I agree with gasgunner, looks like black walnut to me, too, for the same reasons.
My guess would be that blank came from near the stump. I've made up a couple of black walnut blanks, that were sold as stump wood, that had similar grain as the butt of this one. Some black walnut can be pretty hard and tough, depends on where and the conditions it grew in. Although, in my experience, most is not.
Just my .02.
Beautiful piece of wood and first class work. Glad you're going to hunt with it and not just make it a safe queen.
