You don't have to break the bank to obtain enough information to get started. I'm not a gunsmith by any stretch of the imagination, but last spring and summer, I put a custom model 70 Winchester rifle together and did the stock work myself.
I have done some stock re-finishing in the past, and put together a couple of muzzleloading rifles from kits, but never did a stock from a blank before. A friend came up with a blank of Oregon myrtle (pepperwood) and insisted that I use it for my custom rifle.
I am mostly into single shot rifles now, but have done my share of hunting and shooting with all kinds of firearms. So when the opportunity came up to build this rifle, I pretty much knew what I liked in a rifle stock and what I didn't. In this case, I wanted to have a butt with approximately the same dimensions as a pre-64 model 70 lightweight, and the forearm was going to resemble the fit and feel of a Ruger No. 1.
I started out by reviewing the contents of two Outdoor Life books; "Gun Owner's Book of Care, Repair and Improvement" by Roy Dunlap, and "Do-It-Yourself Gunsmithing" by Jim Carmichel. Either of these books can be purchased on eBay or Amazon for around $10 or less, and they contain quite a bit of information regarding tools and methods. Then I bit the bullet and bought a copy of "Custom Rifles in black and white" by Steven Dodd Hughes, which gave me a good idea of what to do in terms of stock proportion and symmetry.
I do not own many woodworking tools, but I came up with a 1/2-inch gouge, 1/4-inch flat chisel, a rawhide mallet and a 4-way rasp. The Brownell's catalog was good for 5/8-inch barrel channel tool, stockmaker's action screws and some inletting gold. The local hardware store was good for a supply of sandpaper in various grits.
I made a set of full-scale top and side-view drawings before I got started.
This is going to sound gruesome to a real stockmaker, but I roughed out the shape of the stock with a Skil saw and drilled the action screw holes with my drill press.
Once I got started, it was hard to stop long enough to eat and sleep. I really got cranked up on it. Without proper tools, I put quite a bit of time into it...over 100 hours, I guess...but I went slow and tried to think ahead of myself about three steps so I wouldn't take too much wood off in any one place.
The whole time, I was pretty nervous that I would do something to ruin the beautiful piece of wood I had been given to do the stock with, but I'm pleased with the final result. A Pac-Nor barrel chambered in 7x57mm was rust blued and mated to the model 70 receiver. The barrel is free-floated full length and the action is pillar-bedded. When I was working up an elk load for it, the Nosler 160-grain partition bullets shot into one hole at 100 yards and printed two inches at 400 yards. Yes, Mr. Elk bit the dust in October.
If I can do it, just about anyone can. Here are a few pictures.