Hello mates, this is my new stock on my Army&Navy shotgun, i have been keeping this wood for 15 years at my storage until i fell in love with this shotgun and decided i should put it on her. What do u think of the wood and the stockmakers work? Will soon post the pictures of the gun when the work is completed. Still waiting for the bone buttplate i ordered for the rear of the stock.

Regards

Kem, I think wood is super nice.Though the grain doesn't look that straight through the wrist & head, as some say is important for strength.
Is the gold tear drop raised or flat?..looks flat.I'm not sure I like that instead of the trad' wood TDrop.
But of course you do, so you should be well pleased indeed with such a nicely stocked, & pretty Gun
shoot her in good health
cheers
rog

The tear drop is flat mate thanks for your kind words and the comment!

All the best,

Kem

I've had several stocks made and from what I know, that wood should be fine for your gun. It's likely not straight enough in the grip for a sidelock, but you used it on a boxlock. It is very pretty IMO.

I just thought the wrist on through the head should , to be "Perfect" grain wise , be kinda straight, like in line with the bbls
On this one , the grain at from the grip to the head seems more like 45*, I'd heard that that could cause cracking under recoil, regardless of if its a BL or SL, obviously more so with the thin upper n lower horns on a SL.But the Butt sure is pretty.
It looks super nice, but he did ask for thoughts,
But I'm not a stock maker either
Nice looking Gun mate
Franc

Well, all I can say to that Franc, is I have a similar blank of French walnut, cut in the 70's that I have been saving for a boxlock project. I would recommend Kem to shoot low pressure loads in his gun, but I doubt if his vintage A&N is made for 3" magnums anyway. I think Kem will be ok with his wood for this particular gun.

Buzz,
please believe me that I wasn't trying to rain on the guys parade...but I have seen so many posts about stock head grain here on this board, people seem to like straight grain from grip to head, with the figure in butt end
Not being picky, he just asked for comments, & that was the only thing I could see wrong...the wood is killer!
NO OFFENCE to any one meant.OK?
franc

I know that Franc.....you are one of the most humble, least offensive persons here. Really though, I think Kem will be ok with that blank. I've seen brand spanking new high grade K-80's less straight than Kem's. Yeah, the straighter the better for both sidelocks and boxlocks both, but it is far more critical with sidelocks and trigger plate guns than for a boxlock. I'm guessing Kem won't have a problem if he's sensible with his loads. PS, I'm not trying to be argumentative.

Buzz, thanks for that.
I'm not that humble, am I?...could be seen as a sign of weakness, lol....like saying Sorry.
I just have a couple or three nice sxs guns & dearly love them,their history (being a Brit) n others that I'll never own.
Best to you & the owner of that nice A&N BL with the sweet wood
cheers.

franc

I thank a lot for the comments of both of you guys Franc & Buzz, The gun has 2 1/2" chambers as most of the british shotguns of her era . I have couple more british sxs shotguns and i use 30g loads max even in cold weather. Even in my 2 3/4" chambered pigeon gun, i use max 32g loads and i am really sensitive about this issue I really thank for the nice comments and being helpful for both of you guys,i am gonna post pictures soon in an old thread of mine regarding the maker of this particular A&N shotgun since i bought the records and the maker of the gun is unkown .

All the best!!

Kem

Beautiful stock!

I just visited an older gentleman friend of mine. He was showing me his Webley &Scott 20b that he shoots a lot. He grouse and woodcock hunts with it plus shoots lots of skeet with the gun (tournament guns turn him off). The head of the stock and grip is anything but straight in terms of the figure of the wood. I looked this gun over and couldn't find nary a crack anywhere. This gun has been shot hundteds of times. With this in mind, I think Kem will be in good shape with his Army & Navy boxlock and its' new and very pretty stock.

People forget that straight grained wood cracks also. If well inlet and not abused with extreme loads even good looking wood dan last a lifetime. And if not just pick another nice blank and redo it again. Life is too short to hunt with an ugly dog or plain stock. You might put up with an ugly girlfriend if she has a good place to hunt it cleans fish and game well but not an ugly gun.

Buzz...Glad your old friends W&S hasn't cracked after a several hundred rounds...lol..did he buy it new?
Just my morning before coffee joke...I know what you mean, of course Buzz, just the Hundreds of Rounds made me giggle, I;m sure there have been thousands down the pipes..
once again, no harm meant mate )

cheers
franc

There is nothing wrong with hunting over an ugly dog!

It might be a little like the ugly girlfriend - they "try a little harder."

I just realized I forgot to add my 2 cents on the subject at hand. That is a beautiful piece of wood. The long "cheeks" and light colored inlay are a very nice touch, but wow is that figure pretty.

CHAZ

Turd hounds and other ugly dogs take a lot of getting use to for most people. Same could be said for drops, a cross between two breeds like a pointer and setter. I had one when a boy and he was a fine hunting dog but looked like a dog with a hangover. Ugly took very little getting use to when you are a boy. He was second only to my quail pig in nose and working singles.

If it hunts, it can't be ugly. Hoof, that's a great looking dog! Just look at those smart eyes....they're telling you something!

I agree that straight grained wood will sometimes crack but not nearly as often or as soon as fancy or poorly grained wood will.

Straight grain in the head & wrist doesn't mean unattractive as there are very pretty stock blanks out there that have proper grain layout through the head & wrist but you need to look a little harder & usually pay more for these blanks.


It seems to me that gunmakers formerly gave a lot more attention to proper grain layout in selecting stock blanks than they do currently. I suspect this is due to the decreased availability & high cost of really good wood & pressure from customers that want spectacular wood & don't really care about proper grain layout or even know what it should look like.

Don't take this as knocking Kem1988's stock. It's a very pretty blank & the layout looks reasonable from the limited view provided by the pictures. Personally, I would prefer traditional carved drop points but that is up to the individual.

I thank very much for everyone taking their time to analyze and write comments about my new stock.

I am aware that if i use high gr loads which i never do or hit the rear of the stock by mistake it can crack. I am very careful about these issues,i have a Westley Richards with the similar stock and i frequently shoot with her max 30 gr loads and thanks god everything is fine for the last 5 years.

For this one, i have been searching for horn material for bone buttplate and finally found it and ordered it, still awaiting for it to arrive and will put that in the rear of the stock. I am pretty sure thats gonna help if i ever hit the rear of the stock.

All the best,

Kem

Hello again guys. I have received the horn material and shaped/mounted it on the stock. I took some pictures as i promised. Here is the new looks:








All the best!

Kemal

Very classy looking job. Hope you have a son or daughter to pass that gun on to. That gun needs to stay in the family for many generations to be enjoyed by each shooter.

Beautiful piece, but unless you put some very grippy checkering on that horn butt, it will be slippery as glass.
JR

Nice job,and if the inletting is as good as it looks shouldent be a worry there IMO,like others here have attested ,straight grain can crack too...I'm doing a Lefever for myself ,wood is very curly in the wrist ,if it breaks I'll replace it...till then I'll enjoy it,that being said I do make them myself ,so replacement would never be as much of a problem for me as it will others

Thanks guys, the checkering is finished on the buttplate i will post complete pictures of the gun after i finish oiling and shining the stock.

All the best,

Kemal

Newf- If the trigger guard extends far enough, would it be possible to inlet in a reinforcing "biscuit" into the wrist to preclude any possibility of cracking?

Should've mentioned that,it's been done

Great minds think alike.

Kem, it's first class all the way!

Kem,
yep, that really is one gorgeous piece of wood mate,Walnut is amazing stuff...gotta love the contrast on that.. lovely
Franc

I am very impressed by the quality of you work, God sure has blessed you with talent.

The person who made that stock was a real artist.

Thank you all I am glad for the nice comments! I will surely take care of her in the best way. I will be posting complete pictures of the gun in 2-3 weeks,just finishing the wood and gonna fix the ejectors.

All the best,

Kemal

So you stocked it yourself Kem?....
I guess I missed that in my "Bad Grain" rant, lol... my hat is off to you mate.
It must be a wonderful to see the change from a really nice bit of wood into an incredibly beautiful stock , & all done with your own fair hands...totally sweet
It must be mind blowing when you start to get it wet, n the colours start to really show n deepen...I changed my mind on that gold drop, it looks just lovely , love that long cheek.
The comment on the horn being slippery might be true..if so , how would you fix that?...add a leather face to the butt?, but would it be more slippery than a wood one?...lettuce know how she shoots
Once again, that gun looks superb mate
cheers
franc

Nice piece of wood that became a magnificent stock. Layout looks to me to be near perfect, but it's frequently hard to see grain flow in highly figured wood.

Franc Otte, thanks mate i really appreciate your comments . I already fixed the horn but, the checkering on the but is finished the same that would be on wood.The wood still has some small dots that needs to be filled. It will surely be magnificient when its finished

All the best,

Kemal

Kem,

The more I look at that wood, and the work you have done, the better I like it and the more impressed I am with the job you have done.

I'm long past doing my own stocking but I still keep an eye out for nice stock blanks at a good price. I usually have a few blanks waiting the right gun.

Here in the USA my stock work is done by Macon Gunstocks. Here are pictures of a Horizon (Garbi) SLNE I had them restock to my measure:

It is a really beautiful piece of wood. It will be weak due to the grain , but keep the screws tight and don't drop it and you should be fine.

Pete the Wood Dude

No offense intended, but you are mistaking figure for grain. Wood grain is straight through the wrist in that stock.It's a rift sawn piece of Claro (Juglans hindsii) about one blank off of quarter sawn. It's a highly figured piece of wood, and the actual grain is very hard to see - especially in pictures.

Here is another one where the grain is next to impossible to see due to the figure:



That's from a quarter sawn Turkish walnut (Juglans regia) stock blank, now a stock on an Ugartechea model 41 in .410.

Here is another one, also a piece of Regia. Grain just cannot be seen. I had to look at the edges and sides of the blank to get an idea of grain flow (which is actually dead straight from head to butt). This blank became the stock of a Martin Ugarteburu model 115.







At first glance that looks like a horrible piece of wood with no acceptable layout. But what we are seeing is mineralization that is visually distorted by the medullary rays. The actual grain structure is completely hidden.

Kyrie, thats a beautiful gun u have Thanks for your kind words mate My dad used to import walnut blanks from Turkey 20 years ago. We had many blanks of this quality which me and dad stocked them for our own guns. This one i was saving for something special. I bought this Army&Navy for a very cheap price from a guy which definetely had no idea what he was holding. When i finish my work on it i will post the pictures. Generally i stock the guns with traditional wood teardrop but for this one i had the feeling of the gold tdrop which i think it fitted perfectly. We are not working big time in my country,just making action work and small repairs and stocking shotguns. I am glad you liked the work

All the best,

Kemal