I do understand your point.

There's one thing lots of folks need to always remember - your rifle is, well, yours

I guess my advice is, do as little as possible to still be happy with the result. Part of the pleasure (in my opinion) to shoot with a milsurp is that the rifle has character, and the details in its (sometimes imperfect) appearance are part of what makes the rifle unique.

Sanding also removes wood, and the less wood there is, the weaker it eventually becomes. If too much wood is removed in a few places, it could get thin and more prone to spliting.

Now, I do use very fine steel wool to prepare wood before the linseed oilicon, it does make the wood look nice and doesn't remove much material.

A lot is different with stocks I'd buy used, to desporterize a rifle; so it all depends where the rifle is coming from, as you stated.

Lou
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