Tactical is Practical, but Wood is Good

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The wood for the fore stock is still drying but the grips and a butt pad are done. The wood is oak from the stump of my "killing tree". A large oak that fell over last July. The roots were badly rotted. It was about 75 feet tall and I took dozens of squirrels from it before it fell down. I do not have any big pieces sufficient for a full stock but these little pieces look nice, I think, on the Prod. I will probably also put a few accent pieces on some stocks I'm starting for my P35s. Cap on the grip and end of the forestock. It would not be great for an entire gunstock since it is very heavy and the grain is so crazy I worry about stability.

Prod grip.jpg
 
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JimD said:
The wood for the fore stock is still drying but the grips and a butt pad are done. The wood is oak from the stump of my "killing tree". A large oak that fell over last July. The roots were badly rotted. It was about 75 feet tall and I took dozens of squirrels from it before it fell down. I do not have any big pieces sufficient for a full stock but these little pieces look nice, I think, on the Prod. I will probably also put a few accent pieces on some stocks I'm starting for my P35s. Cap on the grip and end of the forestock. It would not be great for an entire gunstock since it is very heavy and the grain is so crazy I worry about stability.

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That is some awesome oak! Very nice. How, may I ask did you machine/whittle the back sides of the grips to fit the frame?
 
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JimD said:
The wood for the fore stock is still drying but the grips and a butt pad are done. The wood is oak from the stump of my "killing tree". A large oak that fell over last July. The roots were badly rotted. It was about 75 feet tall and I took dozens of squirrels from it before it fell down. I do not have any big pieces sufficient for a full stock but these little pieces look nice, I think, on the Prod. I will probably also put a few accent pieces on some stocks I'm starting for my P35s. Cap on the grip and end of the forestock. It would not be great for an entire gunstock since it is very heavy and the grain is so crazy I worry about stability.

View attachment 342568
Click to expand...
To stabilize wood with intense grain, a burl for instance. Soak the piece in propelene glycol thurouhly (a few,days to a week), then dry. This fills the woods cells preventing then from collapsing when dehydrated. There are excellent articles available on this technique.
 
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jps2486 said:
I love wood. I had six different RAW rifles, all in walnut. These tactical thingies are becoming a bore. It's like a bunch of plumbing parts obtained from the hardware store and made into rifles. I guess some people like playing soldier. I've done my tour.
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Just ordered up a Seneca Eagle Claw carbine in 22. Love the wood on those.
 
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Roboslug said:
That is some awesome oak! Very nice. How, may I ask did you machine/whittle the back sides of the grips to fit the frame?
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The Prod grip is not super easy as you know if you have one. The thickness of the metal frame varies so the back of the grip has to be rabbetted to fit. I did that on my router table with a straight bit. It is not a cut to make the way I did it unless you are experienced, however. Whenever you may touch end grain with a router bit there is a chance the bit will grab and bad things can happen. But it went OK for me.

For the outside I created a plywood piece the same shape as the stock grip. I cut it a little over side and attached a stock grip to the 3/4 plywood jig and then used a flush trim bit on my router table. There are risks of these cuts too since you will be cutting some end grain in the plywood but it helps that you are only trimming off a small amount. Then I used the plywood jig to route the oak. But I did not route the end grain ends, I used a stationary sander to sand the oak pieces to final size in the end grain areas.

Due to the crazy grain I did all my shaping with sanders. A plane just would not work. A rasp would but the sanding was faster. The grips are still a bit blocky. I was leery about making the wood as thin as the plastic grips are at the edge.
 
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