Got my Zastava 7X57 back from the smith today. He thinned the stock a lot to remove all checkering and not make it so proud of the action and barrel, removed the rollover on the monte carlo and refinished it with a hard shell satin finish.

I'm not 100% satisfied with the finished color, I was hoping for a darker look. He used a French Red stain to try to "warm it up" some, if'n I had a do-over I'd have gone with a darker walnut stain.

But I'm very pleased with the way the remodel turned out. It feels a LOT better in the hands, the forend isn't so clubby, he shortened the LOP to 13 5/8" and it's a lot easier and more natural to mount. I've contactd a fellow to do the checkering but he is busy through the end of the year, I will be sending it off to him in the first part of January. Going to go with a 20 LPI standard checkering pattern like a factory Winchester 70 LT stock. Nothing too fancy, but good sharp functional checkering.

The rain quit long enough to go out and take natural light pics but with the cloudy sky they were still glary, so I took some indoors with natural light.

The finished stock.





He replaced the walnut grip cap with an ironwood cap which I think looks pretty good.





Thinned and reshaped forend.





A bit glary but this shows the color well.





The wood has nice fiddleback which shows up in daylight but it doesn't really pop out at you, you have to look at the stock from an angle.
This also shows how the rollover was removed and also the shape of that funny shaped pistol grip. Despite it looking a bit thin it feels really good in the hand.



While he had it he polished the raceway and smoothed the feed lips a bit more. It feeds well, it shoots really great and now it handles and feels a lot better. His price was very reasonable for the work he did. Overall I am now happy with the rifle.

Very nice Jim, who's your gunsmith?

His name is Doug Jones of Gunsmith Solutions in Boise, ID. He is a good general purpose gunsmith and does rebarreling, chambering, stock work and general fix-it gunsmithing.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim in Idaho:
His name is Doug Jones of Gunsmith Solutions in Boise, ID. He is a good general purpose gunsmith and does rebarreling, chambering, stock work and general fix-it gunsmithing.

Big improvement.

Jim thanks for taking the time to input the remodel information. When you have it checkered get the finish redone to your liking. Just my 2 cents worth.

Jim,

what have you done here ....????

it was supposed only to be a Zastava collector rifle not a piece of art ....

more seriously i like it ....

Looks great thanks for posting pics

quote:

Originally posted by mlfguns:
Jim thanks for taking the time to input the remodel information. When you have it checkered get the finish redone to your liking. Just my 2 cents worth.

I'm seriously considering that. It would mean the waste of the money already spent finishing it, but it wasn't that much money. Besides, life is too short not to go with what you really want.

The finish can be stripped chemically, not too worried about that, but I wonder if a new stain can be applied since the pores are already filled in. Wouldn't want to do any more sanding since the dimensions are already right, any more reduction would be too much.

Jim the amount of wood that is sanded off will be so minute it should not affect stock dimensions. You will be much happier with it in the long haul and you will forget about the money.
Myself a rifle loony of the first order if I don't get my rifles exactly the way I want them I lose interest and end up selling them off.