Work has begun on the new stock for my future small game drilling. Found the gun a while back and after some minor mechanical work am having it stocked so its better for walking and shooting over pointing dogs. American walnut...original stock will be stripped and reoiled and set aside.

This is what we started with


and the first photos of the work in progress

Great photos. Keep us up to date with more pics if you would. Looks to be a fine gun. Packy

Looks good. What calibre/gage is your gun?

quote:

What calibre/gage is your gun?

Its 16/70 over 7x65R and in a light alloy action...with 65cm barrels. Should come under 7 lbs without the scope and be able to cope with any bird or hoofed game in North America.

Looks an interesting project. What are you doing re comb height. Are you going to make this high enough to be really comfortable for rifle shooting with scope or are you setting it primarily with shotgun in mind and thus have to raise your head up when using the scope. The reason I ask is with my combo, it has a lot of drop and I have made a lace on comb raiser / cheek piece for scope use. I may try to have the stock bent upwards to make the comb more parallel with the bore so it doesn't jump upwards so much.

The gun is being stocked to my normal SxS dimensions..I intend to use it as a pure small game drilling most of the time. I will have to raise my head with the scope, which won't be too often. Most of the time, the rifle barrel will be reserved for coyote, fox, badger and (a lot of) feral cats and will be shot over iron sights at moderate distance.

That is going to be a lovely looking piece! How does the rifle shoot?

We need more photos as the build continues!

C'mon Jon - you have an audience out here.

Rgds

Ian

My smith did some minor work on the gun, took it apart, cleaned and then fired it at his in-house range. At 50 meters, it was shooting 3 shots (cold) just over 1/2 inch. I expect it will do 1.5MOA which is about average for a decent drilling and I expect that with some hand loading, I can improve that a bit.

I've had several PMs asking who is doing the work so here is his website. Young very talented and experienced at restocking combo guns which would be hard to find here in the US http://www.sbanski.de/ Thorsten also speaks very good English.

Great work! Looking forward to see the rest of the project!

Here pics of the newest updates...the difficult work of shaping to the action

That is a lovely piece of wood - going to be a peach when it is completed.

Keep the photos coming please Jon.

Rgds

Ian

We're getting close. Have to trust the "artist" as far as the final finish...photos can only tell you so much. Thorsten has a trigger guard with long tang and a proper butt plate. The fore arm will be a bit longer than normal.

Geez! It's starting to look like a Famars round-body!!!

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Geez! It's starting to look like a Famars round-body!!!

Whoa there Biebs....that's way over my pay grade....besides I intend to actually hunt with this gun

Is the finish on the wood yet? What a great gun.

Thats going to be a damn hansom weapon that your hiers will be fighting over.

Cheers, John

Wow, that is going to be one beautiful gun.Congratulations.
Bill

Good calibres. The project looks good.

Having to raise your head to use a scope on a Drilling/combo gun is not a problem.

My wife and I both have Sauer 12x12x30/06 Drillings with scopes in claw mounts.

They handle like a good quail gun.
Click on the scope and you have a 300 yard+ 30/06.

It is my wifes favorite hunting gun. She has even taken a pig sith a slug.

I have had several Sauer 3000 12 gauge drillings in various calibers. My current one is a 12/12/.30/06. While it is light for a drilling at 7lb, 2oz, I would not characterize its handling qualities in the same neighborhood, heck, not even in the same county as a good quail gun. My "good quail gun" is a 16 gauge weighing 6 pounds with most of its mass between the hands for low moment of inertia.

12 ga Drillings can be pretty hefty. 16 ga drillings, if the barrels aren't too long, can be under 7lbs without scope and the alloy framed guns can be approaching 6 1/2 lbs. Small game drillings are usually built on 16 ga barrels and even better is 20 gauge with a small caliber rifle under...222, 22 Savage Hi Power, up to a 7x 57R. Depending on the stock, they can be very comfortable for small game hunting. This is my favorite so far..a 20 gauge over 5.6x52R with 25" barrels...alloy frame and weighs 6lb 9oz without the scope. All you have to do is get accustomed to the side safety..

We're getting closer. Thorsten has been swamped with work but is making steady progress...a little more work on the fore end then checkering and the final finish, and we're done.

Repeats to self 'I am not jealous'

Rgds

Ian

Nice!

I had to go find a towel to clean up the droooooool.

Slowly but surely...here the buttplate, proper for the period....final pics soon

Update on the project...last pic...checkering in progress...forearm made a touch longer because of my height and the longer barrels on this leightweight drilling

Wow! I really like the english stock on a drilling. Beautiful!

God I love drilling porn!

She's on the way home....bluing of the trigger guard is the only thing needed. Took longer that Thorsten had intended but I knew he was heavily booked and told him their was no rush. Will be walking the cover in ND this fall...

Lovely job of work!

Thanks for keeping us upated - the finished result is superb.

Rgds

Ian

Lets us know how it shoots when you get it home to ND.

Those Greener side safety's can be a real pain to use. Especially if you have stubby thumbs like me.

I thought I might change the safety, but I have gotten accustomed to carrying a drilling upright on my hip with the safety turned towards me and under my thumb. Works well for me.

That's a nice looking drilling, i like the new stock.

As for the safety, i had a longer button made for mine, and rotated it foreward,



It's just so much easier and more natural to use now.

DM

quote:

Originally posted by DM:
As for the safety, i had a longer button made for mine, and rotated it foreward,



It's just so much easier and more natural to use now.

I like that arrangement for the Greener type side safety. Much more user friendly. Especially for someone like me with wide palms but shortish digits. Was its complicated to adapt the original mechanism.

The one reason I sold my inherited Greener Facile Princeps was I just couldn't get one with the side safety arrangemnet on the LHS of the stock. We never thought of swapping it over and blanking off the orginal location. Oh well its long gone.