After following dirtyjim's 375 mauser project listed here, I really liked the look of the shorter forearm of his stock(english stalking rifle style?). Would some of you who have done this style of stock mind posting a few pix so I can get an idea of porportions? Especially if you have an ebony forearm? I am doing a mauser in 35 whelen and using a 22" barrel. Thanks for your help! Gary

This is my light rifle in 7x57 with a forearm of 7 3/4 in from the reciever ring. The ebony tip is 1 1/2 in



This is my heavy rifle in 404 Jeffery where the forearm is 8 3/4 in with the ebony tip of 1 5/8 in



Both have 25in barrels.


Von Gruff.

No forend tip on mine but here is a .338-06 I'm in the middle of now. It's not finished yet but I'm pretty close.




Terry

another guild rifle barrel?

Yes, it started life as an 8X57 J bore. When I bought it the bore looked like a sewer pipe but the outside was ok. It was sent to Clearwater re-boring and opened up to a .338

The whole rifle was built on the cheap. I bought action on clearance from Legacy Sports and the the stock blank is a second that Adam found for me over at Luxus walnut.

Terry

will this one get the red stain treatment, too?

quote:

Originally posted by jsl3170:
will this one get the red stain treatment, too?

My bad , I didn't take in your first post completely. It's the same rifle, I just remodled the stock recently.

Terry

TC1 why in heavens name was that great piece of wood considered a second?

It was a VERY short blank. It wouldn't have worked if the forend was any longer. It also had some bark pockets that didn't turn out and we knew they weren't going to before the blank was turned. Shane Thompson duplicated it for me and did a fantastic job of centering the defect to make it a lot easier to fix.


After duplicating



Repaired


Terry

the way i came up with the length on mine was to compaire the pictures of about 20 or so different rifles. i would blow up the pics on my computer till the front ring on the receiver scaled right then measure the length of the forearms. most of them were between 9 & 7" long.
mine is at 7 1/2", the rear sight also played a roll too since i wanted the forearm to end around 1 1/2" past the rear sight.
i cut mine to 8 1/2" first then cut off about 1/4" at a time till it looked just right to me

Thank you all! I am really liking this forearm. Thanks especially for the ebony shots. I think that I would have used too much. Gary

quote:

Originally posted by dirtyjim:
the way i came up with the length on mine was to compaire the pictures of about 20 or so different rifles. i would blow up the pics on my computer till the front ring on the receiver scaled right then measure the length of the forearms. most of them were between 9 & 7" long.
mine is at 7 1/2", the rear sight also played a roll too since i wanted the forearm to end around 1 1/2" past the rear sight.
i cut mine to 8 1/2" first then cut off about 1/4" at a time till it looked just right to me

I've never taken this approach, but by eyeballing it most of the older style rifles with shorter forearms appear to be very close to the "golden ratio" when it comes to the proportion between barrel and forearm. Google this term and there is tons of info.

My brain is full from a day of work so I can't think exactly how to get there right now, but with a little algebra you can derive a number from this ratio to multiply by the barrel length to come up with a forearm length that should look pleasing...

Here's a shot of my .375 Ruger/JC Higgins M50 action with a 21" McGowan barrel. The stock is the original that I remodeled. To get the length I used the Golden Ratio so with the 21" barrel my fore-end length worked out to about 7 5/8" from the front edge of the receiver ring.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

quote:

Originally posted by montea6b:

I've never taken this approach, but by eyeballing it most of the older style rifles with shorter forearms appear to be very close to the "golden ratio" when it comes to the proportion between barrel and forearm. Google this term and there is tons of info.

My brain is full from a day of work so I can't think exactly how to get there right now, but with a little algebra you can derive a number from this ratio to multiply by the barrel length to come up with a forearm length that should look pleasing...

The golden formula was discussed her on AR a year or two ago with some good smiths involved in the discussion

My original type A Oberndorf Mauser - 404 Jeffery, Magnum Mauser single square bridge action.



The very gun is pictured on page 231 of John Speeds book on Mauser sporting rifles.





In action

Here is a link to the earlier thread.

Mini Mauser in 7.62X39. It's in limbo right now. I'll finish it one day.






Terry

425WR

In the field

I like this thread, lots of gun porn!

what's the length of the forarm on the awesome original 404?

How did you fix that bark pocket? can't even see where it is in the after pic.

Red

When Shane sent the stock back he put the band saw scraps in the box. I chiseled and shaped some plugs out of the scraps and tried to cut them with the grain in about the same spots. I filled the pocket with Accraglass (dyed black) and hammered in the plugs. After it dried I sanded it smooth.

All the credit goes to Shane Thompson. It was his idea and he walked me through it.

Terry

I had no idea! Thank you so much! Short forearm and a banded rear sight/

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Petrov:

I can't say wow enough on that one michael. That is damn impressive. what is it chambered in? who did the work? length of forearm? beautiful.

Red

Michael

That is awesome. Thanks for posting.

.

quote:

Originally posted by GaryG:
After following dirtyjim's 375 mauser project listed here, I really liked the look of the shorter forearm of his stock(english stalking rifle style?). Would some of you who have done this style of stock mind posting a few pix so I can get an idea of porportions? Especially if you have an ebony forearm? I am doing a mauser in 35 whelen and using a 22" barrel. Thanks for your help! Gary

Gary,
What's the length of pull on your rifle? It's a major determinate in finding a forearm length that is pleasing to the eye.

A simple starting point would be to place the end of the forearm halfway between the trigger and the muzzle. See how that looks to you. My guess is that you'll only want it longer or shorter by a small fraction of an inch (and it will have much to do with the length of pull).

I have a 14" LOP. Using that as a starting point, the "perfect" rifle (using a standard length Mauser action) is as follows:
24-1/4" barrel
8" forearm (measured from the receiver ring)

Measuring from the buttplate forward, here are the measurements for the "perfectly proportioned" Mauser:

Buttplate at............0"
Trigger at.............14"
Front Guard Screw at...21"

Overall Length of Stock.....29.7"
Overall Length of Rifle.....45.3"

A few other measurements:
Length of forearm from front guard screw....8.7"
Length of forearm from front ring...........8"
Implied FFL barrel length..................24.3"

For the mathmatically inclined, the golden ratio is prevelent throughout this "perfect" Mauser.

I came up with most of these theoretical measurements using the golden ratio while sitting at my desk. I then put a tape measure to the most pleasingly proportioned (in my estimation) rifle I own and lo and behold the measurements of that rifle were within an 1/8 or 1/4 inch of these mathmatical ideals.

A fun excercise for me, but it probably bored the crap out of the rest of you.

quote:

Originally posted by ForrestB:
A simple starting point would be to place the end of the forearm halfway between the front guard screw and the muzzle.

Somehow that doesn't sound right. Wouldn't that make the fore end about 11 inches long assuming an overall barrel length of 24 inches?

quote:

Originally posted by Dago Red:
what is it chambered in? who did the work? length of forearm? Red

It's a 30-06, the work was done by Gibbs circa 1920. The forend is 6 1/4" long measured from the face of the receiver to the end of the forend tip.

Gary, Forrest's mathematical formula to calculate forearm length reminded me of something I read back when I refinished a stock for my CZ. The basic consensus was that for that "British Stalking Rifle" style forearm you need to keep the length from the front action screw to the end of the forearm to 10 inches or less. I would recommend going less though. I have a 10 inch forearm on a 25 inch barrel and I feel it could be a couple inches shorter.

quote:

Originally posted by JBrown:

quote:

Originally posted by ForrestB:
A simple starting point would be to place the end of the forearm halfway between the front guard screw and the muzzle.

Somehow that doesn't sound right. Wouldn't that make the fore end about 11 inches long assuming an overall barrel length of 24 inches?

You're correct. I meant to say (and corrected in my original post):

A simple starting point would be to place the end of the forearm halfway between the trigger and the muzzle.

For Gary, I would guess the optimal forearm length is going to be between 6-1/2" and 7-1/2" (measured from the front of the action).

quote:

Originally posted by Sevens:
The basic consensus was that for that "British Stalking Rifle" style forearm you need to keep the length from the front action screw to the end of the forearm to 10 inches or less. I would recommend going less though. I have a 10 inch forearm on a 25 inch barrel and I feel it could be a couple inches shorter.

I think 6.5 inches is short and 9 inches is long for the forearm. The optimal point between these extremes is depends on three things:
The barrel length
The length of pull
The owner's preference

US rule used to be half the visible length of the barrel minus one inch. This is too long, I make almost all mine 8"-10" depending upon the rest of the rifle. I build more single shots and they require a slightly different approach depending upon just exactly WHICH action.
Regards, Joe

I use the same length that JD decribe (8"-10") on most rifles i build.

Occasionally one sees a short forend on an American classic. At first it may look out of place but makes for a nice rifle.

my Rigby .303



Here with a Lee Speed rifle