Into The Void

Imperfections and voids are common in stock blanks and nearly impossible to detect from the surface when the blank is still in the block. The reasons for these hidden surprises are varied and dealing with them is fairly straight forward most of the time. When I began my career I made all my stocks from the blank. Once the barreled action was inlet the exterior came off by any means possible  band saw, planes, files and healthy amount of sweat equity. At this point more than a few hours of work had been expended and sometimes you ran into a void or bark pocket that would not clean up in the final shaping no matter how creative you became.

In the early eighties I began to use a pantograph on my own work as well as machined stocks for others in the trade. Over the years I was amazed as to the number of blanks I machined that had significant internal flaws. Most all of these were very small and easy to fill. Only a dozen or so in the forest of blanks I cut revealed voids that made the stock blank unusable. The upside to machining the blank to begin with was these flaws showed up as the stock was machined without the labor of inletting now being potently a wasted effort. This method offered a distinct advantage in avoiding a financial nightmare.

Filling these voids can be done with just pigmented epoxy. I have seen many rifle stocks "fixed" in the manner, its quick and if done well almost looks natural. However my preferred method is to use cut off' pieces from the same blank to fill in these cavities.

I try and leave the shape of the void "as is" but when necessary will trim away any soft or rotting material from the edges of the cavity. Then you need to fashion the plug. The layout and direction of the grain for the plug needs to match the grain in the parent blank as closely as possible. These plugs can then be shaped with a file, chisel or exacto blades to fit into the void. Some of these can be made in minutes, others will take considerably more time. The effort and care spent on fitting these plugs will determine the over all outcome of the repair. Done well the repair will look like a solid pin knot. The plug also needs to be fit deep enough into the void to form a solid bridge that will be deep enough to allow plenty of surface area for the plug to adhere to the parent stock. Some people use Yellow Carpenters or Gorilla glue to secure the plugs in place. I prefer a very good grade of epoxy that is pigmented with brown or black epoxy dye. Apply a liberal amount of epoxy in the cavity and on the plug, drive it place and allow the epoxy to set up overnight.

Care must be taken to cut off the excess wood close to surface of the repair without damaging the plug and then the final filing and sanding can be completed.

Legend 300 Winchester in the highlands of Ethiopia

Not to long ago Pete Treboldi traveled to Ethiopia to hunt Mountain Nyala and Lesser Kudu. The hunt was conducted in the mist shrouded highlands and in much drier lower elevations. His rifle of choice for this hunt was his Legend chambered for 300 Winchester. Needless to say the rifle and the owner got plenty wet, very cold, covered with dust and baked in the sun. With each opportunity both Pete and his Legend still managed to pull it altogether. When we built this rifle he wanted us to try some Winchester 180gr Fail Safe ammunition to see if this barrel would shoot it at all accurately. He really wanted to use this bullet if at all possible. In fact he said if it shoots 1-1/4" I'm going to use it regardless.

The first three groups shot with this ammo averaged .500. Since this factory load was about to be discontinued by Winchester he bought all the available Fail Safe ammunition he could find and has used it ever since. Like many of our clients Pete owns both a Legend and a Classic and chooses the rifle to meet the anticipated conditions for the hunt.

2013 Reno SCI Convention

The SCI convention last month was not unlike any other year in recent memory. The week before found Brian and I readying the booth, rifles and ourselves for the trip. With last minute preparations complete we pull out of Logan early in the morning two days before the event. The trip is always long with little if any game to be seen on the drive. The morning before the show is spent erecting the booth and speaking with old friends and new acquaintances from around the globe.

Campbell Smith arrives in just enough time to comment on the placement of his pictures, corrects what he see's fit and pronounce that all is well for another year. Cam & I have shared this 20 feet of real-estate for over 17 years now.  He has perfected the art of avoiding the initial set up so well that if he ever showed up early the whole venue might stand on its ear.

Despite the long trip from South Africa and ours across the desert his comic relief softens up any travel tension and within an hour we're all laughing out loud.

The convention begins and over the next four days we are visited by old clients/friends, old rivals, complete bores and hopefully a few new clients. Some hours of the day are so slow that if you rolled a bowling ball straight down the aisle you'd likely never hit an ankle. Other times you have people waiting three deep to speak with you. The evenings are spent with friends at dinner decompressing from the days events, conversation and laughter always flowing freely.

During the convention Brian and I will do our level best to explain what we have to offer in what ever degree of detail required. Campbell does the same for those interested in his Safari's opportunities. In four days time it's all over and we're pulling the plug and loading the truck. Sunday finds us heading east back through familiar landscape, tired and looking forward to being home.

We would like to thank all those that stopped by our booth this year and look forward to building some of you rifles in the following months. To those that own our rifles we wish you good luck in the seasons to come.  

Pete Treboldi's Classic 375 H&H and desert gold

Pete Treboldi traveled to the border between South Africa and Namibia last October to hunt Lion with Somerby Safaris. On day three the Kalahari desert gave him the cat of his dreams. He used a Classic 375 H&H we assembled based on a Winchester Model 70 action. This Classic was made per our usual standards and  housed one of our peep sights within the trap grip cavity to accompany the scope. The rifle was fit with the last set of detachable mounts I had in inventory made by the late Tom Burgess. The Lion was taken with two Woodleigh 350gr round nose soft points. The rifle was also used for Eland and Eastern Kudu at some rather extended ranges. Having shot the rifle a lot Pete knew the bullet drop at these ranges and held accordingly. Pete's next destination with this 375 is the C.A.R. on a quest for Bongo.

Visting the Flathead Valley

Just before the Christmas holidays I drove north into the Flathead Valley of Montana to spend some time visiting old friends and attending to some business. I spent 3 of those days as a guest of Jerry & Celeste Fisher. Jerry as usual was kind enough to pull out all the stops and allowed me to handle every project he was currently working on. An almost completed Hagn was in the old Parker vise and a pattern stock for a Winchester Low Wall was being modified to suit. Needless to say I left a lot of fingerprints.  We spent many hours discussing the past, current and the future state of our profession. At 80 years of age he has some opinions and insights that deserve contemplation. I have known Jerry since the late 70's when I worked under his roof as an apprentice and casually sitting again with this master of the trade brought back a flood of memories.

One of the more interesting conversations was of his early days working with Monty Kennedy another grand talent from the past. Using machine turned stocks he was expected to fully inlet 3 FN Mauser on Monday and have all finish on all 3 by the end of the week. I have handled a number of these early rifles from this period and the craftsmanship is as precise as most rifles assembled today. I have a very good friend that has carried a Fisher Stocked 7-mm Durham Magnum every season for over 40 years and has never felt the need for any other big game rifle.

When I arrived Jerry and Celeste were getting ready to travel to the Dallas SCI Convention and he was putting the final  touches to a 505 Gibbs based on a GMA action. The rifle was typical of every Fisher rifle I have handled, it was simply beautiful. Jerry had just finished regulating the iron sights and was awaiting an engraver to cut the yardage lettering into the sight blades so he could blue the sights and complete the assembly.

Jerry's shop is well lit, well laid out, impeccably clean and very comfortable. At some point we dug through his inventory of stock blanks discussing the merits of each and remembering other blanks we wish we could replace with similar attributes.  I found one in particular that he was kind enough to part with for a special project of my own.

 I can only hope I am able to remember who I am when I approach Jerry's age much less be able to execute one project after another with the same unfailing degree of quality. The days spent in Jerry's company was priceless as always.

Scope Mounting Alignment Bars

Quite a few years ago I made up a pair alignment bars to allow us to rapidly and accurately re-mount a set of our 1" and 30mm rings and a variety of scopes during the construction and accuracy testing of a Legend or Classic. This simple tool allows the front and rear rings to be precisely lined up and then tightened down on the receiver through the bar body. We now supply these on request with each rifle assembled with multiple ring sets or a rifle made with our peep sight system and a set of scope rings.

As the years have gone by a number of people have seen us use these bars in the shop or at the range and have requested that we produce them for resale.  These will work quite well on standard Leupold and Burris dual dovetail type rings and bases to allow one to remove the ring and base without having to spin the rings out of the bases and loosening up the dovetail fit over time. They can be used to spin the front ring into place and visually center a dual rear windage screw ring in the optical center of the rear ring and allow one to tighten the windage screws before the scope is installed to prevent bending the scope. 

The most recent issue of Rifle Magazine, January # 266  featured these bars in an article entitled  Scope-Mounting Tools by John Barsness. We'd like to thank John for this review.

The 1" and 30mm scope alignment bars are now an in-stock inventory item. The cost is $90.00 per bar plus the shipping to your destination.

Bound for Germany

We have just finished up two Legends that will shortly leave northern Utah and begin a journey to Germany to the new owners. One rifle is chambered for 458 Lott and is fit with our peep sight system as well as a set of our 1" rings for a Leupold fixed 3X and a Leupold 1.7-6X.

The other rifle is chambered for 375 H&H and has two sets of our scope rings. One set made in 1" for a Leupold 1.75-6X . The other set of 30mm rings are made for a Swarovski Z6-I 1.7-10X42 L.

The rifles will be shipped in a Pelican Model #1750 which is included with each rifle as well as a Wiha adjustable torque screw driver and a set of 1"& 30mm alignment bars to accurately swap out and reinstall either set of rings when required.

We look forward to the field reports on this pair of Legends in the near future. The international interest and clientele list is beginning to increase steadily.