I'm looking at putting a High Tech Specialties stock on my FN 30-06, which size Decelerator pad should I use? Are there any special considerations I should know about with finishing these stocks? I intend to use Krylon so I can touch it up easily.

The finish is very slick. Make sure you sand it well to break the glaze and use a good primer designed for plastic.

Ditto what ramrod340 said plus you will need to use some bondo or acra-gel to fill on the pin holes and smooth out any low spots.

I would also recommend the Dupli-color spray in truck bed coating instead of Krylon. Very durable finish plus when you apply the last coat you can hold the can about foot or two away from the stock and get a pretty good textured finish. It's only 10 or 12 dollars a can. Not as cheap as krylon but still shouldn't break the stock budget. You can get it at walmart, auto zone etc.

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plus you will need to use some bondo or acra-gel to fill on the pin holes and smooth out any low spots.

That is for darn sure. On my two the top and bottom seams had a lot of flaws requiring filling.

I used a 1" pad put on with epoxy then painted over the base leaving it appear to be about .75".

I recently finished one, a real rat that I picked up for $30 that someone badly abused apparently trying to finish it. Here it is in the background while I was trying to fill in the low and bad spots. Again this stock was not as received from Basner but did have high seams that needed blending. I also shortened the forend by cutting out a section and gluing the tip back on then filling and blending.



Being bedded.



I sanded it with 400 grit then primed it with Rust-Oleum grey primer (2 coats) and then 3 light coats of Rust-Oleum Multi Colour Textured black. Finally two coats of satin clear were applied. The final finish feels very good, just enough texture to get ahold of yet not abrasive to the face and is very hard and appears to be durable. I used a 1" pre-fit Ruger Red Label Decelerator pad as it fit best requiring the least amount of work to complete. A mistake I made on the pad was not dying the epoxy black when I glued it on. I still need to fix the white you see.



And here's the finished gun, a lightweight Ruger tang 35 Whelen ala Hawkeye Alaskan...

A medium Decelerator fits most Bansner stocks.

Do NOT use Bondo to fill. It won't stick well, and will chip badly if you happen to hit the stock there. Basically the only thing holding the bondo on the stock would be the paint. Marine Tex is about as good as you can get for filling pin holes and blending mold lines.

I would avoid using primer, as the resin that Mark uses to build his stocks takes paint very well. All you need to do is degrease well, prep with 220 W/D, wipe down with acetone, and paint.

For a rattelcan job, Krylon Texture (I think that is what it is called) is a decent paint. It is made for outdoor furniture and holds up about as well as anything you can spray out of a can.

Avoid the bedliner finishes at all cost. They are thick and heavy, and completely defeat the purpose of building on a light stock. Also avoid Zolatone like the plague. It will literally melt off the stock if you expose it to very much water.