doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Best source of English Walnut?

I'm having a Winchester Model 70 restocked, and I'd like to do it in English walnut.

Can anyone recomend a good online source, with quality pictures? I can't stand trying to buy wood sight unseen.

Thanks,
DeWayne

What type of grain are you looking for, straight, highly figured or what? Several names come to mind but I find that most only deal with one basic type of figure. If it is a large Mag. I would go for quarter sawn staight grain with as much color as possible. If a non mag. I go more for a crotch figure.

If you are going to have someone else do the stock work have them approve the blank. If you are going to do it yourself remember grain flow in the grip and all the way to the fore end tip. Bad day if your fancy new gunstock cracks in the grip area or worse changes point of impact with weather changes because the grain flow in the fore end is a mess. Seen both and not a good day for either owner.

I like Cecil Fredi in Las Vegas. Nice guy and no pun intended....nice wood.

Best,
Dustin

It's a .375 H&H Magnum - I'm planning on having Great American Gunstock do the work - Henry Pohl. So I probably don't need to get too fancy, for fear of weakness.

Anyone have any reviews on their work?

That is a can of worms. People either love them or hate them. No middle ground.

Quarter sawn straight grain is what you need. Cecil is a good source also Pete Haitt might be able to help you. Both can supply well seasoned wood and both understand what is a good stock blank. I would buy the blank and let it acculmate for a year to your climate if possible. Stable is the next step after dry.

Would you mind elaborating on why some folks "hate" Great American? I can only go by the images on their website and my phone conversations with them, but I don't want to trust my baby to someone with a spotty reputation either.

DH

I just bought a great 2 pc english feather from Jim Preslik in Chico, CA. I was in his area a couple weeks ago and stopped in. My preference is to pick blanks in person.

I get weary of telling the same tale but I do it as a PSA.

In a nutshell I ordered a semi-inletted bittstock for an NID. I was told I would have to pay a setup charge as this was not one of their standard patterns.

I got the blank, it was warped, had a check about 1/4"x 1" wide in the end that ran into the stock about 4" and it was inlet wrong.

It took 6 months of phone calls and emails to get a response and I only got a partial refund.

My opinion is that Henry's a crook.

Others have had similar experiences, some have good reports.

Pete Hiatt is on this forum and supplies high quaity blanks that are properly dried.
You might want to check out the Gunsmithing forum on Accurate Reloading. Do a search for wood suppliers and there are plenty of discussions and recommendations for custom riflestocks. I believe the current favorites are http://www.denli-gunstocks.com/ and another firm, Luxus.

I sent Great American a Beretta Silver Pigeon. I asked for an english stock. (This was before Cole has selling stocks.) They had my gun for over a year. Every time I called, they had a story. Finally, I said enough, they had never even started. Well they refused to send the gun back until I paid them an absurd amount. I felt I had no choice, so I paid. In return I only got my gun back in original condition.

To be fair, some have reported good results with them.

Both Denli and Luxus deal only in Turkish walnut. Denli has some nice wood. They only take payment via a bank wire. Because of their location, shipping charges are high. But may be worth it for some their blanks. Here is the website for Luxus. http://www.luxusgunstock.com/
Some of the blanks on Luxus are not ready to turn.

Here is the website for Cecil Fredi. Very nice English walnut at good prices. The wood is dry, stable and ready to turn. http://www.gunstockblanks.com/

For a 375 H&H pay close attention to grain flow. Not just at the pistol but also further up. I built one and decided to use a laminated stock from http://www.rifle-stocks.com/

Pete

Well...

Here's my very recent experience with Great American Gunstocks.

I was told turnaround would be four months. I got it back in four weeks. They did a good job. There is a very small bit of wood filler at the tips of the top and bottom tangs. The checkering is very nicely done with no overruns. Finish is satin oil as requested. They had a nice selection of wood. I wanted a dark piece for this gun. It was in a fire.









That said, you never know the quality of a business until you have a problem.