Am working on my rifle and thinking of a new stock. how are richards to work with? Thanks and have fun Clint

Clint,
Do a search on this forum. They ain't in favor.
Butch

there's a gorgeous .416 taylor floating around arizona built for a former tv celebrity, that never followed thru on the purchace... and a nice guy in az bought it, perhaps he'll chime in... it has a richards microfit stock on it, built by tip burns on a rem 30 action....

click FIND and type in RMF

quote:

Originally posted by butchlambert:
Clint,
Do a search on this forum. They ain't in favor.
Butch

I've talked to guys who think they're the greatest thing since sliced bread. I've seen a few and they looked to me like they might make nice firewood.

I bought a Richard's laminated stock for a Sako AIII, and since it was a special order, I was told it would take 8 - 12 weeks. The stock arrived in 6 weeks and it's a very nice unfinished stock. The front action screw hole is slightly off, but since I'm pillar bedding the stock, it's not a problem. I will order from them again.

I can't get them to answer the damn phone, or an e-mail.

It all depends on the circumstances amd those circumstances often dictate the opinion. For those cutting their teeth in stock work and looking for something they can do and only having to please themselves they may work just fine. If one has aquired the skill and patience for tight fitting inletting you're almost sure to have a gap some place. Gaps are bad enough when you're the culprit but really piss a guy off when they come with it already installed. One thing I find humorous is many will complain about all the wood they need to remove while others wish they'd leave more. Those complaining about too much wood generally would be better served with a Boyds drop in and the latter better served by avoiding Richards all together. If you do buy one make damn sure the hole spacing is correct and the inletting is reasonable as far as straightness is concerned. Expect it to take three times longer than quoted. There are far better alternatives, buy a blank and send it to a better duplicator who may have a pattern for your action. Somebody like a Mike Kokolus. It won't be much more money in the end and you'll have a better starting point. Richards patterns also look like 1970's pimp rifles.

quote:

Richards patterns also look like 1970's pimp rifles.

Jeez, I must have lousy taste. They have the one I like the most.

Wymple, which pattern would that be?

Don't do it. They are quite slow and the inletting is terrible.

I've heard horror stories and good stories about them also, I have ordered about 6 altogether from them and some have had minor flaws that were easily fixed and some were as fine as any that came from any other company. Who knows though the next one I get from them might make a knotty pine 2x4 look great.

Steve E......

I have posted several photos of the operation and visited their site to purchase several stocks. No Problem.
Mail order was a concern and took about double the advertised time. And received the wrong stock pattern.
In person they are great to work with but were shifting their attention to large commercial contracts when I was there last. There is only one office person and she is on the phone constantly also doing other orders. The owners son was there when I was their last and very nice, easy to work with but too, too busy to spend enough time for me to look at the 6 or so stocks I was buying. Some of the inletting was nearly drop in some was needing a very large rasp inside and out.
If you have someone local to buy and ship for you you will be sure to get something hand picked at the top of the scale.
They only cut 8 stocks at a time and once a pattern is set they run that several times which might take a week or more. Hence the long delay sometimes in shipping. If you like thumb-hole, laminates they have lots but fewer of the classic low end cuts sitting about. At least at that time.
Frank

quote:

Wymple, which pattern would that be?

The Silhouette target stock in Apache gold. It's the pictured stock when you go to target stocks on their website.

Frank,
Thanks for those pictures of the Richard's plant. It reminds me of a trip through Fagen's back in the '70's. The racks with hundreds of stocks stacked up was overwhelming to a country boy like me. As I remember, the entry level walnut stock was $20. Not wanting to look like the cheapskate I really am, I opted for the next step up, select, for the whopping cost of $30. I was led to a room with several racks and rifle stocks literally stacked like firewood. I looked at several and selected one and showed it to the fellow who was assisting me. He set aside and said, "There are better ones in this pile that that one, let me look." He pulled out a stock that looked like a million bucks to my eyes, and told me that sometimes they grade down a piece of wood for a flaw in the blank that doens't appear in the finished stock. I still own that rifle, a FN98 in 30.06. My first "custom" stocked rifle. Thanks for the memory.
Jon In Tucson

WOW!!Thanks for the info. will keep looking. who have you had good luck with?

Several years ago when I still lived in SoCal I visited the shop and, like Frank, hand picked my product. They literally gave me free run of the shop and let me look through everything I was interested in. All things worked out well.

There's a similar question over on the Small Caliber Forum. I posted a reply and a few pictures of my Richards stocks there.

I've given up on them.

Had good luck with Biesen Custom. Both using his wood and mine.

I used to live within driving distance of Richards and would go through his racks and bought a few that way. Most were fine and I got some good deals. By most I mean sometimes too much wood was removed from the guard areas and created gaps. I brought them a couple of blanks to be profiled, one was for a Mex 98 and I specified a blind magazine. His non-english speaking duplicator op cut for a regular triggerguard anyway and wrecked the project as planned. Overall though I thought his stocks good and reasonable in price but this has all been at least 16 years ago.