First Stock Build

[Bladesmith]

Hey everyone!

I’m looking at starting a stock build for an old Czech Mauser I got from a guy I work with a while back. The plan is to inlet the stock to be able to accommodate a mediumish varmint profile barrel eventually, but for now it has a take off military profile 8mm barrel.

Someone had done a relatively poor job of drilling and tapping it for a scope mount, so until I can get that corrected I’m just planning on playing around with it and soldering some express sights onto the military barrel.

I saw this piece of flamed ash on my luthier tone wood suppliers website and thought for the price it would make a killer stock, or some pretty kindling if I screw it up lol.

With my work schedule I’m not sure how much progress I’ll make in any sort of timeframe, but I wanted to start the thread to maybe help me stay focused enough to get to work on it haha

The sights on the rifle are just sitting on tape until I get some appropriate solder in to actually mount them.

 

[Jonnyofalltrades]

Nice piece of ash! That is one of my favorite woods to play with. The smell is addictive.
It is usually pretty heavy, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
One thing have never tried is checkering it.

 

[Bladesmith]

I’ve built a couple guitars from swamp ash, and yeah I enjoy working with it as well…

I’d thought about checkering, and I’m not sure how the open grain will work with traditional checkering. My initial thought is to do a texturing type of checkering to avoid issues with the pores not looking right. But I’ll probably try on some scrap pieces and see if it looks alright once I get there

 

[Sniperhandle]

I have fixed messed up holes on Mausers several times. I have tig welded the messed up holes and a lot of times the person who screwed it up didn't drill the holes in the right locations and you can take a 6-48 screw and loctite it in then cut it off and file it clean and then re-drill in the correct locations and straight avoiding having to weld the holes.

Once you refinish the rifle I do cerakote, And the mount is installed nobody is going to see it and it's a good repair.

 

[Bladesmith]

One step closer

 

[Bladesmith]

If I knew what I was doing, I feel like I’d be dangerous

 

[Bladesmith]

Obviously, this is still quite rough. I’m on nights right now, so not as much time to work on things as I’d like. Still made some decent progress today I think

 

[CCM]

If you haven't already, get all your inletting done before you go any further so you can start tuning the fit.

 

[Bladesmith]

If you haven't already, get all your inletting done before you go any further so you can start tuning the fit.

I got started on that today after doing some reading. I got the magwell to where it just needs cleaned up and the minor diameter holes for the action screws.

I appreciate the advice sir!

 

[Twdmar]

Have you considered putting a dowel through the wrist? The grain orientation through the pistol grip may prove to be a little fragile.

 

[Bladesmith]

Have you considered putting a dowel through the wrist? The grain orientation through the pistol grip may prove to be a little fragile.

I thought about it, but it isn’t as flat sawn as it looks in the pics and is really closer to rift sawn. It may still need reinforcing though

Edited:

That sounds way more dismissive than I meant for it to. I’ll try to get some more pics of the wood grain tomorrow when I wake up and see what you guys think

 

[Twdmar]

I thought about it, but it isn’t as flat sawn as it looks in the pics and is really closer to rift sawn. It may still need reinforcing though

Edited:

That sounds way more dismissive than I meant for it to. I’ll try to get some more pics of the wood grain tomorrow when I wake up and see what you guys think

Don't sweat it, it's just really unpleasant after all the work and then the stock gets broken.

 

[Bladesmith]

Here’s a better look at the grain orientation on this guy

 

[demarpaint1]

Nice work, subscribed.

 

[joshb]

Just some advice: Be very careful with the depth of the inletting. You should pull the old gun apart and put it together without the stock. That will let you measure the actual metal clearances you need. Nice wood! Good luck!

 

[Bladesmith]

Just some advice: Be very careful with the depth of the inletting. You should pull the old gun apart and put it together without the stock. That will let you measure the actual metal clearances you need. Nice wood! Good luck!

Yessir, that’s the plan moving forward. I have started in letting the action into the stock, and I’m trying to take my time so as to not screw things up too badly