Turning a shotgun grip (Work/pictures)

Puffie40

Puffie40

Member
EE Expired
Rating - 100%
3   0   0
Location
Southeastern B.C.
One of my projects is a Noble 40A pump-action shotgun that had a rather nasty crack in the stock and was a little ugly appearance-wise. As I want to learn rust-bluing and the stock-finishing part of gunsmithing, I figured this would make a nice starter project.

We had just chopped a white-maple tree in front of our house, and I had decided that this wood would be perfect I chopped a firewood-length piece and bandsawed it to size, buried it in sawdust and left it for six months.

the Rear stock is what needs to be replaced, but the front grip was walnut and did not match in color. I was scratching my head a little over how to do this piece when I started turning pens on a little 10" woodlathe I got this Christmas. A little thinking on procedures and I got cracking.

I chucked up a piece of wood and leveled it so it was centered

Shotgun4.jpg


Then drilled it out. I started with a forsener bit but went to a spade bit when I got deeper. I wound up having to flip the block to complete the drilling.

Shotgun3.jpg

Shotgun2.jpg


Once the drilling was done, I started turning the piece.

Shotgun6.jpg


The finished product.

Shotgun8.jpg


Finally, a mock-up of the shotgun. (I think I should adjust the angle the butt is at)

Shotgun9.jpg


Hard to show in the pictures, but it's not exactly perfect. It's a little too small at the ends, and I cracked it from a accident involving a wood gouge (I was able to repair it though), but I am pretty damn proud that it came out of a evening's work!
 
Last edited:
Nice turning there, Maple is damn hard to work,you
have to watch the grain , I have a small -4 or 5 " draw
knife that is great for stocks as well as some spoke shaves.
The angle of the stock looks wrong to me.
If you can get another shot gun that fits you, a Rem 870
or win 12 etc, lay it out on a piece of cardboard and draw a
pattern , the you can use that for your stock angle, and
always start a bit oversized.
Good luck.
 
If you've never carved a stock like this before my I suggest that you work on your skills and judgement for the rear on a cheap lumberyard block of clear construction spruce first? It's easier to carve and if you mess up it's less of a heartache.

The very first gunstock I did I first made a trial prototype from some construction grade spruce. I'm glad I did it that way as there was a lot to learn. Also you can work on custom making it to suit your cheek to sighting lineup and stuff like that and play with the shape more with less care. All in all definetly worth the extra time to make that prototype first.
 
Thanks! strangely enough, this maple is easy to work with. Either I was lucky choosing this piece of maple (I chopped the piece for the fore-end and chose the one with the least end-cracks), or I am better at woodworking than I think! :D

Carving a mockup first is a really good idea. I have been working very slow and deliberately and having somthing to screw up first makes sense.

the blank I chopped up is over 2" thick, so I have lots of leeway in the rear to get the shape right.

Drill the bolt hole in the buttstock before you shape it,They don't always come out where they are aimed
Click to expand...

I need to also inlet the trigger block into the stock as well. I was thinking I would fit the stock at the right angle, inlet it, then drill the hole (I bought a 12" long 5/16" drill bit for that purpose!) before I did any carving.

I do still have the original buttstock to mimic, but it was absent (i.e: misplaced :redface: ) when I was taking pictures.
 
Last edited:
If you have to drill the hole after, use a drill press ( a must)
and start a short hole from each end , then clamp a board with
a 3/8' pin or what ever size your drill is und the center point of the drill
bit on the table of the prill press, ( i use a long piece if 3/8" stright tool
rod for that) , that will keep the lower end centered and drill from each end.
 
Drill that hole and fit the joint before doing anything else. That's primary and the rest of the stock follows on from that. The guys are giving you excellent advice on this key step.
 
Great advice guys. I want to do a bit of inletting first because I want to be sure I know were to put the hole.

I applied a tung-oil finish (diluted, filled the grains) on the foregrip. Beeeeeutiful! Will post pics tomorrow.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom