Making a stock from scratch

pyscodog

Active member
On another site, a member has a beautiful piece of wood for a stock. I have no tools nor the knowledge or skill to build a stock from scratch. I also have no intentions of even buying the wood. I was just curious as to the cost to turn the blank into a beautiful rifle stock if you had to pay to have it done.
 
If you Google "rifle stock making cost" there is a pretty good guide $2000-$4000 plus the cost of the wood. Sorry I'm on my phone and don't know how to post a link with it.

Makes you miss the Herters, Fajen and Bishop shops. Herters had some beautiful walnut and maple plus a number of exotic woods that were awesome. I had a Herter J-9 with Presentation grade French walnut that was stunning. I bought it right from the Herters store in Waseca MN in the early 70s.
 
Yes it does make you miss them for sure. This guy has a piece of wood for sale that is gorgeous but he wants $450 for it. Then the cost of shaping it could easily make it a $2000 stock. I use to be a pretty good trim carpenter in my youth but this is waaay over my skill level.
 
Ain't nuthin to it. You just cut off everything that doesn't look like a stock.
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That's about the same as machining on a $400 dollar barrel blank. I make absolutely sure I know what numbers I'm going to, BEFORE any chips come off.
 
LOL, my tools are a chainsaw, sledge hammer and a grinder. Maybe a screwdriver or two. When the shop moved to Kentucky they took my tools with them.
 
OK, maybe you shouldn't try it with those tools. I've chambered a pile of barrels, and stock making is something I'm smart enough to know that I'm not smart enough to do. I leave that to the stock makers.
 
If I ever tried it, I'd have to find someone with a duplicating machine and then do the final fitting.
I'm also going over to the dark side with the synthetic stuff, lately.
 
A guy over on the XP 100 FB page has a duplicator and is pretty reasonable. His name is Samuel Rice. I'm looking for some wood for an XP stock myself. He has many many patterns.


Greg
 
I'm making a stock right now for an individual. He bought his wood and had it shipped to me. I've got a duplicator machine that I made. I'm sorry to say, I've been working on his stock for two years. I'm 73 and lost my wife a year ago and had health issues myself last year, so I'm just dam slow. The stock that he wants is for a HK 770 semi-auto. No one makes stocks for this gun. Additionally, he wants a traditional American styled stock rather than the European style of the factory HK's. So, I'm using a Remington 700 stock for the outside pattern. I had to add wood in the receiver area as the bolt action stock was too thin.

Oh, I told him it would cost $900.00 with he supplying the wood. That was not near enough!

It's almost finished. I've got a few minor things left to do. He'll have to finish it, Here is a link to a post on Rimfirecentral. Shows the process and two pics of the stock at the end of the post.


Making a Stock for HK 770

 
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Like others have mentioned finding someone with a duplicator is your best bet. Duplicator will get you close to the dimensions of your stock and will require careful fitting. If you are wanting to do some diy I would suggest duplicating it and finishing it yourself.
 
I haven't the room, tools or patience to take on a stock build from scratch. I can bed and sand and refinish but carving one out is way above me.
 
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