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I think Scrollcutter has a good point about a grip that's too open. I think I'd draw what you think you'd like on a sheet of freezer paper, and see how close it matches to the available wood you have on that stock.

Remember, if you move to a more open grip.....the grip cap will move back, and up. It will also be at a slightly different angle than what the current stock describes. It's possible that you can set the grip back a bit....satisfy your open grip desires....and still have enough wood to accomplish this without doing a "cut and paste".

The new grip area only has to involve enough wood to mate to the grip cap you are going to use. Even a bit of "fill" in that area might be easier than other methods.

Try Scrollcutter's suggested grip circumference and see how far it's off from what wood you have available to work with.

GV

Scrollcutter,
Are you talking about cutting the grip off so the remaining stock looks like an english shotgun stock and then sliding the piece back down a bit towards the butt and gluing it back on? Good approach and probably easier than what I would do. I usually cut the profile out of the face of the tighter grip and then add some bondo and start reshaping the mess I have left. That normally includes moving the nose back a smidge.

Dago... Whos stock pattern is that?

Im almost done with a gag stock. It has a pretty open grip but I dont like certain geometry of the cap angle and toe line. I did alot of reshapeing and im still not pleased with it.

Id say get a steel grib cap, I like dakotas , play around with its position and angle and remove wood/ add bondo as desired. Uck Bondo ... cant belief I said that word. Hope there isnt to much of that crap in my lungs!

Ive found its kinda hard to redo someone elses "cut" into what I want.

Theres a Sherman Smith stock on a rifle at a local shop that I liked .
Im still serching for a pattern for my next project...

Red:

It's hard to say from the angle of the photo. There are a couple of ways to do what you want. The first I would consider with a pretty tight grip would be to plane or cut the grip off in line with the bottom line of the stock. Your grip looks fairly open so I think I would go with your first suggestion. Cut it right behind guard and add about 3/8".

You do want to be kinda carefull with a kicker and the open grip. I want a grip that I can pull the stock back into my shoulder. You can do that with an open grip, but it's easier with a grip of about a 5-5 1/2" circumference. That is still fairly open.

I'm not a big fan of really open grips. They give the stock a long and lean look, but I don't like having my elbow in the clouds in order to shoot the rifle. Take a look at some of the pre-war English magazine rifles. That's about as open a grip as I want on a thumper.

the circumference or the curvature of the grip? I can probably figure out the circumference without too much trouble. I don't want it to be too open because I agree with Roger on that, I like ot have something to pull against. I didn't get the stock tonight will go pick it up in the morning and take a direct from the side shot of it.



I did have this pic which is right from the side but doesn't show the rest of the grip and the butt. since I don't have it here I cannot measure the circumferance. I bought a Large grip cap from Dressels which I plan to use on it.



Red



Maybe more than anything it is too short. Do you think if I used bondo to build up the base of it and angled the front edge of the grip cap down to open it up a bit that would work? then I would have to somehow blend it into the bottom side of the butt.

That's the one. here is the pic I have now, I was shooting these to show that I had got the cheekpiece off so didn't get a good sideways shot, I'll try to get that later. this is angled a bit but you can still see the shape of the grip somewhat.







Red

Edit- those files are not in bad shape because I did not take care of them, they are 50+ years old and were inherited from my dad who got them from his dad.

Great! I will go and get it tonight, left it at my parents since it was part of my stepfathers present, and will take some pics. I had a couple here somewhere that if I can find I will post. I appreciate the help!

Red
PS
Scrollcutter, did you see the pic I posted of the blank that will be used for the final product?

The one for your father-in-law?

Yes, I did.