Thread: Straightening a warped rifle stock

would be easier to make a new one, you may receive more info on the metal work forum in the gun smithing section

You can probably straighten it if you steam it.

And at a later date it will probably bend right back to how it is now.

No way you can float the barrel like that. Is it a display piece or so you actually expect it to hit what you aim at? If the latter best make a new stock.

I thought that might be the case. It's a real firearm that I intend to shoot from time to time.

That being the case, what would be the best way to go about getting a copy of the stock made? I can do the final fit and finish, but I don't have the skills to turn a slab of wood into a stock. I would imagine some kind of duplicator or CNC setup would make light work of it.

It does look like European Beech and, as JohnG has said, you could steam it back into shape. Beech responds very well to steaming and you can make yourself a home-made light-use steamer fairly easily with some PVC tube and a kettle. Whether it would revert to twisted with time is unknown, but Austrian Bentwood antique chairs were made of Beech steamed into very considerable curves. They are still in those curves over 100 years later.

The issue here is that it looks as though the stock was made from green wood and has twisted, bent and probably also shrunk during drying. Shrinkage would be challenging/maybe impossible to fix.

As has been suggested try the metalwork forums but also a gun shop may be able to tell you where to get a decent gunstock. Many years ago I purchased a fully polished gunstock from such a shop - it wasn't for a rifle but for a very long telephoto lens on an SLR - but that is how I know they are obtainable.

EPay does have some gunstocks listed but I have no idea if they would be suitable for your model.

It's not a difficult job for an experienced woodworker to make a stock. There may well be someone on these forums who can do it for you. From memory, there was someone who does them. I've done one for a target rifle, but I'm pretty busy for the foreseeable future.

Try this link. It's old, but worth a try.

I have put quite a few of these kits together, back in my younger days. That one looks a bit beyond repair to me. The timber is actually maple not beech. Both steam well and the bow would not be a problem. The twist, on the other hand, will probably continue to give trouble after steaming.
The barrel is a massive lump of steel and is fitted with pin eyes on the underside. These eyes are designed to take horizontal pins run through the stock side, through the eye and out the other side of the stock. They are fitted with small decorated plates on each side and the ends of the pins burred over. In other words, the stock is held by the barrel, not the other way round as in most rifles. Therefore, it may well be worth steaming the stock and fitting the barrel straightaway with the pins temporarily in place (not burred) and then allow the stock to dry.
Once dry, the gun can be stripped back down for finishing. you will then be able to get some idea how successful you have been.
Good luck.

You could also contact/join one of the black powder clubs, at which there would be a wealth of knowledge on the subject and may even a spare stock or two looking for a new home

Originally Posted by Andrew C

Hi there,

A while back I acquired a CVA Kentucky rifle kit from the 1970s, sight unseen. These were DIY kits that basically required some minor inletting for the metal parts, and then sanding and staining/oiling, and assembling. The stock came as two pieces, which were joined in the middle with a brass plate. They were produced in Spain and the timber (I believe) is beech.

Anyway, the forestock is warped:

Bent0.jpgBent1.jpgBent2.jpgBent3.jpg

It is also bowed downward:

Bowed1.jpgBowed2.jpgBowed3.jpgBowed4.jpgBowed5.jpg

It is also twisted about its longitudinal axis. The ramrod channel no longer lines up with the drilled hole/joining tube, which is way off-centre:

Twisted1.jpgTwisted2.jpgTwisted3.jpg

Is it possible to straighten this out? If so, what would be involved?

I have thought about trying to clone the forestock, but it's probably beyond my abilities. Then there's the issue of the new half not matching the rear half of the stock.

Thanks.

Andrew,
You live near the best Muzzle loading gunsmith in Australia, Alan Vaisham is a stockmaker and the finest black powder gunsmith in the land.

He is the proprietor of Green River Rifle Works at Cumberland ? Park.

The catch is Alan is getting on a bit and is slowly backing out of the the business,so you may have to speak nicely to him to do the job or may be get some advice. He will be in the phone book.

Cheers'
Grahame

How is your rifle stock project going Andrew?
Do you still have any of the original stock?
I have made a few stocks before and found walnut to be the timber of choice for them.
Once while making a shotgun stock, an elderly neighbour dropped by and saw what I was doing. A few weeks later he turned up again to show off a new fiddleback blackwood stock he had just made for his busted shotgun. He had done a wonderful job on it.
I asked him what tools he had used to make it?
His response, " An old handsaw and a bit of broken glass as a scraper". He did not say, "Lashings of perseverance"....I guess that was a given.