I am not leaving my work bench until this sucker is fitting tight. One sliver at a time.



This is the first shotgun stock I've worked on, much less starting with a blank and broken old factory stock, so seeing it come together well is a relief.





It's claro walnut and the fore-end matches well. The shotgun is an old Long Tom 12 ga. that needed some help and I found the wood at a good price.

quote:

Originally posted by Evan K.:
I am not leaving my work bench until this sucker is fitting tight. One sliver at a time.



This is the first shotgun stock I've worked on, much less starting with a blank and broken old factory stock, so seeing it come together well is a relief.





It's claro walnut and the fore-end matches well. The shotgun is an old Long Tom 12 ga. that needed some help and I found the wood at a good price.

I know a guy whom would make one shot, one kill, for wood like that.

I'm doing my best with it... promise.

I got lucky because it was a 1 3/4" thick piece and just enough to do the stock. The rest of the wood is being used as well. No waste when it's good stuff.

Just take your time and when you feel it's going to slow put it down an walk away.

quote:

Originally posted by kcstott:
Just take your time and when you feel it's going to slow put it down an walk away.

That is very sound advice. Everytime I feel that it is going to slow I end up taking to much off and screwing things up.
Take your time as kcstott says and you will get there.

Thanks for the replies fellas. I have started to learn over time that fixing mistakes can take a ton of time when you can be making progress so it's best to just do your best the first time and that means lots of sharpening breaks. I retired my dremel for most tasks awhile ago. I'm still very much in the learning process of stockmaking so this stuff takes awhile.

This is my first shotgun so it's been different and challenging at times (drilling the throughbolt hole gahhh) but I'm taking my time and using my good chisels where I need to so I think it'll end up fine.



The photo is missing inletting black, but I did the rough cutting of the tang with my 1/4" planing chisel cleanly across the grain and have been slowly closing the gap with little files and thin sanding blocks. I have kept the sides tall so I can get the tang perfectly fitted before I narrow the grip down to be level with the metal. IF that makes sense.



I did the fore-end starting out with some careful routing with a round 1" carbide bit and fitted the tapered barrel in with sandpaper and socket wrenches.





Right now the shotgun balances and shoulders/points nice and since it's gonna be for pheasant hunting in Kansas I'm just using my Minnesota pheasant hunter's opinion on that.

This was the thread I started about the layout of the blank.

http://forums.accuratereloadin...1019521/m/1801049551

I posted it in the custom rifles section, oops.

Shaping the butt around and behind the grip cap and contouring the grip has been a challenge but has been turning out well.








Little bit of inletting black there... oops!

Very pretty wood.

Yours will be the best dressed Long Tom on earth!

Hi,
Please do not apologize about the inletting black. When I inlet it is all over the stock and metal always. On my forehead and clothes, too. Just goes with the territory. I mostly inlet barrel channels using scrapers and use the chisels for the cross grain cutting. Looks as though your recoil pad could be introduced to a disc sander and pad sanding jig. Well worth the money. Worthy project and, yep, best looking Long Tom on the planet.

Luck,

Stephen

Kind of funny, I looked at the stock after taking the photos and the dark spots behind the flutes and above the grip is just really heavy figure. It's reassuring though that I'm not the only one who looks in the bathroom mirror after coming upstairs and jumps. "That dirty?"

The recoil pad needs some more aggressive effort for sure. When I shape rubber pads I've stuck to sanding blocks with coarse grit and a Dremel with a sanding drum when there's a ton of rubber to burn and I'm feeling brave. The trouble is always how the plastic just goes quicker than rubber so easily. I'm all ears here, fellas.

I've never thought of it as the best looking Long Tom around but I suppose someone needs to raise the bar. This project has taught me a lot and has been very enjoyable. Deep down I wanted to work on an old shotgun for a long time and I jumped on the opportunity when it was presented to me, and I was at the right place at the right time to buy the wood. The grain flow isn't optimal but I can work with it.