Contouring the ranger 45 stock
I am a fan of Classic style stocks with slight cheekrests, if any at all and non shiney subdued finishes. When I first saw the first Ruger Mdl 77s when they came out in the late 60’s early 70’s, I thought they were about as beautiful a design as you could put on a rifle.
Since that time I have spent a goodly amount on classic stocks, mostly for fine custom mausers, but some other guns as well, such as my and now my sons Sharps Borschardt engraved sporting rifle.
The wood they put on air guns today with their high combs and designs that resemble something a sci fi fan in grade school designed, range from making me want to puke to being slightly acceptable, two good examples are the fence post stocks that Crosman puts on the MRod, I mean really, and the other side of the coin the stocks that adorn some of the better turkish walnut stocked FX Tatranulas.
Thumbholes do not do it for me either, I just consider them clumsy and always have, but I have to admit on bottle guns they are a practical compromise.
When it came time for a big bore, for me there were just not any rifles that suited my tastes, Quackenbush was the worst, followed closely by Haley. And then Jerry’s favorites, the elk horn carved works of art that I will never be able to afford
When Butcher recommended that I look at the Ranger 45, I have to admit to being shallow, it was the clumsy lines of the classic stock that attracted me and then performance afterwards, luckily it was also one of the finest production bigbores made today.
When I got the Ranger I found a small part of the stock had potential, but only if a small part was left over from the several board feet of wood that needed to be trimmed off it’s body.
So this week I started stage one of the diet on my Ranger stock. I started off with a dremel and carved out the outline of a cheek piece, then set about the process of scrapping and thinning the butt. As the cheekpiece rises of that chunck of wood, it shows how much wood that butt had, as I thin it more the cheek piece wiill appear thicker as the butt thins.
I am about halfway there, and did a quicky subdued finish job on it so that I can shoot it for a while until starting on the next stage, which will be to thin out the pistol grip.
Then I will go after the forearm.
Regards,
Roachcreek
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i remember those Kimbers, they were beautiful . i was wondering what you were going to do with all that lumber hanging off the front, the engraving sounds fantastic, i hope you decide to go that route. that is something i would love to see! does sound like a hell of a lot of work. seems like you’ve put some serious thought into it. what ever you do, i’m sure it will be something to brag about. good luck with your project.
Years ago I saw an engraved firearm on one of the gun rags, it had gold and silver enlays depicting winged gargoyles pushing a rifle ball thru the air to the target.
I would love to carve the forend to depict two gargoyes with a tethered bull,complete with ringed nose and balls on the ends of its horns, one gargoyle with a bellows in its ass and one twisting the tail and a 416 grainer flying from the bulls mouth guided by a winged gargoyle.
My daughter is an accomplished artist and could draw it out for me, but I doubt my ability to carve it with a skill that would give her work or the idea justice.
The forearm is very deep, and I can take a considerable amount of wood off of it. I will need to glass bed it first and do a rebar in it with a routed channel in the barrel channel that has a glassed in piece of All Thread running most of the length from the stock screw to forearm tip for ridgidity. Then I can take quite a bit of wood off of the forearm and not worry about it flexing.
Longhunter, it is all just a matter of personal taste. I had a friend and gunmaker who influenced mine, many of his creations adorned the Leupold catalogues at one time and his wife headed up the Kimber checkering department when Kimber was in Oregon, they built some of first Kimber Super America 22’s, Phil and Marlyn Fischer.
Regards,
Roachcreek
Looking better RC.
If “schnable” is a verb…better not take any pictures…
are you going to schnable the fore end? personally, i always had an afinity for the classic tyrolean stocks myself.
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Look’n good RC!