A couple of years back, I bought an 1895 Winchester Lee Navy commercial sporting rifle action. It was missing a couple of small bits and the stock but otherwise complete. S&S had the bits I needed but the stock appeared to be completely unobtainable. I couldn't even find someone with a pattern to make one. I considered modifying a Mosin carbine stock as the shape of the actions were close and a friend even sent me one to try. This, of course, would have been a pattern stock 'cause the Mosins lack any 'aesthetic beauty' whatsoever. Anyway, that never happened and all the parts were put in the 'To Do' pile.

A couple weeks back, I was doing a search for a stock and one popped up at Homestead Parts with not much of a description. I assumed it was the military version as they outnumber the sporting rifles maybe 5-to-1. I bought it but had some reservations about cutting up a relatively rare stock to make a sporter. The package that showed up on my front steps was considerably shorter than a military stock. This could be good or it could be great. Good in the sense that a military stock was already cut down and I wouldn't have to feel bad. Or great if it was an original sporting rifle stock. To my great pleasure, opening the box produced an original sporting rifle stock! I am still abuzz with that outcome. It's dirty and in need of a bit of attention, plus missing the buttplate, grip cap and forearm screw but, dang, I never imagined I'd find one.

The buttplate and grip cap appear to be standard Winchester parts from the era so that shouldn't be too hard to rectify. The forearm screw and escutcheon may take a bit of work but somewhat easy to do. Anyway, here it is with the action in place but before any clean-up....

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]