Wednesday, April 29, 2009

New Stock

Some of my regular readers, (both of you) might remember when I dropped my Savage out of a stand last November and broke the stock. For the record, here's the picture.



Then, I hemmed and hawed and worried about which stock to get. I ordered one from Boyd's, but their customer service is the worst in the world. After four months and numerous emails, I decided I wasn't going to hear from them, so I cancelled the order.

Then, I started looking again for gun stocks. Flipping through a Brownell's catalog one day last week, I noticed an unassuming entry for something called a Wood Plus stock (catalog 984-000-003). It's just a plain-jane walnut stock and the price is right. I looked for them on-line, but Wood Plus doesn't seem to have a web site. They sell through Brownell's though, so I ordered one, along with a metal trigger guard, #855-000-078.

I'm convinced that someone at Brownell's is paid to fill orders, because the next thing that I knew, I got an email telling me that the order had been shipped. Today when I got home, I found the package on my doorstep.

No, it wasn't a drop-in fit, but it was close. A half-hour's work with a rat-tailed file and it dropped in. I needed to relieve a little wood around the trigger so that all the little bits would move easily. You can, of course, click the picture for a bigger view.



Nice job, eh? I like it. I'll have to mount the scope, and take it to a gunsmith for a recoil pad. All of my rifles have recoil pads. I've also got to decide whether or not to bed the rifle. When I was putting it together, I noticed that the Wood Plus people had machined out a notch behind the recoil shoulder in case I decided to bed it. that's a nice touch. I'll probably shoot it, then decide.

The barrel channel is already relieved enough so that the barrel floats. It seems to be a well-made hunting stock. I like it.

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