What a waste. Boyds "replacement" shotgun stocks

[ssgross]

So this is the next stagnated project in line for clearing out. During the long wait, I was able to find an original stock - without a crack in the wrist, still full length with original buttplate - and at a very cheap price. I was also able to source some 1/4 thick buffalo horn plates for ~$30. I think I'm going to forgo the Boyd's stock though in favor of the original replacement I found. Should clean up nice. Save the horn for something else down the road. Sad though. It really is a nice piece of walnut - worth putting a rubber pad on and finishing at least.

Replacement stock is the shiny one. Bubba clearly sprayed it with a rattle can clear coat.

I have two forends to prep, blue and assemble. The 20" riot barrel is already done in my last update. The original 30" full choke has a small dent - a very hard picture to take when too lazy to get out the borecam. You can make it out where the line is pointing. I've circled the offending area of the exterior. Looks lke it was dropped and maybe scraped a rock. I'll likely wait to polish and blue the barrel until I can rent a dent raiser - which I already need to do for that ithaca SxS I'm nearly done with. Soon, I hope.

[browningautorifle]

During the long wait, I was able to find an original stock - without a crack in the wrist, still full length with original buttplate - and at a very cheap price.

A real hen's tooth, that. Never ever would I expect to see one hereabouts.

[ssgross]

after some sulking, I decided on a path forward and began working the 97 stock.
In my parts bin I have an early checkered metal buttplate with the widows peak. While watching the Super Bowl I got most of its curve fit, and just need to settle it back until the toe makes full contact. It has plenty of border below the checkering to grind down flush and not look weird. Needs some delicate filing to clean up but it'll blue up nice I think. I'll need to also glass bed it to the receiver to clean up the slop in the fit.
For the model 12, I'm going the file off the Boyds logo on the generic plastic buttplate that came with it, and give it a high polish. This will allow me to get the project quickly (relative to my shop's clock anyway) finished before I make any final decisions. I don't want to plug and redial the stock bolt hole just to fit a plastic repop buttplate. Brownells sells repop winchester solid red rubber, but is out of stock. My searches for 1/2"+ thick horn blank of suitable size found none. There is a company that offers blank horn buttplates, but out of stock wherever I could find. So I'll wait patiently. I'm leaning heavily towards horn today with lofty goals of checkering it myself or carving it one day, but by the time I finish my morning coffee that mood could change.

I will never buy anything from Boyds again. I sent a polite email and a week gone by with not even an acknowledgment.

[ssgross]

The 1897 stock is done. I'll post a pic in that thread.
I'm getting ready to start the model 12. I confirmed again there is no correcting it. Even with the shorter repop buttplate, the lower hole sits over hole for the stock screw - so I'd have top plug that and re-drill higher up, connecting with the existing hole for alignment. No thanks. Moreover, the shorter buttplate will still overhang by 1/8+ inches, and there isn't enough border around its checkering to make it look right.

So, as my coffee brewed, I went on a search again for an alternative. My last search did not yield suitable horn blanks at a reasonable price, but today I found a supplier - x2 blanks, 2"x6"x1/2 thick buffalo horn for $25. And, I found a video too!

Here is a link if it doesn't show up for you...'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5A6mBOZncA'
So that's the plan - sans the starting from raw horn part. I will also not plug over the screws for the obvious reason. I'm not an artist, so no carving other than rounding a bit, with a little curve from heal to toe. I thought about checkering it, but no good way to polish it out when done. Unless maybe if I can impress something in to it by boiling in a form, similar to the video. Nah. My initials on the underside will suffice.

[Surpmil]

That is very nice looking rust bluing as you say. Did you do it or get it done somewhere?

[ssgross]

Did you do it or get it done somewhere?

Thank you. I do all my own rust bluing. Since I found myself doing it regular enough, In my Ithaca SxS thread I built a rig out of pvc tubes, some cheap PID controllers, and couple cartridge heaters off fleabay. In a thread now several years ago when I first started bluing I put some lesson's learned. I think the key takeaway was I never could get steam to give good results, although others swear by it. I use Mark Lee's Express solution almost exclusively now, but I have used others with just as good results. The real advantage is Mark Lee's solution rusts immediately when you go over the area you just wiped with a flame, and then converts in only about 1/2 to 2 minutes in the boil, depending on the type of steel. I've found 4-6 iterations is all it takes - also dependent on the type of steel. Any more than that and the metal will begin losing the perfect satin you made and start to look pickled but with no additional depth of color. A dip in plain kerosene is used after the last carding and then hung up to try overnight. The kerosene 1) is the best water displacing oil I have found and 2) leaves behind a film after it dries in the pores of the bluing, in effect "hardening" the finish and 3) it deepens the color, likely a consequence of (2).

[Surpmil]

I can see you put a lot of work into the surface prep and it shows!

It would be interesting to see an SMLE finished by that method next to one still in original finish; the colour looks very close to me.

[ssgross]

a lot of work into the surface prep

Yes. this is the ticket. Cloth back paper is used, normally wet for big jobs. Comes in rolls at harbor freight or the auto parts store. This is backed by a file for the corse passes - I usually start at 120 wet, after my final draw filing if it was needed. I switch to backing with a wood block for medium grits. For the final pass, I use a rubber pencil eraser. Barrels get a shoe-shine in the final pass. 400 or 600 grit seems to be a good place to stop, but depends on the alloy and the shape of the part. For a barrel, you can usually stop earlier - for a super hard metal maybe quit after 320. Softer materials go finer. In the rare instances I was in a hurry and used the buffing wheel, I always paper polish as above around every screw hole and edge, never go close to those spots with the wheel, and then always finish with a final pass of paper in the correct direction. Yes. There is a "correct" direction to paper polish. I think the real trick is your final pass should be perpendicular to gravity as you go to pull the part out of the boil - perpendicular to the bore for barrels and receivers. If your sanding were parallel to gravity, the water always forms runs which evaporate at a slightly slower rate than the rest of the surface. This can create slightly darker streaks which are hard, often impossible, to blend away during carding especially in the final passes. No, the best finish is obtained like I said, final sanding pass perpendicular. The metal holds the water evenly across the part causing it to roll off in a single sheet as you lift the part out of the boil, hence no streaks. In a pinch, if you do get a streak at the end and don't want to scuff back and start over, the only remedy seems to be a final application of a grease like RIG and some soft buffing with a clean cotton patch. This will make the contrast fade away, but if ever you clean the surface you will likely see the faint streak again.

Why not steam? Some swear by it. I have never been able to control how the part sweats, which is a function of the temperature of the metal when introducing it to the steam, the density of steam used, and the thermal mass of the part. Something thin like a shotgun barrel, no mater the temp of the barrel going into the steam, when I pull it out it cools so rapidly that beads of water form, creating a mottled finish nearly impossible to blend away. Oiling/greasing softens the edges of the spots, but doesn't make them go away. Nope. No steam for me ever again. I wasted many a valuable weekend screwing around with that method because so many internet experts claimed it to be superior. My final impression is it takes a real skill and eye to control the flow of steam at just the right level, and backing off steam at just the right rate before taking the part out to prevent water beading - more skill than I posess.

[ssgross]

I was able to get a repop winchester rubber pad, and it will work with the Boyd's replacement stock. I fitted it a couple weeks ago, and started applying finish all the stocks I had on hand. Now I have a real problem - deciding which to use. I'm open to being persuaded at this point.

First up - the original stock that was on the gun. I repaired the crack with threaded pins and acraglas. The finish is my own alkanet stain and red oil. Grain was purposefully not filled, but the dents and scratches were removed to at least make it look used but well cared for. The lighting shows off the repair more than it actually looks in person. It passes the 10ft stare test.


Second option - the used original stock. Plenty of dents needed steamed outlet and it needed a new buttplate fit. All that is left is to lightly scuff back the final finish and wax.


Last option - the Boyds stock with repro rubber recoil pad - not affixed in this pic because I have a couple more weeks of finish applications to go. But it's starting to look as is it should.


I suppose I will need to see them on a fully assembled gun, but I'm still polishing parts between applications of finish on the stocks. Once I decide, I will sell the others, so if anyone on this forum needs a good model 12 stock, shoot me a PM. You can have dibs before I put them on fleabay.

[ssgross]

Ok, so boyds' replacements aren't entirely a waste. In addition to the wrong butt length though, there was 0 (zero) material at the wrist to work with. On either side the woods' edge is just barely below the metal.

But I think it came out as good as it could. The fit is a little sloppy unlike the original which is nice and tight, so I will need to bed the socket. You might think I should have done this before finishing, but it is much easier to clean epoxy off of a finished and waxed stock and touch up the finish then it is to clean from bare wood and I was afraid to remove any material around the edges.


Next up is to blue the forends, and fix and blue the 30" barrel.