This has been a long project. My wood shop is too hot in August and too cold in mid winter, plus other stuff, but anyway it is starting to come together. It is bedded and I'm getting the outside to look and feel right. It has a right hand palm swell, a bit of cast off for a righty, and my length of pull. It is a Featherweight pre-64 that I had rebarreled to 35 Whelen. Probably won't start checkering it until May or June. Lots more work starting with a raw blank instead of a semi-inlet. The bottom metal on a Featherweight is an alloy, so you can't blue it but there are other things to do. I'll probably send the barreled action out to get a nice re-blue, or maybe do it myself. It will just be a shooter for me, so I don't really care about the small stuff.






Good luck,

Pete

Nice work. Starting from a blank is a lot more work, but you can make it be whatever you want.

Nice work,hope you post some pics when it is finished.
Cant beat the look of nice finished wood on a gun.
One of my hobbies is buying old beat up guns and re finishing the stocks.
I am no professional but they look much better after I mess around with them.
Your work is very professional,must not be the first gun you have worked that way?

You have most definitely developed some skill. Very nice so far. I remember you posting about a blank piece of wood you were gifted. All guns ought to be shooters. Does not mean they can't be gorgeous. Does not mean you cant be careful not to scratch them.

Great job!

That looks really nice, as was mentioned earlier, please post the finished work!

Swift I have a turkey box call made by you about 4 or 5 years ago It is a great piece of craftmanship using wood from a barn that fell down on your property as I recall At some point in our discussing me getting a call from you you mentioned your father teaching you your woodworking skills It is apparent that those lessons have been put to use in more than one way And the lessons where ingrained just like the grain of the wood you have chosen to t create your desired item you want to make That turkey call was responsible for 2 first ever taken gobblers by 2 hunters One (me at age 65 ) the other the next year the first every (Brother in Law at age 62) That morning at day break I called 5 times in about 20 minutes No response on first called followed by 1 answer on 2nd call 2 answers on 3 rd call than 3 answers on 4th call and unbelievable yet again another bird joi n the party on my fifth call I decided to shut up before I mess up and just get ready to shoot And before one finally showed it self for my BIL to kill his first ever turkey one more gobbler the 5 bird to gobble that morning within about 20t o 30 minutes but a bit farther away than the other ones became the fifth bird to join the morning tune up for all the birds waiting for the main event of the day to get started SO I was pretty sure something was going to happen It was clear that at lst 4 birds where coming our way and so long as we did not spook them where about to have some eye ball to eye ball contact from 1 to 4 turkeys And my thought was that could only be good for our getting some shooting could feel the tension rising as the seconds went by knowing it was about to be kill time An them my BIL shot and I heard the bird flopping that meant he had killed one My excitement got the best of me and I moved to see what he had got If I had stayed quiet or made a few calls another one or 2 would have come it ITWAS ONE OF THE BEST HUNTING EXPERIENCES I was ever a part of iI had rained for several hours during the night and the birds where in a hurry to get on the ground at day break as the sun was climbing the horizon as it began to start the second day of that years spring turkey season I have since given the call to him as I no longer hunt due to health reasons I ask him to take it out some times because it is made for action not to be on display in side his house On the one hand it was hard to part with but on the other hand I had gotten two great hunts with it And it felt like it had magic in it when I worked the call I am a novice when using a box call but 2 for 2 with the call I got from you Your projects seems to be taking shape nicely And I am not going to far out on a limb to think it will meet your expectations when complete After all most good carpenters are good at hiding or correcting mistakes and if it turns out to be unacceptable to you (highly unlikely) to you can always repurpose it to fire wood and begin again I AM REALLY WATCHING THIS SITE TO SEE THE PROJECT TAKE SHAPE A nd I think the finished job will be a fine example of the skills you have developed from your father Best of luck as you continue And thanks for sharing

looking good,

Awesome work!

W side rd 151 - I can picture the scene! Presume same property you showed me when we ran your trapping/hunting grounds.

Might try checking out Anodizing for that bottom hardware, it's a chemical process for non ferris aluminum materials.

Nice job

Looking good Pete, great job!

Zim

So cool!

This is the first rifle I ever made out of a block of wood. It was AAA blackwalnut. I like the shadow line on the cheek piece. And the swooping back of the stock into the recoil pad like Harry Lawson built. I copied some of his designs.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words. West Side... your story was amazing and I'm happy that you passed the call to your friend. When I sit in the wood shop for hours, making and tuning a call, I always hope for stories like yours. When you make a turkey call or a mallard call for someone you don't know, it's tough to guess how they like a call or if they can even really use it. Glad it worked out for you. My only regret is that after we sold the farm and moved here, I didn't bring more of that old wood up here. Amazing how old wood sings better than most.

1lessdog... you did a fine job on that stock. The walnut is excellent and the cheekpiece is well done. I still have a Model 52 Winchester in .22LR that my grandfather re-stocked just after the war. What he accomplished with homemade checkering tools was amazing. It is an incredibly difficult rifle to inlet because it has a side button for the magazine release. It has a bull barrel and still shoots sub MOA.

Zim, always nice to hear from you. I hope those calls are still working for you and Patrice, although you can shoot gobblers from the bathroom window. I hope you at least put on some camo before you open the window.

A funny story about the walnut in this gun. Three years ago I started looking for some local walnut because we live not far from Dordogne, where tons of high grade walnut comes from. A buddy at the golf course gave me the name of a guy who cut and sold walnut. I met the guy and he was in his tool shed so only had some plain blanks. He told me to come back and see the good stuff. I called a month later after playing golf and his wife told me he had passed away, but come to the house because he told me about you. I met her and her son who was selling the wood, and bought two blanks. The guy had sold his wood to the best gunmakers in the world, including Holland and Holland, Purdey, Blaser, some Americans and most of the Spanish gunmakers. The two blanks are air dried for over 30 years. They are not like some of the Turkish blanks that cost thousands, but the grain was perfect for my projects.

Thanks to Ksnow as I know you make black powder stocks which are much harder. And BigBob...I hadn't thought of anodizing but it is a good tip.

I wish everyone a good weekend and warmer weather. Been really cold here too, but getting better.

Pete

Nice work swift. And you picked one of the best, least known calibers. If that barrel has slow rifling like all of the older production .35 Whelen's check out Hammer Bullets, they have an all copper 200gr that works great. They also have choices for faster twist barrels in .35 Whelen.

Beautiful Work Swift