Check your PMs.

This is the gun after the first coat of final finish. I like the color much better since I sanded off the Tru-Oil and used the S.B. McWilliams Alkanet Stain/Finish... More color and it brought the grain out a lot more.

Dick, that is just beautiful. I enjoy looking at rimfire sporters more than any other type of rifle, and you have a crafted a very, very nice RF sporter. Thanks for the pics!

Dick, that is beautiful. The shape, lines and proportions are just right, That forend perfect. perfect.

The nice grain is pretty cool the way it follows the wrist through and behing the action.

The color is lovely.

I am going to check into SB Williams Alkanet Stai'Finish.

AS an amateur stock builder/finisher I use Tru-Oil a lot. Sometimes it takes me a lot of bad language to get True-Oil to turnout the way I want it.

Thanks for the informative post. Brian

Brian,

Check out the previous page for color when it was covered with Tru-Oil. I like the McWilliams a lot better. They have a website.

Not knocking Tru-Oil... Both Glorya's and my deer rifles were done by Jack Haugh with his home-grown alkanet root and Tru-Oil. That was 25 years ago and the finish still looks great and has held up very well. Besides, no one in their right mind would ever argue with Jack on this stuff.

I'm not USUALLY a big fan of stains or dyes on rifle stocks but I must agree 100% with you.

It looked really good before but the after is wonderfully warm. I've found a "red" color is more appealing, to me, than a "grey" color (caramel, as you called it). The color really turned it up a notch.

Wonderful work Mr Wright!
Zeke

The color surprised me when I got the first coat of McWilliams on... It turned out brown with a lot of orange in it. I expected a kind of dark rosy red. I never saw orange before.

A few more really thin coats and it's off for checkering.

I have close-up pics that show the color better. However, right now, Photobucket is messing with me and won't let me post them on internet threads. ?????? My friend who owns this gun has a PhD in computers and, when he gets up here, we'll try to solve the Photobucket problem. Right now I'm in a mood to slap them around a little bit.

Thanks for sharing your projects; they look great!

quote:

Originally posted by Dick Wright:
Almost time to de-whisker and fill the pores

How do you fill the pores? What happens if you don't? Are you going for a mirror gloss finish in the final phase?

I used Biehlen's to fill the pores. I'll find out how well I did when I take the present finish down with steel wool. Then I will put the final finish coats on.

My Gun Sav'r finish puts a nice gloss on it.

Getting closer...

I took the stock down to Kip for checkering Monday the 9th. He will do the same pattern that he did on my gun.

When I get it back I will do the fun part... A couple of hand rubbed coats of Gun Sav'r to give it a little more sheen, put it together slowly and carefully making sure everything works perfectly, mount the scope and sight-in/ test fire. I will be exceptionally happy to give it to Kyle. Being laid low all winter put this project months behind.

Anyway, now I can get on with my gun, the Ruger No. 1 .222 pictured elsewhere on AR. The metal is about done and I have to finish the pattern stocks before I can send them and the good wood out to Charlie Grace for pre-carving.

I tried, again, to post another pic of the finish I now have... Photobucket still won't let me take any pictures and post them here. Photobucket bad!

This is the color we ended up with after using McWilliams.

I finally got the Photobucket to work.

When I get it back from checkering I will use some of the Gun Sav'r finish to add a little gloss. There's a lot of details to do yet. I need to straighten up the pistol grip screw and clean up and blue a few metal parts.

Still, I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

This is what's waiting till I get Kyle's gun done. These are the parts I have accumulated for the No. 1 .222. The wood shown is factory take-offs and I will use it to make patterns for Charlie Grace to use when he pre-carves the good wood.

I have a Kepplinger trigger for this that needs installation... also a .222 extractor. The gun started life as a .458. I got tired of fighting with the Ruger trigger on my deer rifle and got a Kepplinger a few years ago. Made my life just a little better.

This picture was taken a while back. You can see Kyle's stock in the background waiting for finish.

The rifle is checkered and back from Kip. Still lots more to do.

It's finally complete and together. I took this whilst sighting-in and adjusting the tuner. When I started three shot groups were about 1/2". A twist of the tuner brought them down by about 1/3.

I have quite a few different kinds of ammo here and will be experimenting with it and further tuning. I expect to be able to make it shoot 1/4" or better at 50 yds. CZ has a well-deserved reputation for accuracy. They hand lap their barrels which is rare for factory rifles.

This old bench is just outside my office door and under our deck. It's fairly protected from wind and rain.

FWIW the rear bag was made by Jack Snyder of Edgewood Shooting bags out of New Mexico. He made it to my specs and has since included it in his line of high quality products. I filled it with heavy sand and it weighs about 30 lbs. I think rests need to be extremely stable (read "Heavy".) for best results.

I haven't figured out how to make the schnable front fit my Sinclair benchrest adapter. If/when I do so I will be able to use my Farley front rest.

I also need to get a couple of weaker springs from Yo Dave. The trigger is nice and crisp but a tad heavy for a benchrest shooter who's used to 2 oz. triggers. I'd like to reduce that by about a half.

Great rifle. Can u give more details on your tuner. PM me please don't want to hijack tread. thanks elton

The major diameter is 1". It is threaded 3/4 - 28. The I.D. matches the barrel taper. I don't have the blueprint.

A funny thing happened a couple of days ago when I was installing this tuner. A guy who just loves to talk called while I was heating up the tuner. I had to cut him off... "Sorry, I'm roasting a tuner and the oven just buzzed."

I heated it up to 350 deg. for twenty minutes, slid it on the barrel and gave it a gentle "Tunk" with a leather hammer. When it cooled off it was on to stay.

There way too much mystery about tuners. They are very simple devices that allow you to move weight front-to-back on your barrel. You need to be able to lock them up when you are happy with the adjustment.

I have a friend who owns RAS Tuners. (Google it) He has a ton of information and can make one for your gun.

Kyle came up and picked up his gun yesterday. I took this picture of the matched set before he showed up.

The other side of both guns. Mine is the top one. This project took a year and a half. I'm very glad it's done. Now we can shoot them.

Beautiful rifles, Dick! The wood on your rifle is outstanding. Nice work.

This is my range which is just outside my office door. To the right is a hill that goes down to our lake which is less than 100' from the bench.

I shoot up a small valley which leads down to the lake. It is heavily wooded and is very protected from wind. It is a good place to work up loads and test the guns.

The tarp is for privacy. I don't want anyone on the lake to see the bench and the shooting equipment.

quote:

Originally posted by Dick Wright:


This is the gun after the first coat of final finish. I like the color much better since I sanded off the Tru-Oil and used the S.B. McWilliams Alkanet Stain/Finish... More color and it brought the grain out a lot more.

Just wanted you to know my SB McWilliams is available on EBAY. I'm so very pleased you like it!!

quote:

Originally posted by Dick Wright:
The color surprised me when I got the first coat of McWilliams on... It turned out brown with a lot of orange in it. I expected a kind of dark rosy red. I never saw orange before.

A few more really thin coats and it's off for checkering.
I have close-up pics that show the color better. However, right now, Photobucket is messing with me and won't let me post them on internet threads. ?????? My friend who owns this gun has a PhD in computers and, when he gets up here, we'll try to solve the Photobucket problem. Right now I'm in a mood to slap them around a little bit.

The joy of Alkanet is every piece of wood responds a little different its not like a traditional stain at all at its peak maturity it looks just like cabernet wine and brings out the subtle colors in the walnut and will almost give it an alkanet hue that you will see from a mile away. It also finds porosity in the grain and will populate that with color so when you have areas of very light porous wood it will give it character where there was none. By the way my varnishes and alkanet are always on ebay if you ever would like some it will be there thanks!!!. SB

I have followed your posts on these beautiful rifles Mr. Wright. Your workmanship is superb,Kyle is very lucky,thank you.jc

In 1995 Kyle convinced that I needed to join the twentieth century. I was running my small business and writing for Precision Shooting with one typewriter... that's it. Kyle bought a computer, programed it, brought it up and plugged it in. He patiently coached me thru all the stupid questions I had till I got up to speed. Kyle literally has a PhD in this and knows what he is talking about.

A couple of years ago he convinced me to get a Mac and high speed internet. More coaching till I got up to speed. Till then I had mostly used it for word processing because my dial-up was so slow. My life literally changed for the better.

I owe Kyle big time so I made his stock.

quote:

Originally posted by SB McWilliams:

quote:

Originally posted by Dick Wright:
The color surprised me when I got the first coat of McWilliams on... It turned out brown with a lot of orange in it. I expected a kind of dark rosy red. I never saw orange before.

A few more really thin coats and it's off for checkering.


I have close-up pics that show the color better. However, right now, Photobucket is messing with me and won't let me post them on internet threads. ?????? My friend who owns this gun has a PhD in computers and, when he gets up here, we'll try to solve the Photobucket problem. Right now I'm in a mood to slap them around a little bit.

The joy of Alkanet is every piece of wood responds a little different its not like a traditional stain at all at its peak maturity it looks just like cabernet wine and brings out the subtle colors in the walnut and will almost give it an alkanet hue that you will see from a mile away. It also finds porosity in the grain and will populate that with color so when you have areas of very light porous wood it will give it character where there was none. By the way my varnishes and alkanet are always on ebay if you ever would like some it will be there thanks!!!. SB

Shawn, anybody serious about this uses juglans regia, the "royal wood". Call it "English" or "French" or whatever. It really isn't very porous. It's strength to weight ratio is optimum for gun stocks. Price depends on how pretty you want it.