Gun fitting DIY

[kent]

Re-testing my newly bored out ten yesterday. Getting great patterns at 50yds but shooting a foot left with left tube and maybee a tad more with right. I have quite a wide jaw line and normally this tends to throw my muzzles left, so after further testing in nil wind conditions and at shorter ranges also i am wondering about shaving a bit out of the stock. Is there a rule of thumb about how much to remove for what correction at what range? Or is it just a case of going easy and retesting till happy?

am i also better correcting at shorter or longer ranges (bear in mind its a ten for flighting geese)

[matone]

Definitely go steady and keep trying the fit.Once it`s gone you can`t get it back !

[bakerboy]

Take it to a Stocker, get it done correctly.

[coyotemaster]

While I am inclined to agree with Terry about the professional assistance I am not sure how available it is to you. I have seen, especially with stocks on doubles and singles(ie. no metal rods to deal with) the use of oil and a heat lamp. Supposedly very light pressure is needed to get the job done when the wood is the correct temp and the oil has permeated it. It will very definetly be a try and try again deal, a little goes a long way when dealing with cast off.

[welshwarrior]

There was a video on you tube how to bend a stock with a kettle and milk carton.

 

I personally would get a good stocker involved

[utectok]

Yeah I posted that vid but my mate does it with hot linseed. Wrap cotton cloth round the wrist and ladle hot oil on keep at for an hour that works too

[Graham M]

Yeah I posted that vid but my mate does it with hot linseed. Wrap cotton cloth round the wrist and ladle hot oil on keep at for an hour that works too

Watched a video on youtube a couple of weeks ago of an old gunsmith using a blowtorch and cotton rags soaked in linseed oil to bend a shotgun.

 

 

Copied this to bend a left-handed Fabarm O/U over to a right-handed one just 10 days ago. It really does work if you go slowly and deliberately.

I clamped the stock down and heated the wood around the pistol grip with a hot air paint stripper. The oil-soaked cotton strip really does protect the wood from scorching and the heat it holds is phenomenal.

I just kept heating the stock, and every now and then tapped a wedge under the butt. Took around an hour to move the stock over a total of 16mm; went from 6mm “cast on” to 10mm “cast off”, then left it overnight to cool down. It sprang back @ 3mm once it had cooled down but has remained with the 7mm “cast off” for a right-hand shooter and is still set as of this morning.

 

Don't know if I would try it on a very expensive gun, but by 'eck it did work.

G.M.

[kent]

Well i got the rasp out. Mounting in the mirror and a few test firings outside and i believe its sorted. I am familular with the oil bending in a jig and aware of the work of some good stock fitters. but we are talking a gun for the marsh not a best English sidelock. Oh also seen the resultant expensive breaks across the hand and tang. Will now seal it with some laquer and after comming season ends i will maybee consider a strip and hand rubbed oil finish and a re-blue coz under the existing brown goop finish lies a rather tidy figured stick of walnut i find. Though when your knee deep in marsh mud esthetics come secondary to hitting the thing your aiming at

Sounds extreame perhaps to some but i have fitted loads of rifles in similar ways, taking out thumb grooves, fitting colts foot caps, lengthening, shortening etc. Took maybee 4-5mm out of the side of this shottie, if i stripped the whole stock and re-finished it you wouldn't find any sighn when i was done.