Tom,

As for the Siamese Mauser, I spoke with Helen when I ordered one on March 2. She told me then that the Siamese was not the same fit as their regular 98 Mausers. My order has been on hold since then as they waited until they had another order before they started on mine. They don’t do one off orders. Helen said mine should ship next week.

That is what I am saying; they use the old pantograph on the Siamese Mauser stocks and the CNC on the 98s.
I'll order one so they can do two. It is not efficient for them to run the old machines for one stock and the demand is too low for them to make ones for inventory. Many less common stocks are in that category.

Even if you would get one with perfect inletting their shape is what is really wrong with them.

The stocks arrived today. The stocks are fairly smooth and should only require a minor amount of sanding. The action inletting is very close and will only require a small amount of work to fit the action to the stock. I will be glass bedding the action in the stock anyway so no big deal. The grain of the wood is straight especially through the grip area. One stock has a fair amount of figure which I was not expecting on an economy grade stock.

The only problem is one of the stocks is missing the 1/2" butt pad that I paid extra for. Don't know how they will solve that problem.

Except for the missing butt pad I am pleased with what I received

Anyone know how long the blanks they use have been dried / cured?

How are they offering “exhibition” grade wood for $500?

Long enough to never crack; I've used them since 1970.
They have better wood than any place else for less money because it is Claro walnut, and they are in California and have a good stock of it.
Hope it lasts a bit longer.
I got one last week, 98 Mauser; I keep at least one or two on order at all times. With a PLT of 8-10 weeks, you have to plan ahead. CNC inletted, it will require only a bit of scraping to fit, and no gaps. A far cry from the old pantographed inletting.
About the shapes; there is plenty of wood to alter the shape if you don't like it. I always get either the old classic, or modern classic.

I see they offer English walnut as well. Any experience with it?

No. I never ordered any English from them.

quote:

Originally posted by Kolo-Pan:
Even if you would get one with perfect inletting their shape is what is really wrong with them.

What is it about the shape that you don't like?

Got an email from Richards today about the missing butt pad. Told me to box up the stock and they will have UPS pick it so they can add the butt pad. Then they will ship it back to me. That is pretty awesome customer service.

quote:

Originally posted by montea6b:

quote:

Originally posted by Kolo-Pan:
Even if you would get one with perfect inletting their shape is what is really wrong with them.

What is it about the shape that you don't like?

The shape of the pistol grip is too straight up and down. Doesn't have that clean sweptback look

And I like the look and more functional, feel, of the lower one, better; never liked the swept back grips. So do most of my clients.
However, there is enough extra wood on them to make the top pictured stock grip. Notice that the top one is much shorter.

Yeah, I like a more swept grip too. That bottom photo looks even less swept than what they picture on their website though. I haven’t used Richards, but some of their styles would seem to have the lines I could live with, and perhaps enough meat left to shape to my liking? One of these days, when I finish my other projects, I might give them a try...

If you want a nice swept back look you can always ask them to mill back to just behind the action
(leaving the buttstock in blank form) and then just shaping the buttstock to your liking.

If you overlay the blond stock in the picture over the walnut one you will see that it has enough wood to make the blond one. The grip is much shorter and. can be swept back all you want, by raising the depth of the area just rear of the grip.

quote:

Originally posted by Kolo-Pan:
If you want a nice swept back look you can always ask them to mill back to just behind the action
(leaving the buttstock in blank form) and then just shaping the buttstock to your liking.

Does anybody know if Richards will do this? Because that would be a great way to also dial in the cast off and toe out that you want.

Richards picked up the stock without the butt pad last Thursday. I got an email yesterday that they have the stock and will be installing the butt pad this week I might have it back by the end of next week. I am very pleased with how Richards has handled this.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
If you overlay the blond stock in the picture over the walnut one you will see that it has enough wood to make the blond one. The grip is much shorter and. can be swept back all you want, by raising the depth of the area just rear of the grip.

I have carefully overlaid the blond stock on top of the other stock. In order to get the same profile the bottom stock will come out about an inch shorter than the blond stock and will not be as tall from toe to heel.

The bottom stock has been cut off to fit the pad; they come from the factory 5 1/4 heel to toe height and 15 LOP. Come over and I'll show you 6 of them. Anyway, I was talking about the grip shape, as you indicated above. Not the entire butt shape.
Again, I prefer their grip shape to the swept back ones; better control.
Of course, for people who don't like them, don't buy one.

Anybody have experience with sending them a blank to turn to one of their patterns?

I have sent them my wood for a Mannlicher stock and it came back OK but it took forever. Mannlichers they run when they having nothing else to do, it seems.

They offer many different patterns, so many it's confusing. And when you combine that with wood options, plan on spending a couple hours reading the fine print. Their square forends are generally too generous, plan on slimming them down a lot. You can get a rounded forend for extra money, those are not as bulky, but even these are way too fat on their mannlicher patterns.

Their inletting is generally close if they run on CNC, (not so much on the pantograph but they tell you this upfront) but for the bottom metal on a Mauser 93. There is an odd two-step cut at the front of the opening and there will be a gap.

Their lam wood is very difficult to inlet, if you have to make modifications. It does not cut like walnut, at all.

Their lead times are unreliable. next week sometimes means next month.

They do make mistakes .. as the recoil pad story illustrates. but they will take their mistakes back.

Don't expect them to jump through any hoops on a barrel channel. They offer a couple of basic options and they can't tell you which profile from which barrel maker these fit. In many cases you have to get a straight channel and do the inletting yourself.

All in all, good value for money. A bit more flexibility than Boyds. Much cheaper than Wenigs. They don't do any 2 piece stocks as best I can tell.

Got the stock back today that Richards had forgot to install the butt pad on. Their customer service was awesome in taking care of this.