cheapest wood to make a 22lr stock with
- Thread starter brybenn
- Start date
If you just want to practice start with a spruce, pine or fir 2x6. Practice cutting to shape. Fitting and final shape. You could leave it in that wood if you like but even a old .22 deserves better. However once you have done this you will know where you need to practice more and when you are ready use birch, maple or even walnut. You may even decide to fix up the metal. Just my $0.02.
I carved my first stock when I was ten. I was given a Cooey Ranger SS with a broken stock. The stock was not easily repairable as it was cracked and slivered over most of its length. It had been run over by a tractor, lengthwise while out on a muddy field and it fell off. Why the whole barreled receiver wasn't bent as well is a big question.
Anyway, there are all sorts of wood that are acceptable for 22rf rifles. You don't make any mention of the type of action it's based on.
The stock I first carved was made from some lovely old growth Cedar that had been sawn into half inch strips and glued together after some rough sanding. Good old waterproof Lepages white glue was used.
The wood had marvelous grain but of course was soft. Because it was old growth and cut from the center wood it was very dark when finished and soaked up oil like a dry well.
The biggest thing is that it was very easy to carve with a knife from a blank for a kid that didn't have the muscle an adult would have. It was very easily sanded and truth be told, didn't get to tedious for the mind of a ten year old.
I can remember all of the sneers and calls that Cedar wasn't a suitable wood for any stock, even a SS 22rf. Well, that was 55 years ago and after at least 20,000 rounds that stock is still on that old Cooey and other than a few minor dings from a lot of field use, still looks very good. A coat of BLO every couple of years keeps it looking quite good although the grain is now almost invisible. My stepson was given that rifle for his 12th birthday which was 30 years ago and he gave it to his son when he turned twelve last year. There is absolutely no finish left on the rifle, the throat is about 3 inches further out than it was when I got it but it still shoots minute of gopher out to 35 yards.
I asked them to give it back to me for a couple of weeks and I would fit a new barrel on it and refinish the metal to as new. They both flatly refused. The grandson flatly declared that when it didn't shoot well anymore it would be hung on the wall to remember the good time had with it. The only thing done to the rifle was to build up the back of the bolt handle from the wear which is very common on such rifles that see a lot of use.
Anyway, before I drift off topic. A soft wood can be completely acceptable as a stock material for a 22 rim fire rifle. It may curl a few lips but as long as it's taken care of it will outlast you. If push comes to shove, you can always slip a coat of fiberglass resin over it to harden the surface.
Anyway, there are all sorts of wood that are acceptable for 22rf rifles. You don't make any mention of the type of action it's based on.
The stock I first carved was made from some lovely old growth Cedar that had been sawn into half inch strips and glued together after some rough sanding. Good old waterproof Lepages white glue was used.
The wood had marvelous grain but of course was soft. Because it was old growth and cut from the center wood it was very dark when finished and soaked up oil like a dry well.
The biggest thing is that it was very easy to carve with a knife from a blank for a kid that didn't have the muscle an adult would have. It was very easily sanded and truth be told, didn't get to tedious for the mind of a ten year old.
I can remember all of the sneers and calls that Cedar wasn't a suitable wood for any stock, even a SS 22rf. Well, that was 55 years ago and after at least 20,000 rounds that stock is still on that old Cooey and other than a few minor dings from a lot of field use, still looks very good. A coat of BLO every couple of years keeps it looking quite good although the grain is now almost invisible. My stepson was given that rifle for his 12th birthday which was 30 years ago and he gave it to his son when he turned twelve last year. There is absolutely no finish left on the rifle, the throat is about 3 inches further out than it was when I got it but it still shoots minute of gopher out to 35 yards.
I asked them to give it back to me for a couple of weeks and I would fit a new barrel on it and refinish the metal to as new. They both flatly refused. The grandson flatly declared that when it didn't shoot well anymore it would be hung on the wall to remember the good time had with it. The only thing done to the rifle was to build up the back of the bolt handle from the wear which is very common on such rifles that see a lot of use.
Anyway, before I drift off topic. A soft wood can be completely acceptable as a stock material for a 22 rim fire rifle. It may curl a few lips but as long as it's taken care of it will outlast you. If push comes to shove, you can always slip a coat of fiberglass resin over it to harden the surface.
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For a cheap attempt you can't beat birch and maple.
the toughest part is the inletting. do it on a piece of soft wood to see if it's the thing for you. all the other shaping isn't that hard. once you choose the wood you want to work with be sure the grain from the end goes across.(quarter sawn) and tight. the harder the wood, the harder it is to shape. if the wood isn't dry it will warp.
verminaard
CGN Regular
- Location
- SW Bantario
If you want the cheapest, grab a saw and wander into the bush. Find a tree that is down but hasn't had the trunk laying directly on the ground. Cut it into a few chunks and drag 'em home. If you don't find something suitable, cut one down yourself. Practice on one green chunk while you let another chunk dry out.
Options like the maple and birch suggested so far are nasty to carve if you're new to all this. Hey, it's only a .22. Buy some 2x6 that has a nice long clear section that is longer than your intended stock length and have at it. The construction grade wood is soft enough to cut easily with all the usual tools and you can learn the tool handling and movements and work on turning your shape visualizing into 3D for super cheap and with less sweat than using hardwoods.
It's only a .22 so the "incredible recoil" won't cause it to shatter or anything silly like that.
One thing with shaping a stock like this is that folks are panic stricken about going to far and making it too skinny and finding out that they don't like how it feels or looks. And that's the true beauty of using the cheap construction wood. If you go too far you've lost nothing but time spent learning to do the work and about $1.39 worth of wood. And that's pretty cheap schooling. By shaving it down TOO far you avoid the panic path of only shaping it so far then stopping. Often when you start out the result of this ends up being as shapely as a club.
One thing I've learned over my years of carving and wood working on stuff like this is that it is very much an on the job training. If you make your first stock and feel that you just did wonderfully I suggest you put it in the closet and make a second one. When you're done with the second one bring out the first. I'll bet you an E-beer that the second one will be a thing of beauty compared to your first clumsier effort. So put the SECOND one away and refine the first one again. Dive into it and do it fairly aggresively. After all you've got a whopping great buck thirty seven at risk. And you won't know if you've gone too far in thinning and shaping until you've gone too far and it feels like holding a tooth pick.
When you finally realize you went too far go back to the one still in the closet and work it down to where you realize it was "just right".
With your new found idea of what "just right" really feels like maybe try another stock. But this time make it a thumbhole or some other more exotic shape. Still in construction wood too. It's your guarantee that you won't get all panic stricken by the cost of the wood.
Tools to use for carving a stock are a band saw if you have one. If not then a good coping saw can do the rough cutting. The coping saw is really handy for slicing off the worst of the edges to chew the blank down to a sort of stretched octagonal shape in preparation for the wood rasp. You want a D or "half round" wood rasp for the coarse chewing. Then switch to a brand new larger size half round coarse cut metal file that you reserve for wood only. Use it more than a time or two on any steel and it won't cut wood very well any more.
The wood rasp and coarse metal file really are the two main tools for the detail shaping. But I'd also say that a spokeshave can come in very handy as well.
When it's down to where it feels good in your hands only then is it time to switch to sanding. Use something like 80 or 100 grit to remove the file marks. Then switch to 120 and finally 220. After that some stain and oil or stain and varnish depending on what finish you want.
The downside with the construction wood is that it is soft so it marks easily. And over the long haul it will let the action move around and oval out the mounting holes. So eventually when you feel confident it'll be time to go shopping for some sort of hardwood such as walnut. I'd stay away from maple or birch because those two hardwoods are very dense. And that makes for a pretty darn heavy stock if it's not shaped to a slim sort of form. On the other hand maple is lovely for a bench rest stock. And it accepts primers and automotive paints pretty well too.
Inletting for the action is a different sort of deal. This is where a router with a core box bit comes in handy. Or a couple of gouges and some various size forstner bits to hollow out the stock. You'll want a couple of good and well sharpened wood chisels as well. Other tools will suggest themselves as you go along with this.
Most of all it's superb fun for cheap until you start buying the fancy wood. So learn your chops on the cheap stuff with some basic tools.
It's only a .22 so the "incredible recoil" won't cause it to shatter or anything silly like that.
One thing with shaping a stock like this is that folks are panic stricken about going to far and making it too skinny and finding out that they don't like how it feels or looks. And that's the true beauty of using the cheap construction wood. If you go too far you've lost nothing but time spent learning to do the work and about $1.39 worth of wood. And that's pretty cheap schooling. By shaving it down TOO far you avoid the panic path of only shaping it so far then stopping. Often when you start out the result of this ends up being as shapely as a club.
One thing I've learned over my years of carving and wood working on stuff like this is that it is very much an on the job training. If you make your first stock and feel that you just did wonderfully I suggest you put it in the closet and make a second one. When you're done with the second one bring out the first. I'll bet you an E-beer that the second one will be a thing of beauty compared to your first clumsier effort. So put the SECOND one away and refine the first one again. Dive into it and do it fairly aggresively. After all you've got a whopping great buck thirty seven at risk. And you won't know if you've gone too far in thinning and shaping until you've gone too far and it feels like holding a tooth pick.
When you finally realize you went too far go back to the one still in the closet and work it down to where you realize it was "just right".
With your new found idea of what "just right" really feels like maybe try another stock. But this time make it a thumbhole or some other more exotic shape. Still in construction wood too. It's your guarantee that you won't get all panic stricken by the cost of the wood.
Tools to use for carving a stock are a band saw if you have one. If not then a good coping saw can do the rough cutting. The coping saw is really handy for slicing off the worst of the edges to chew the blank down to a sort of stretched octagonal shape in preparation for the wood rasp. You want a D or "half round" wood rasp for the coarse chewing. Then switch to a brand new larger size half round coarse cut metal file that you reserve for wood only. Use it more than a time or two on any steel and it won't cut wood very well any more.
The wood rasp and coarse metal file really are the two main tools for the detail shaping. But I'd also say that a spokeshave can come in very handy as well.
When it's down to where it feels good in your hands only then is it time to switch to sanding. Use something like 80 or 100 grit to remove the file marks. Then switch to 120 and finally 220. After that some stain and oil or stain and varnish depending on what finish you want.
The downside with the construction wood is that it is soft so it marks easily. And over the long haul it will let the action move around and oval out the mounting holes. So eventually when you feel confident it'll be time to go shopping for some sort of hardwood such as walnut. I'd stay away from maple or birch because those two hardwoods are very dense. And that makes for a pretty darn heavy stock if it's not shaped to a slim sort of form. On the other hand maple is lovely for a bench rest stock. And it accepts primers and automotive paints pretty well too.
Inletting for the action is a different sort of deal. This is where a router with a core box bit comes in handy. Or a couple of gouges and some various size forstner bits to hollow out the stock. You'll want a couple of good and well sharpened wood chisels as well. Other tools will suggest themselves as you go along with this.
Most of all it's superb fun for cheap until you start buying the fancy wood. So learn your chops on the cheap stuff with some basic tools.
burnt_servo
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- right in the middle of b.c.
I've almost always used birch , I thought it was easy to work with .
in a 22 , i'm curious how cedar might work as a core , then add a couple layers of fiberglass to the outside for durability .
or even strands of cedar fibre bonded together with a fiberglass resin .
I would start with birch or ash if you want a strong light stock. Maple comes in different varieties with sugar maple being the best the most expensive and hardest to work with. I make a straight edge on the stock and inlet the action first. Then use a band saw to cut the general shape with the action in the right location for pistol grip. To go to a rasp at this point is too much work for me so I use a carpenters plane ( to keep straight lines straight). Then a spokeshave Now you can proceed to rasps cabinet scrapers and files. This is too much work for a piece of spruce that you are going to throw away. Beech would likely be fine.
Neil
Neil
It works very well. It is almost as light as dense foam. Not really but not enough weight difference to notice. I did one with a fiber blanket wrap done with strips about six inches wide and wrapped around the wood one strip at a time. I roughed up the stock with 60 grit paper first and applied a coat of resin over the wood and laid out the cloth on it one bit at a time. I cut each piece on the bottom of the stock so there wouldn't be any fibers sticking up. A one inch wide brush laid the cloth down on the primary resin coat very well.
Once the stock was fully coated and allowed to dry overnight I added another coat of resin that contained dye to get the color I wanted. I should mention, I had previously inletted the stock on the milling machine.
After three coats and a good sanding it was very smooth and ready for the final spray coat. This was done at the local boat shop. The fellow that did it is an artist when it comes to finishing fiberglass.
The rifle that went into the stock was a Remington 700 long action chambered in 338-06. I opened up the inletting and roughed up the wood so it would hold the resin well and set the barreled receiver, mag well and trigger guard into the resin used for the bedding.
It worked out very well. I wish I still had that rifle. A very close friend has it in Burns Lake and it is his go to Moose Rifle. His son wants it when the time comes to pass it on. The only issue I can see is the Cedar soaks up resin prodigiously. I found out later with another build that it was easier to thin down the resin and apply it in quantity. It worked much better that way and made it easier to attach the cloth. Also, there are a couple of different types of cloth out there. My first build used a woven cloth with coarse/heavy weave. The next one used a cloth that was much smoother with a fine weave and the last one was more of a matte with no real pattern. The fine weave was the best IMHO, while the matte made for a thicker/heavier cover.
Don't get me wrong, you don't save any time by making up a Cedar stock and covering it with fiberglass. However, the combination gives you a very light/strong/stable platform.
In case I forget to mention, I also used cloth/resin in the barrel channel as well and sanded it to size with a drill mounted drum sander covered with sleeves. A bit of care must be taken here to make sure there aren't any gouges from the drum edge. Once you have gone deep enough to free float the bbl a thin skim coat will finish it off nicely.
If I were looking to build a very light/tough/stable stock again, for whatever reason I wouldn't hesitate to do another. IMHO it is as good as any of the expensive commercial alternatives. Remember, the Cedar should be laminated. The Robertson Micro Precision stocks are made out of a very light material that appears to be ash which may or may not be as strong or stronger than Cedar. I did a build with one of those excellent stocks and didn't notice any real difference other than it was heavier than the Cedar.
These days, I am just to lazy to start from scratch and take a couple of weeks from start to finish on a stock. I am also less financially challenged than I was back in the day so I now will usually pick up a Boyd's stock for a build or modify a take off stock found at a gun show. The new Zytel stocks are very difficult to work with as far as modifying or bedding goes. Now, if I am getting serious about a build I will make up an aluminum bed to mount the rifle and mount the bed into a Zytel stock that has been milled out to accept it and fill it with resin. Even then, it doesn't always work.
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To someone familiar with wood working I'd agree with the birch being easy to work. But if the person is new to the whole thing it is a hard enough wood that it won't want to cut and shape all that easily. And it would prove more costly since they are likely to make some mistakes along the way After all they need to learn an eye and feel for shaping as well as learning the best ways to read the wood grain and work with the tools all at the same time. As such I feel like birch would a lot tougher to work with. It's why I suggested using cheap construction lumber to learn on and get a feel for the shaping of a nice looking stock first. THEN buy and use the nicer woods with more confidence.
Red cedar is pretty punky and easy to crush. It wouldn't be a lot better than using one of the more dense foam plastics. Eastern yellow cedar is tough as nails and often used as a softwood for making sturdy work benches. In between is the west coast cedar logged out of BC forests and used for cedar fence panels locally. I don't recall the variety but it's in between on the hardness scale of things and might not be a bad option for a core with a load bearing skin. Mind you it would require inserts for any screws. And not cheezy ones. It would need inserts that spread the loads out to a fair amount of the surrounding wood to avoid localized crushing or deformation from recoil forces.
I like the way Bearhunter did the cedar and glass stock as described above. Clear grain redwood is very stable and would be a great core for such a stock provided harder woods are included at spots for sling swivels and action screws and the recoil lug that ties those loads into the wood and out to the load bearing glass skin.
If you go with that take a hint from the cedar strip canoe and kayak builders and use epoxy laminating resin instead of polyester resin. The epoxy bonds to the wood far better than the polyester and does not eventually become brittle like polyester.
Black cherry is incredibly hard to work with, but, it makes for a very nice stock, I use two maple planks from the lumber store glued together, cut out the general shape and use a very coarse sanding disk on your 4-1/2 " grinder to shape it close to where you want it to be, it removes the excess wood very quickly and then the real works begins.
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Some excellent advice has been provided here. I especially like BCRider's responses.
I recommend you start by learning how to sharpen your tools to a razor edge, if you haven't already developed that skill. Leonard Lee (Lee Valley Tools) has published an excellent book on the subject "The Complete Guide To Sharpening". There are also excellent tutorials on the internet.
It is not likely to be a positive experience if you do not use properly maintained cutting tools.
I recommend you start by learning how to sharpen your tools to a razor edge, if you haven't already developed that skill. Leonard Lee (Lee Valley Tools) has published an excellent book on the subject "The Complete Guide To Sharpening". There are also excellent tutorials on the internet.
It is not likely to be a positive experience if you do not use properly maintained cutting tools.
