I hesitate to call it a restoration, more of a salvage operation. I found this poor neglected, bubba'd Winchester 52 custom sporter on the web a while back. Having a soft heart for such rifles, I decided to take it in and clean it up and see what we could make out of it. Here is how it looked when I got it.
The two biggest issues were the length of pull was about 12", and the forend had been cut off right through the checkering and what looked like an epoxy forend tip was added and painted black. Of course the funky white inlays did not help any either. On the bright side, whoever shaped the stock did a very good job, and the checkering was a very professional job as well. The inletting is factory Winchester inletting so the stock is a reworked original target stock.
First the inlays were removed and the black epoxy forend tip was removed. The inlay in the toe of the stock was filled with a strip of walnut. On the forend, I cut all the way through to the barrel channel in the outline of the inlay to form a sort of mortise in the end of the forend. A piece of walnut was then cut with a tenon to fit this mortise and affixed to the end of the forend. The barrel was then inlet into the new piece of wood and the outside shaped. A piece of wod was then found that had similar grain pattern as the buttstock and attached to the butt to lengthen the pull to something more reasonable. This was shaped to the correct shape and a Winchester buttplate added.
The most frustrating part was trying to get the color and finish of the new wood to somewhat match the old without stripping and refinishing the entire stock which would have removed the old patina from the stock. The forend checkering where it was still visible was recut and extended into the new wood. This is always a challenge as you have to follow the old checkering where it is present, but in other areas there was not enough of it left to be able to follow it so you have to cut new rows that match up with the old. It turned out OK however and the checkering was then stained to hide the joint where the new wood was added. A brass escutcheon was then added and a screw made to thread into the barrel band.
Here is the end result.
Yet to go is adding sling swivels of some sort, and possibly a better rear sight. A lyman 48J would really look nice, but I hate to notch the stock for it so I'll probably just put an old external adjustment scope on it.
Thanks for looking,
John
