What a waste. Boyds "replacement" shotgun stocks

[ssgross]

So, I got my unfinished walnut in the mail today.
18 ring 97 slide handle - spot on and will work just peachy.

1897 butt. fit up is good, with just enough room to pull tight with a proper slight gap on the shoulder. But, there is no real tenon the full thickness of the wrist like the originals, it's just a ring like the model 12s. Oh well, could be easily dealt with by bedding it. Moreover, there is no room left on the exterior wrist where it meets the receiver. It is dead flush or ever so slightly under. Will work fine. Not much prep left to do on it anyway.

model 12 butt. same as above.

Which brings me to the point in the title. The toe is ALL WRONG! by almost half an inch on both butts! The butt plate screw holes match up with original buttplates. There is either a some excess wood or barely any overhang of the buttplate on the top and sides - plenty to work with. But the f&*% drop to the toe is miserable. Check it out. I have the screw holes aligned.
m97,m12


I paid an extra 30 bucks on each stock for "X" walnut. I think in general this just guarantees you don't get sapwood with a spray tan. I got some good deep dark purple straight grain on the m97, and some nice compression lines the whole length of both sides of the m12. Here they are with a light wipe of mineral spirits.


what a waste! I suppose to get my money back I'll need to put some sweat equity in em and sell them - put a proper recoil pad on and a fine finish. Why not just do that and use them myself you say? Well, because the guns have turned out so perfect after slow rust bluing! It would be huge waste of effort to uglify them like that. I have a thread going on the 1897 project (I'll hop over there and post a pic of the finished receiver in a moment). That's the model 12 with a NOS 20" riot barrel on it in the background of the above pics. Here it is before and after...


Pardon the lint and dog hair on the after pics. It's been sitting idle waiting on wood, and for me to finish the other barrel, slides and mag tubes. You can see the crack in the wrist on the original butt in the usual place. All the way through, going back the whole length of the wrist too. I could epoxy and put threaded rods on both sides then refinish it. This would have been fine if the finish was at least a uniform 30%, but look at it. When I got it it looked like someone vomitted on it, then put it in the case and forgot it. The original 1897 stock has the same crack, in addition to the LOP being cut back by almost 2 inches.

EDIT: I may end up eating my shoe. The original model 12 buttplate was 5.25" long. the new stock is 4.75. The extra repo 97 plate I have is 5.0, and the 2 chewed up originals are 4+7/8 and 4.75ish. None of these appear to be overly sanded. There is still a nice border before the checkering. So, I suppose they made these in different lengths over time, possibly for different LOP stocks? Anyways. I found an eBay seller I bought the repo 97 from selling a model 12 that is 4.75. I haven't seen any other originals or repos for 97 nor 12s listed at 4.75. These should work, as I can see no difference in design between the original 97 and 12 buttplates I have. Will have to plug Boyd's holes but that is the least of the problem. All might just be well after all.

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