I am on the brink of purchasing a .410 O/U for my 9 year old daughter. I want this gun to properly fit her so even the normal "youth" dimensions will need altered. Having said this - I have sought out an affordable gun that I won't mind working with. I have settled on a Stoeger Condor. At a little over $300 - you just about can't beat the price. Here are my questions for the experts:
1) how much wood (weight) can I remove from the stock? I will have the stock cut down to fit her - but was also thinking about boring out some additional wood. Is there any sort of guideline to follow? With this being a .410 - I am not too worried about the stresses on the wood.

2) obviously this gun, even though Stoeger is now owned by the Benelli family, will have a reciever made from not the highest quality steel. My plan was to take the "bluing" off, file the "read owners manual before using" and "Stoeger" stamps out of the metal and use the Faux Case Coloring method that has been described on several threads here. Does anyone see any problems with this in the quality of steel?

3) speaking of "faux" treatments - the wood on the stock looks like it saw its first life as a broom handle. Are their any techniques for dressing up the grain of the wood - that produce good results?

I also plan to hand cut the checkering and skinny up the stock a bit. Saying that the stock is proud of the reciever is an understatement. All of this sounds like a lot of work, I know. But I have two daughters and can expect this little project gun to last me for 5-6 years.

Any advice or tips would be appreciated.

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