Ive wrestled a bit with this as well, Hmm, decisions decisions..

On some of his rifles Bob Owen ground and/or filed the whole bolt stop housing to a sort of torpedo shape, a kind of elongated football.

I have an old pattern sheet for an Alvin Linden 1903 that shows some of the specifics of the pictures shown on the previous posts. Its about 24 x 40 inches, signed by Alvin Linden. I took a picture of the bolt stop area and will email it to you if you contact me. I don't know how to get it on the forum.

You guys are really coming through for me. Now since this is my first try it is most likely to come out more abomonation than sculpted wood, but I am going to try, still can't decided on carrying that contour down or not, but if you look at those top pictures I really like the way it looks from the top. One of the things I have never liked is when it is brought up around the bolt stop, the wood that is, and left with a thin top edge.

Thanks again.

Red

Sice I referred to it.......here's Linden's drawing and text of the modification.

GV
cutoff modification

modification text

Red The detent for the plunger/spring in the cut-off needs to me moved up hill a bit for the Linden mod. to work better. This was pretty standard after WW-II when done by serious customisers. It is a bit easier on the A3 to do this becuse the 03 groove from detent to detent was eliminated. On the last ones that I did for Bob Owen I changed the shape of the spindle boss to the shape of a boatail bullet. This is again easier on the A3. The wood when done this way is on line with ( continuous from) the forend, No drop below center