Fortunately, the butt stock that came with this gun provides ample opportunity to practice.
The original fit was pretty bad, and showed signs of repair such as red filler, nails, etc. It was also pretty brittle and cracked on the end. I wanted to practice inletting and fitting, since I will need to do that if I get new wood, so I decided to cut out the cracked tang inlet and replace the wood with doner blocks from the long forend, which I will shorten to a sporter type. In retrospect, I should have cut the blocks and tang area on an angle, so that the block of wood would blend with the grain at least. Lesson Learned #1 - Try to blend repairs with the grain.
This angle shows the approximate quality of the picture in the online sale post. It shows the missing part of wood near the stock, and gives a hint of the wear, but it doesn't look as bad as it was. On the right, is where I left off today, after fitting the stock and filling the wood to fit the metal.
The area on the original didn't meet the receiver, and you can see the damage better. The other side was as bad, and underneath was chewed up pretty good, too. Again, I wish I had thought to trim the bad part off on an angle, matching the grain, rather than flat, matching the inlet. I moved the inlet about a quarter of an inch further into the stock, and will shape the ridge to match it. On the right, the replacement wood is on top, some of the epoxy bedding is showing and it meets nearly flush all around. I can actually move it forward about 2 - 3 mm and it will meet the receiver perfectly. I may do that. I filed the stock flat to match the receiver face, and filed it down to the tang to match the curve of the top of the receiver.
Up close, the cracking of the butt near the plate is more obvious as well as the fact that the buttplate doesn't actually fit at all. The plate doesn't have a stamp number that matches the receiver. In fact, I sort of wonder if it is actually from a Springfield. On the right, (actually a reverse image from the other side) I have matched it to the wood and filed it to fit all around. This was actually pretty easy. I used Prussian Blue on the plate and rubbed it against the wood. Then I used my Dremel to carefully remove the wood where the paint rubbed off. Even with a Dremel, the fit came out great. I haven't even epoxy bedded it, I didn't have to.
The cracking at the end of the butt was so bad, I moved the plate in about half an inch. I am very pleased with the fit of the inlet on this piece. I thought that would be the hard part, but the hard part was actually lining up the inlet on the tang. The rear of the butt ended up twisted a little and is a quarter inch to the right. I turned the but plate a little and am using a ferrier's file to reshape the stock to minimize this. Lesson Learned #2: Find out the right way to align a stock when inletting. Oh, well. I'll tell everyone I off set it on purpose to make it easier to aim. I saw on the Midway Youtube video how to fill in an old screw hole with a dowel and drill new ones.
To move the buttplate back a half inch and remove the cracked wood, I measured in around the edge a quarter of an inch, scribed it, and chiseled the wood away with my flat inletting chisel. After that, I did the blue marking and Dremeling to fit. Ended up going back another quarter inch.
Because I am having to reshape the sides of the stock to accommodate my alignment error, I won't have much left in the way of dents to practice steaming them up. Fortunately, there are some primo pings in the bottom of the stock!
That is all for now. I will finish fitting and shaping the stock by Friday. The barrel came yesterday, so I'll take the receiver and barrel to the gunsmith Saturday, and then start Tung oiling the stock.
---------Sixgun
