I am building a 35 Whelen on a Mauser 98 I am thinking about pitting Cross-Bolts on it. The rifle is not going to have open sights and will have a FN style bolt shroud. So I think that exposed Cross-Bolts will look out of place.Given that the style is not traditional. So I will probebly have hidden cross bolts. It will have an Ebony forend tip and a Black Recoil Pad so I was thinking of plugging the holes with Ebony or Black Acraglass. But I wanted to see if you guys had any suggestions. Any pictures you guys have would be greatly appriciated.

Brad ; Give me a couple of minutes an I'll post a picture of both and let you decide . Both are on the same stock ,so it's a fair assessment side by side .Pictures not as sharp as I'd hoped cloudy today and done hastily ,hope it shows enough contrast .

Ebony plug & forend tip, Whitworth 375

This is what mine look like, there is another behind the recoil lug too. I don't know what was used for the plugs, may have just been a filler but pretty unobtrusive on the dark stock.

Thanks guys that raelly helps!

Doc is the Ebony the one on the right with the grain pattern? Or is that the Glass?

Looking at Eagle's it makes me wonder about using a piece of walnut as a filler to blend in a little more.

Personnaly I think, if you can't make it a perfect match, draw attention to it. I'd go with either solid black ebony or black glass.

No Ebony is front ( Left )solid , the rear or ( Right ) is somewhat grain matched too the walnut .

As anyone who has worked in wood knows matching grain effectively from two different pieces of wood ( IE Grain ) is near impossible . Sorry about the focus I was in a hurry and should have snapped it either close or macro instead of portrait DUH !.

I've seen plugs done all ways. IMO the one I truly like best is whatever matches the Forend piece , provided the Rifle has one of contrasting wood .An if not I prefer all four plugs match either Ebony or Black epoxy or nicely grained matching Rifle stock wood ,not both as this stock is !. They'll all be changed to match the stocks Indian Rose wood forend ,as I have plenty of it .

I am torn right now. I have some of the wood from the blank that I could cut plugs from. It would match fairly close but would not be perfect.

My resident style expert that picked the blank (My Wife) says first choice is walnut plugs second choice would be black AcraGlass.

I like the idea of the plugs matching to forend tip and recoil pad, but I also like the idea of being diffrent and using walnut.

What's the stock Walnut , Then what's the forend tip ?. If you have stock scrap , cut #4 I'll assume that's the number you'll need .

Stick em in and see if you like them DON'T Glue them yet . Now if you don't pull em out and either go with ebony ,Rose wood or whatever the forend tip wood is made of . Personally My last resort would be black epoxy , Acraglass has it's place and purposes .I prefer Epoxy colored black ,rather than colored polyester resin.

Stock enhancements are personal choices ,an if you like it then it's the correct choice !.

As for stock pictures I posted . I was looking over that stocks forend an grip cap , both are Rose wood however because of the age an grain ,I might me better off using some of my old Purple Heart it may match better . Not sure until I start the finishing ,I'll cut both and dry run them then spot finish and see which is the best choice !.

I have been trying things out on some scrap and I have decided that I will go with Ebony Plugs. They just look better than the Walnut

Now the question that I have is what to glue them with. Should I use acra-glass, regular epoxy, or wood glue? Do I need to pretreat the ebony with anything (soak in acetone)?

Any info/advice would be appriciated.

A few hints here for what they are worth. I would bore the holes for the plugs first and then turn the plugs to fit. I use an epoxy, any two part should work and it should start out clear and then dye it black.

Jim

Thanks Jim,

I have been boring test pieces on an old stock. I have found a milling cutter that will create a slight clearance for the plugs made with my plug cutter and I made a jig to hold the whole thing im my milling machine.

I have never done a cross bolt before so I wanted to make sure I had it all figured out before I jacked up my stock.