Re: Love that Dakota high-grade wood

29 December 2004, 14:50

ZD,
I am making a pregnant stock, like this one.. can i get a close up of the mag?

thanks
jeffe

29 December 2004, 15:16

Zero Drift

jeffe - Sure thing, but give me a few days to take the pictures and forward them...

29 December 2004, 15:40

Howard

Quote:

Kesselring's Gun Shop in Alger, WA.

Minor point but in case anyone wants to know exactly Kesselring's is located at

http://www.kesselrings.com/new/default.asp

Kesselring Gun Shop
4024 Old Hwy 99
Burlington, WA 98233

29 December 2004, 15:57

thefinegunmaker

WOW

Did anybody see that almost perfect layout on that XX Dak stock???? They don't layout much better than that for any amount of money!

I'd put my money on that blank for a working rifle before MANY I've seen others spend cubic dollars on.

As far as Dakota standards go, the flash kind of washes it out A LITTLE, that's XX grade. I don't know what the $ is for the XX upgrade, but if you spend the time to pick one out you can find a little better in the XX pile. Or at least you could when I worked there.

Posted by 338Laupa

" That third rifle down is incredible!!!! Do you have any closer pics? What caliber? BTW, my Dakota is Bastogne also, I love the figure."

Jim/338Laupa
I like the layout on your stock, but my money says that is a nice piece of Claro. You can get a lot more color for the money/X's with claro.

Zero Drift
The bottom rifle looks very familiar. It's got a more rounded forend tip and C-piece comes around a little more than the others. Is the toe line behind the grip cap VERY round to the touch? More so than the the top 2? And the grip just behind the trigger guard, much more rounded than the others? The pitch looks a little better as well. When was that one made? One last thing, no matter what you were told over the phone, Don didn't stock any production rifles while I was there. He only roughed a few he salvaged out of the burn pile usually for a free hunt somewhere and a few personal ones.

Kutenay
Kesselring's sent all their own wood in during the time your rifle was made. They bought a lot of Dakota's while I worked there. Most of his wood came from Jimmerson's, but he paid his bills faster than Allen did so Kesselring got much more color for the money. Most of Kesselring's english that was sent in had very dark color and pretty blond background. Every piece had lots of contrast and pretty good layout! I enjoied stocking many of them from '93-'97. Does your "roundness" match the questions I asked to ZDrift?

gunmaker

30 December 2004, 17:43

Customstox

tfg,
If you look at the present pricing scheme, they seem to start with XX as the standard grade and then upgrades start at XXX at $600, Exhibition at $850, Special Selection 1 at $1500 and Special Selection 2 at $2000 and Special Selection 3 at $2500. Some of their examples of what they call Special Selection in their inventory are hard pressed to make exhibition.

30 December 2004, 15:29

thefinegunmaker

Quote:

In any event, blonde english, in ANY grain pattern, is not exhibition, especially with a great big ole' knot in it. As I am certain you know, MOST of the walnut tree is blonde (by mass after bark) and while frighteningly strong, there's NO WAY that firewood should be sold as XX.

jeffe

The blank at the top of this thread was listed as XX, not exhibition. Classic grade 76 had X grade as standard.
Dakota's grading starts with X at the lowest grade.
X
XX
XXX
Exhibition
Special Select
I hope nobody thought they were peddling close to bottom shelf wood as a top shelf $$ upgrade

gunmaker

30 December 2004, 14:59

kutenay

The rifle I bought was made fairly early, s/n 03xx and they had it for about four years before I bought it; Donny Kesselring did tell me that they had supplied the wood for it and the others they had and it is very nice.

I know of a number of other people who bought Dakotas and were very displeased with them, although I think that part of this had to do with personal inability to shoot a light rifle in .330 Dakota. I got a very good deal on mine as I bought it in January and they had sold others with fancier fittings, but, this one had the wood I liked and it works. I am thinking of putting a High-Tech synthetic stock on it and spoke with Mark just before Xmas about this.....sacrilege, I know, but B.C. is VERY tough hunting and I am not young, any more.

30 December 2004, 13:00

jeffeosso

TFG,
no offense taken... and, as we demonstrate, opinions vary.. I like arches, especially through the wrist... grown wood is several times stronger than cut wood... they proved this when they tried rebuilding some viking longships... a 4" plank, cut into oarlocks, shattered under easyload... but a TWIG grown into a V wouldn't break.

In any event, blonde english, in ANY grain pattern, is not exhibition, especially with a great big ole' knot in it. As I am certain you know, MOST of the walnut tree is blonde (by mass after bark) and while frighteningly strong, there's NO WAY that firewood should be sold as XX.

I have 11 bastogne blanks with about as much charracter.. these are pattern blanks.. harder than a lawyer's heart, dead straight grain, and NO reason in the world to be anything but patterns or smoker fodder.

jeffe

30 December 2004, 12:31

thefinegunmaker

jeffe
Some nice looking wood there. I think you have fair prices on them.

The structural layout on that mild mannered Dakota XX does beat some of the pics you have posted. The color on your stocks however blows away that XX Dakota stock. The only imperfection in layout on the Dakota stock is the grain running very slightly down hill near the tip. I'd prefer slightly uphill down the forend. I would first give value to a stock blank based on layout and second for color. XX blank with $hitty layout should have more color than XX with good layout. Just how I grade them.

If a few of your stocks had better layout you could double your prices on them and still be reasonable. Again nice blanks, I'm not trying to bash your blanks, just posting personal opinion/info here for anyone interested in reasons for the somewhat lamely colored XX at the top of this thread.

If I had a way to post pics I'd show a few blanks that I like a little too much.

gunmaker

30 December 2004, 08:58

MHC_TX

I forgot to add this to the above post.....

While Dakota has my rifle, replacing the stock, they are also going to do the following at no charge to me:

1. reblue the entire rifle
2. make sure iron sights haven't moved and re-regulate if necessary
3. put a red recoil pad on the new stock (I thought it would be more traditional, plus it's my favorite color).

ForrestB: I really like your rifles! What is Dauane Wiebe's turn around time on a custom rifle?

Happy New Year!

30 December 2004, 12:06

308Sako

That's why I prefer the highly figured Fiberglass of MacMillan,

which at least comes in a choice of colors...

30 December 2004, 05:04

MHC_TX

Here is a picture of my Dakota M-76 African in 416 Rigby (the wood is Dakota's standard XXX English Walnut)

While on a 21 day safari a 1/4" crack began to develop behind the tang. When I got back I called Dakota and told them I wanted the stock replaced at their cost. They agreed to replace the stock at their cost. I decided that I would like to have the wood upgraded to exhibition grade (from XXX). They said fine and offered me a 50% discount on the upgrade for my trouble. Dakota sent me several photos of their exhibition blanks in english, bastonge and turkish walnut too choose from. This is the blank I chose - it is turkish walnut.

Here are the bastonge blanks I could choose from:

Here are the english walnut blanks I could choose from:

Here are the rest of the turkish walnut blanks I could choose from:

In my case Dakota stood behind their product. The rifle is about 1-1/2 years old and I probably had put 300 plus rounds through it before taking it to africa. It was nice to have a choice in the stock replacement. In my opinion, picking a pretty wood stock is kind of like picking a beautiful woman

30 December 2004, 11:45

ForrestB

MHC,
Beautiful rifle and great choice on the new wood. I have a couple of mid 90's Dakotas and I thought, and still think, they were excellent rifles for the price. My only beef with Dakota is their wood grading and the price they charge to upgrade wood. Well, their charge for differing the length of pull bothers me too.

Their price of the wood upgrade usually exceeds by a healthy margin the entire cost of a comparable stock blank. I'm happy with the wood on my Dakota's and don't recall seeing any from that era with especially plain stocks. The newer rifles are another thing altogether. I'd strongly suggest that Dakota buyers supply their own wood for the project.

As to Duane's schedule, I don't really know his current turnaround time. He's always jokingly told me that he sets his own schedule. Meaning that he can make any particular project go as slow or fast as he wants to.

The quickest he's delivered for me is 5 months, the longest is 2 years. He recently delivered a rifle for a friend of mine in about 4 months, because he knew it was for an important hunt. He sure seems to be faster for new customers and on "more interesting" projects.

Give Duane a call at (530) 344-1357 and see what he says.

30 December 2004, 01:10

jeffeosso

ZD,
thanks.. they are perfect!
jeffe

30 December 2004, 01:18

jeffeosso

Quote:

WOW
Did anybody see that almost perfect layout on that XX Dak stock???? They don't layout much better than that for any amount of money!
...

gunmaker

TFG,
here's AT LEAST 10 of 12 pieces that have better layout AND are EYEPOPPING... and, heh, are fairly cheap

http://www.accuratereloading.com/ubbthre...p;page=0#877024

only the feathercrotch claro is going to have less of the "perfect" grain flow for a BOOMER.. but, then again, it's claro, not what you put on a boomer...

arguably, blank "c" has less than idea boomer grainflow, but, then again, it's ENGLISH and it's GORGEOUS

jeffe

30 December 2004, 00:39

338Lapua

Quote:

Jim/338Laupa

I like the layout on your stock, but my money says that is a nice piece of Claro. You can get a lot more color for the money/X's with claro.

gunmaker

Well I went back to a letter Don had sent me when I had Dakota look up my serial number for year manufactured and upgrades, one of the upgrades was Exhibition Grade French Walnut. Sorry about the confusion. It's been years since I thought about it. I bought/traded for mine from a stocking Dakota dealer in San Antonio in '94 or '95.

Glad you like the layout of my stock.

Have a great new year!!!

Jim