I snookered CB into letting me practice with his money. He chose a tikka t3 as the basis of the rifle as payback  It will work just not the best platform IMO. The factory stock is completely open between the guard screws, I hope that was a cost cutting feature and that I'll be able to leave some wood between the trigger assembly and the magazine for strength. Anyway it will work it's way out in the end. As soon as I get the barreled action I'll start and post a pic of progress from time to time. I'll make the stock from a plain piece of wood and then send it off with his blank to be duplicated.

Tikka;

If the customer wanted the same dimensions as the factory stock, all dory's would be hunky.  But, most customer's after giving up the money for a custom stock, want it to fit them exactly.  So, LOP, comb height, curve of the pistol grip, palm swell, and Betty or Veronica, all come into play. 

Much easier to make all the little changes on pine & have the customer OK it before making irreversable cuts on an expensive oak blank.

900F

 Not much to look at this stage but some progress as my busy schedule permits.....At this point I have most of the bulk wood removed and time to start detail shaping. This is a pattern stock that will be duplicated once I'm some what happy with it. I also finally got the work shop going. Still need a few things but pretty much done.

That is really looking good. How many hours do you end up having in a project like this? Please keep the pictures coming.

Wing master

Looks like the new Garage/annex/gunsmithing building is finished.  Congratulations.

BEAr

 Wing, I'm not real sure how much time it takes me. I'm pretty slow. It could be in excess 150 hours. I imagine I could speed it up but that'd be a kill joy.

 Bear, almost finished. But I do wonder if one ever really is. I still have to insulate about half of the front half and finish the walls, then a bunch of shelves for storage.

  A few pics of the beginning of the cheek piece for the pattern stock. I use auto body filler. It shapes real easy. CB wants a slender cheek piece. Most of the gob will be removed.

  Finished cheek piece and mostly finished pattern stock. The gloss of the paint helps show problems, I have a few tweaks and CB wants a palm swell so next time he's out we'll work on that. IMO he should just fill his palm with a cold bottle of beer but......

Dang, I like the pattern stock better than the plastic stocks I have on some of my rifles.

Nice work Rob.

Wing master

 Finally ready to ship the pattern and blank to the duplicator. Here is the pattern and blank.

 CB's stock arrived from the duplicator today. I like his choice for the blank. Not loaded with figure but nice contrast and almost perfectly q-sawn. I'll start finishing it up after hunting season.

Rob;

I hope you're just tryin' to yank my chain with those photo's of the stock returned from the duplicator.  Tell me you reversed 'em in photoshop. 'Cause otherwise there's the fairly large & irreversable problem of the stock being configured for a right handed gun.

900F

Thats a beautiful hunk of wood. Can't wait to see the finished product.

I thought the cheekpeice was suposed to be on the left side.

Wing master

  A few pictures of Cb's stock still in progress. I'm at the beginning of applying the finish. At this point I've saturated it in cpes for a sealer, sanded that lightly and applied several real thick coats of truoil, let dry and wet sanded with 320 and teak   oil  to cut most of the truoil off leaving the pores near filled. I'll continue with the teak oil till finished. I'll take some better pics then

Fella's;

Sold the Charles Daly, so will be able to not only get the 6.5 metal blued, but able to order the glass as well.  I'm 99% sure the glass is going to be another Zeiss Conquest 3.5-10X mil-dot, just like the one that's on my .338 Winchester magnum.

I'll probably have Dennis Erhardt in Helena do the bluing.  He says his turn-around is about three weeks & the cost is reasonable too.  All reports on his work are that it's first class.  So, hopefully, in early May, the gun can be assembled & shot.  We'll see on checkering, that may or may not get done in the immediate future depending on the time frame.

900F

Rob;

Not to worry.  The checkering will get done, it's just a matter of timing.  I've already arranged with a very good source to get it done, but I don't know if it's going to be delayed because of his vacation to England.  I'll have to discuss with him how long it takes to do, etc.  And how the availability of the wood is going to mesh with his travel.

900F

Fella's;

OK, got the glass ordered last night.  My my, guess what, the dollar has dropped against the Deutschmark.  Gee, I wonder why.  Actually I'm glad that the scope is only about $35.00 more for this gun than it was for the .338 Winchester magnum I bought the first one for.

Discussed checkering with Tom, & he's excited about doing it.  He's going to look over patterns & show me what he thinks will be good after looking at Rob's stock pictures above.

900F

I thought the stock was going to be RED, Blue and green laminate?

did the tung oil bleach out the beautiful color???

I see that Bear's been doin' the 60's again!

Foo

Fella's;

I got out to Rob's last night & looked at the 98% finished product.  WOW!!  This man is an artisan of the first order.  He's got to rub out the finish a little & then, as I understand it, it'll be done. 

I've got to get on the stick & order the scope mounts, then when they get in, all the metal can go to get blued & come back all the same color.  Plan A is that in the meantime & in between time, the stock can get checkered.  If that all works out, we might just screw it all together & take it to the range in May.

The glass came in on Friday also, exactly what I wanted, the Zeiss 3.5-10X 44mm mil-dot.  Now to spend some more money & get the Talley's on order.

900F

 Hey CB

 It's coming along great,just one thought,have you thought about the 'Dead Nuts" rings.? My son put one on his Tikka looks great and strong.

guess it is all one piece.  but I'd like to be able to check/test/tighten the base without taking the scope off.

I'm starting to look for a mount for a m700 CA that is getting rebarrelled.  I want something strong, and I sort of like 4 screws per ring, hex.

Bear;

Check out the Talley lightweights.  They are an aluminum unit with the mount base being integral with the lower ring.  That's what I used on the .338 Winchester magnum after the Burris bases failed.

You do have to remove the scope to access the four mounting screws, but provided the holes in the receiver are tapped correctly, there's no problem.

They're also less expensive than the other Talley rings.

900F

Fella's;

Yesterday, I worked the shop until 1:00 PM, went home & got a bite & picked up the metal to blue.  Fired up the Camaro & headed down to Helena to take the job to Dennis Erhardt at the Frontier Gun Shop.

The State has started road construction already, & I-15 has the southbound lanes closed from Hardy Creek to Stickney Creek, about 12 miles.  Bah!  Humbug!!  Fifty five mph & Sammy's singin' in my head the entire stretch.

In any case, I got the metal delivered to Dennis & discussed what I wanted done & got a quote of $135.00, wrote it down too.  Then turned around & got right back onto the road & hotfooted it up to Da Falls.  Hit town around 5:00 PM and decided to have a cold beer.

900F

Fella's;

Today, St. Paddy's day, I got a call from Dennis that the metal has been blued.  Saturday, I shall once again do the round trip to Helena & pick up the completed bluing project.  I'm anxiously awaiting putting the MK I eyeball on it.

900F

What year is that Camaro?

Wing master

Wing;

It's a 99 with a 5-speed.  If things go well, then the gun might very well be available for viewing during MYGAWDS.

900F

Fella's;

Tomorrow, after work, I go down to Helena & pick up the blued metal bits.  We shall see.

900F

Fella's;

I'm back in town with the blued bits.   I'd-a stopped in a Rob's, but haven't heard from him.  In any case the match between the scope, Talley rings, and the action is pretty damn good! 

The work got done in very short order, as these things go.  Took exactly the 10 days - two weeks period I was quoted.  The price didn't change & was also reasonable I thought. 

So, the odds of a public viewing during MYGAWDS are pretty much worth betting on.

900F

Fella's;

Went out to Rob's this morning  & delivered the metal & picked up the stock for checkering.  We'll just have to see how long that facet of the project takes.  But, plan A is to go to the range with Tom, the checkering guy, this afternoon & wring out some .22's.  I'll have a much better idea of the time frame this evening.

900F

Sounds like she is moving along.

Congratulation to CB and Rob for a nice looking piece.

Fella's;

Well, the pace of progress has slowed a bit.  When I passed the stock off to the checkerer, I told him I wasn't pushin', but I would like an idea as to how long it would take.  I was told to expect it in about two and a half months.  Oh well, I'm not about to jog his elbow when he's got that stock in hand with a checkering tool laid on the wood.

I will, politely request of course, a liberation of the stock during MYGAWDS so that it may be viewed.

900F

Fella's;

This evening, I recieved the checkered stock & now have it in hand.  I'll attempt to get it out to Rob Thurs or Fri evening. 

There might be shootin' this month!

900F

Fella's;

The checkered stock got delivered to Rob earlier this evening.  He tells me that he'll probably be done with it sometime this weekend!

Woo Hoo!!

900F

What about that raw-hide, eagle feather, and bead, contraption he was talking about? Said it would help with barrel resonance. Sounded like hocus pocus to me.

DD