quote:

Originally posted by BigFiveJack:

quote:

Originally posted by JBrown:
Did Ralph express any concern about the grain flow in the toe of the stock, and if so, did he do anything to reinforce it?

BTW, now that I have seen it as a turned stock I can say without reservation, at $3K that blank was way over priced. No offense, but you got jobbed.

JBrown,

May I ask you to detail to me what to look at in the
stock that gives you concern. I am ill informed on
this topic and ask to be educated here. Thanks much!

quote:

Originally posted by jcb01us:
However, through the years a few rifles have come through my shop with a piece of the toe blown off. Most of these rifles were factory guns with cheap wood, bad layout, and poorly fitting horn or plastic buttplates. Most likely they had been dropped on concrete or some other hard surface, and the plastic plate didn't have enough strength to reenforce the toe. When the plastic broke, so did the toe. In fact, I have two old Bruno 21Hs and one ZG47 in the shop right now with toes broken off and one doesn't even have the cheap plastic plate on it anymore. On Shootaway's stock with a 1" Silvers pad both screwed and glassed to the butt, there is a slim to none chance of it breaking. If I had thought there was a problem with the strength of the toe, I would have installed a reinforcing pin to preclude any problems or just rejected the stock straight out.

quote:

Originally posted by jcb01us:
Regarding Shootaway's rifle. I don't have a lot of time to go on websites and chatlines but periodically I go on this one and read the postings. Most gunmakers are hesitant to have pics posted from works in progress since people ask questions like; why is the stock not sanded yet, or detailed, or why is there no crossbolt or no sling swivel in the stock. The reason is simply because its not finished yet.
The blank for Shootway's rifle was from Luxus Walnut and was in my shop for approximantely four years to ensure it was well seasoned and stable. It is a good and dense piece of Turkish walnut with a nice grain flow and mineral lines well suited for a big bore rifle. When I rough out the shape of a stock on my band saw I always cut a few slices off and make a breaking test to see which way the wood will break with respect to the grain flow, especially in the pistol grip area. In the past I have had some nasty surprises where the grain flow on the top or bottom part of the pistol grip would wave or angle sideways up to 45 degrees. From the side view, the blanks were perfectly quarter or slab sawn, but the top view was wrong and they could easily break when subjected to a sideways fall. Blanks with really fancy figure and grain can be the worst in this regard. When I cut a buttstock to length to install a pad, I again make a breaking test with the thin piece of cutt-off, and on Shootway's Rifle I determined the toe had sufficent strength so that breakage would be of little or no concern.
However, through the years a few rifles have come through my shop with a piece of the toe blown off. Most of these rifles were factory guns with cheap wood, bad layout, and poorly fitting horn or plastic buttplates. Most likely they had been dropped on concrete or some other hard surface, and the plastic plate didn't have enough strength to reenforce the toe. When the plastic broke, so did the toe. In fact, I have two old Bruno 21Hs and one ZG47 in the shop right now with toes broken off and one doesn't even have the cheap plastic plate on it anymore. On Shootaway's stock with a 1" Silvers pad both screwed and glassed to the butt, there is a slim to none chance of it breaking. If I had thought there was a problem with the strength of the toe, I would have installed a reinforcing pin to preclude any problems or just rejected the stock straight out.
Regarding the square bridges on the magnum Mausers, this Vector action came standard with double square bridges. The customers choice to loose the front square bridge in order to reflect the look of some of the original open sighted magnum Mausers is fine, especially since neither of the brides on this gun will be used for scope mounting. With newly manufactured magnum Mausers the double square bridges are ideal for utilization as bases for different types of custom scope mounts as were some of the original Mausers when mounting short scopes. Other of the older original Mausers utilized only the rear bridge for a rear lock up for a claw mount and went with a banded base soldered to the barrel for the front claw mount and eliminated the front bridge altogether. I have seen a very elegant rifle built by Duane for Forrest (I believe on a GMA action) in .416 Rigby where Duane machined the front bridge off and it looked really good.

Regards,
Ralf Martini