Bill,

Would you round or angle kinda like wby or most other rollovers, I like round, but not sure I can trasition without changing lines of the forearm, you know what I'm talking about.

Gringo Cazador,

For the grip cap my suggestion is the Jerry Fisher or Dressel English-Style from Brownell's LINK .

The forearm length depends on the look you are going for. If you are going for the classic express rifle look, I would suggest 8 to 9" measured from the front of the receiver. This sounds short, but most originals that I have measured were from 6 1/2 (a couple of Rigby's, but not all Rigby's) to 9. I am having my CZ 416 redone now, and am going with 8 1/2" for the forearm, plus slimming the forearm and grip profile. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Looks like you have good contrasting straight grain in your stock (at least in the grip area pictured). Ought to look very nice when finished. Are you doing anything to the metal?

Good luck,
Jim

mbogo375,

The CZ stock is very straight grained, I have to admit its a nice hunk of wood, nice cast and about the right amount of drop. Here is a better pic. Got a piece of Ebony to add to the tip, thats all no metal work. Just sticking box stock 550 in it, I did add 3 pos CZ saftey and work the trigger.

belaw,

Wow, looks like we think alike. You posted while I was composing.

Jim

Billy,

I would use a dakota skeleton for the cap. Forend length I use is 1/2 the barrel length minus 1 inch.

Wanted to get opinions from some of you guys that are more exprienced than I am.

First question is CZ grip cap, what type would you guys recommend, this is for my 550 CZ 416, it on Mike Kokolus's CZ pattern.


Next question is forearm length. This a 257wby that I've pieced together, not really planned. The brl is a take off, stock was bargin basement, action I had, so it not like this was planned out. No doubt this type of stock would look better with a slightly longer barrel. Just not sure if I should split the difference which means cutting little over an inch. Typicaly I would let the forearm hit about middle ways up the brl.

Comments please.

Billy,

Very nice!

The other thing to keep in mind is that a 416 just begs to have a barrel band sling swivel base. If you don't want to do anything else to the metal you could use an open top partial barrel band, so that you don't have to remove the front sight to get it on the barrel. Heck, you can even use one of the Uncle Mike's two piece open-top split bands (I can already hear the uproar from the purists ), and this is just what I did on a Brno 602 in 450 Dakota-looked and worked fine.

Another advantage of the shorter forearm is that it moves thepoint of balance back "slightly" making the rifle more responsive.

I am having one of the Wisner side swing bolt shroud safeties added to my CZ, plus the Wisner floorplate. We will see how everything turns out in a month or so. I can hardly wait .

Jim

Billy,

Definitely round that forearm if you can. But it all boils down to personal taste. I havent done a stock like that in .....well......I dont remember the last one I did. Its pure hell trying to checker and angled forearm like that. I just think they look better and feel better with a nice rounded forearm. But to each his own.

Mbogo375,

Until you mentioned it, I hadnt even thought about barrel band, forgot it didnt have one, had to go look at it, thats pretty bad. I will go with a barrel band, no doubt, a one piece. I've spent much more time getting stuff for my 404 I'm building and havent given the 416 much thought other than the stock. I'll get my gunsmith buddy dewight marshal to put a bb swivel on it.

I concur with mbogo. I generally use Fisher or Dressel caps from Brownells. Because they come in several sizes, you can usually order one pretty close to what you need. My favorite is the Fisher, not too thick and heavy.

Billy,
You had me confused which is an easy task nowadays. I see we are looking at 2 different stocks. I agree with Bill regarding the forearm length. 1/2 the exposed barrel minus one inch (=/-). Do what looks good. You can put an ebony tip on it if you like. I think that blank would look good with one and round the end of it. I do think it is not a good time to do a skeleton on that grip, you need more sticking down to do it. I would use a Dressels grip cap because I have quite a few. Also have some 2 screw Fishers. They all look good. The Lenard Brownells model is a lot cheaper ($6) and you have to finish it from the casting yourself but I do like them.

FWIW Old Mauser drawings showed 405mm (15.944")from trigger to forearm tip.

I like the lines of the Jerry Fisher single-screw grip cap, but for a big-bore the Dressel's English Style grip cap might look more appropriate. I know Brownell's carries both of these:

http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=6523