with a cloth for safety. I was glad the morning I came in and found an epoxy smear where it shouldn’t be.
Pillar bedding refers to removing all the wood (or whatever) between the action and the floorplate. This helps with the problem of wood expansion increasing guard screw pressure. The area around the guard screw is removed with a piloted drill and now the guard screw thru hole is ½ inch or so in diameter. Pillars can be bought or turned on the lathe to fit the hole and cut to mate up with the receiver bottom. With the pillars attached to the receiver coat the pillars with bedding and insert into the stock. It can be done with the bedding or as a separate function. No release agent on the pillars but make sure it is on everything else. After the bedding is cured the bottom of the pillars can be trimmed if necessary with a muzzle cutter like you use to crown a barrel. Now the action screw can be torque to what ever you desire and there is no wood to compress. Here is a tidbit that I never heard mentioned. We measure torque with a torque wrench on the screw head. But if one gun is a mauser and the guard screw is a ¼ -22 ( 22 threads to the inch) and another is a Winchester with ¼ -32 the Winchester will have much more pull into the stock. You heard it here first! I have found that if the gun only shoots well with very heavy pressure it probably has a bedding problem. The heavy pressure is just crushing the receiver into the stock to where it can’t move.
Now we have stocks that don’t require bedding. I’m talking about the fiberglass stocks with the aluminum bedding block. These usually work best with heavy pressure, maybe it makes up for the lack of a perfect fit. Even without the aluminum block fiberglass stocks are great for accuracy. Stable, lightweight, and strong. I said fiberglass not plastic! Those things were made to lower the price, not because they are better. They are very hard to bed with epoxy because it doesn’t adhere to plastic and they warp and bend worse than any wood. If you have to bed a plastic stock drill anchor holes for the epoxy that connect with each other and use a large syringe to inject the epoxy making sure it pushes through the anchoring holes.
Maybe the customer doesn’t want the stock bedded. Just the barrel floated so it doesn’t touch the forearm. Carefully raise the barrel with several turns of tape at the end of the forearm and epoxy bed the recoil lug area only. After it cures remove the tape and the barrel will be centered in the forearm. If you try to only cut out the forearm where it touches the stock it may move to one side and you could end up with a barrel not centered. Looks bad on the gun and you too!
Here is one more goody you haven’t heard. If your guard screws have a bevel and contact a beveled washer in the stock these bevels can cause uneven torque unless they are in perfect alignment. I cut mine flat and do away with the countersink.
Stock finishes are as varied as the people that apply them. Every time I see one that looks good I ask the craftsman to tell me his secret. Evidently they don’t want it to remain a secret because they will take 15 minutes just to tell me what they did and why. What I have found is there is no secret, the beautiful finish is produced by careful work.
For standard wood gunstock finishing I haven’t found anything better or faster than a product called Custom Oil by Gun-Savr. Sold by Brownells and available in satin or gloss it is a blend of tung oil and urethane. Easy to use and dries fast and it comes in aerosol or liquid for air brushing. The satin is my favorite. It doesn’t show the little flaws like the gloss and looks more business like on a hunting gun.
A lot of older guns that look really bad with stocks that are missing finish can be made quite presentable with a little work. Maybe the owner doesn’t want the expense of refinishing or the gun isn’t worth that much, but if it has lacquer finish this can be dissolved and worked back into the wood for a utility finish. Maybe it is a birch stock that had a walnut stained finish to make it look darker. This looked ok for about one day before it was scratched and the white wood was showing thru the finish. You can use any of the one step refinishing products or make your own. I use equal parts finish remover, mineral spirits and Birchwood Caseys Tru-oil. Just rub it on with fine steel wool and the old finish is dissolved and blended back into the wood. If you want more finish you can go with more coats of Tru-Oil after it is completely dry. This will not work with any of the modern finishes. Put finish remover on these and it just cleans them. They will require the complete strip and refinish.
On gunstocks that have been oil soaked finishes can be a problem. The oil in the stock mixes with the finish and it never dries. Getting oil out is hard but some of the old methods with whiting and solvent help a lot. The idea is the solvent penetrates the wood and dissolves the oil. The solvent must return to the surface to evaporate and bring the oil with it. The whiting is an oil absorbent and retains the oil. It is scraped off and discarded. Another method is oven cleaner and hot sun. It works on old oil soaked military stocks but softens the wood on the surface too much for me to recommend. Try it on a junker and decide for yourself.
Fiberglass stocks are painted. If you are good with the air brush it will look like new. If it is a target gun and you want something spectacular then take it to an automotive body shop. They can do metal flake, metallic, flames or whatever. Most of these guys enjoy getting to do something different and really try to make it a showpiece. I said fiberglass, not plastic.
With replacement fiberglass stocks available refinishing is not as common a job as it was several years ago. It seems a shame but I notice it is rare to see a hunter holding a beautiful piece of wood anymore, but for some fiberglass or plastic will never be an option. When this customer has his gun refinished by you it will be shown to everybody and you will get more advertising than you could ever afford. Constantly work on improving your technique. Read the few gunsmithing books you can find and stay informed on new products. Manufacturers want you to be successful with their products so you will buy more and recommend them. They are a great source of information. Do Good Work!