As some of you know, I'm building a custom 98 Mauser. It'll have a 26" barrel. I wou;d like it to look somewhat like the commercial Obendorf Mausers. I am now searching the web for a stock. With a decent, mid-grade, piece of English walnut it looks like it will cost at least $650-700 fit/finished/checkered for my gun. Does this seem about right? I don't want to be cheap. I think, in most instances, you get what you pay for. I just want to be frugal. Please, let's don't get on tirades. Im just looking for suggestions. thanks,capt david

Capt, Price is relative to both supply and demand. How many people want what you want, and how many can provide the service. I have wanted a seriously drop dead gorgeous stock for my .375 for years and they haven't been getting any cheaper. What I am picking up recently is that the materials and the proflier are the bulk of the cost, if you don't want an extravagant pattern of checkering. Bottom line is that I think your estimate is low for a solid and well done stock! I feel that I would need to pay, more for the blank for my own tastes, and then the time and work into it. Regardless we all pay our money and take our chances on the road to perdition. Good luck.

I would think that for a stock I'd have done, the price would start at 1000.00, and quickly go up. But, you do get what you pay for...

For a custom gun, the best advice I can give is to go slow, and be willing to spend the money to get it right.

On this forum there any many who could tell you from experience how not to do it.

Take your time, make sure you know exactly what you want, find the artisans who can provide the service you want, set aside the money, and then when your ready, have it built.

It's going to cost you some coin, no way around it.

At the risk of having Chic jump into his car and come over to the west side and kick the crap out of me,( ) that's one of the reasons synthetic stocks are popular. The cost is low in regards to the rest of the gun...

quote:

Originally posted by captdavid:
With a decent, mid-grade, piece of English walnut it looks like it will cost at least $650-700 fit/finished/checkered for my gun.

David,
let's back into thism assuming CHEAP work
blank
150
turning
200
inletting
200
bedding
100
checkering
200
pad and crossbolts
150

1000$$

and that's cheap work.

jeffe

That price is real cheap for a complete, checkered stock. I can only suspect the product would also be rather cheap as well. That doesn't mean you won't like it. Price and satisfaction is different for everybody. I found a English blank that I really like for $250, not the fanciest but I like it and was looking to spend $500. I bought it off Dressels web site. A nicely done but simple checkering pattern is usually a couple hundred bucks. Where did you get that price? Would it be GAG?

If you read Customstox' web page, what he says there makes a lot of sense. If you are going to pay good money for the labor to make a nice stock, it makes very little sense to start with a cheap blank. For example if you are going to have $1000 in labor in the stock and you choose a $200 blank you will have 16 percent of the cost of the project in the wood. If you go with a $500 blank the percentage you will have in the wood will still only be 33 percent of the total, but the difference in the looks of the whole project due to the nicer piece of wood might make the job look like a $3000 job instead of a $1000 job if the labor is done correctly. Bottom line. Buy the best piece of wood you can afford.

I would say that 1000 would be on the low end.

this is my take on bare min.

400 dollar blank
150 duplicating
do the rest youself
400 for Checkering
and if you didnt do it yourself, add another 600

which comes out to about 1600 with shipping and etc thrown in, but coors lite may effect my math, it's friday night

Capt David,

Bite the bullet and buy a good blank, remember the pprice listed posted buy Jeff above. He gave you cheap stock work prices. Labor alone I doubt I would get a stock for $1000, I am pickey on grip caps and checkering, so what I want will cost a fair amount more.

But in the end whether I spend the above on building a stock out of a barn door, or a quality blank I have spent the above. The difference is what I get when its done with the good blank. One I have something I like and suits me, the other I have a lot of money tied up in a old barn door and I am unhappy.

I am going through the same quandery myself, I have been looking for a good stock, I started at around $400.00 in that I really only found decent black walnut, look here:

http://wattswalnut.com/index.html#fancy

http://www.wenig.com/welcome.html

These were what I found that I thought was reasonable in Black Walnut and Wenig has English walnut also.

I have since changed my mind, and I think I am going the Turkish route, again I started on a budget, but have since expanded it. Right now I am going to budget btween $750-$1000 for my blank, I got a couple estimates on a stock and labor alone was over $2000 so I figured why be cheap with all that labor involved.

Anyway pics to what I am looking at: Currently stocks number 710 and 730 have caught my eye:

http://home.tiscalinet.ch/zuebi/r-spc.htm

I might go cheaper, I looked at some of the fancy and full fancy stocks also, even rolled over whether I should buy two cheaper stocks.

I e-mailed them and got the details, shipping isn't cheap but I have pretty much made up my mind I am going to give it a try. I Talked with my stockmaker and he likes what he sees also.

I got a quote the other day of $1000 to shape, inlet, oil finish and checker my blank. I thought that was good.

Extras like metal caps, pads, swivels etc would be extra.

Ramrod340,

That is a pretty reasonable price. I have done comparitable pricing and the range for a stock went from just below your point to over 3K. There were some varaibles involved and it depended on who exactly I got a quote from. I want the extra's and its going to cost, and checkering both type and coverage increase the price.

I selected my stockmaker not really on price, sure it was a factor, but the clincher for me was end item and what I wanted, I just couldn't justify spending a lot of money and not getting exactly what I want.

I also asked about how long it takes, and finally gave up, everyone that I talked to was a min of 8 months, and most were at least a year. The only quick turn arounds ( 6 months or less ) I started having quality concerns.

This is one area in gunmaking there isn't any free luches on, nice stocks cost money nowdays, and they take time, just no getting around it. The 1950's are gone and cheap custom wood stocks are a thing of the past.