Canadian Airgun Forum

Here is a chronicle of my first scratch build shoulder stock. I have never made a stock before, this is my first attempt. It's not perfect, but I'm satisfied with how it turned out - I expect my second one will be in improvement and so on.
Step 1: Sketch out the concept on cardboard to make a template of the stock. This required a few iterations; I used my Hatsan AT44-10W as the inspiration although the final product strayed from that a fair bit. I added and subtracted from the template as I went along, and ultimately subtracted from the wood stock when push came to shove so it was comfortable to hold. I'm glad I erred with leave too much rather than take too much so I could cut it down to fit nicely.

Step 2: Cut out the two haves out of wood planks. I had some mystery wood, I think its birch from bed rails that were wide enough for the job - perhaps not the best choice for a stock, but this is a learning experience so better to waste iffy wood thatn good wood.. so it is what it is. Here laid out beside one of my 2240s.

Step 3: Cut out the in-letting to fit the pistol grip. I used the router for this with a milling bit. It was trial and error but took it slowly and managed not to remove too much material. In the end, my cut was a bit too deep, but it works. Here are the two halves, dry fit and then put together on the grip for fit up. I added 3 dowel pins to the stock at this point so the halves would always return to the same position during tweaking and assembly. Next was some fine adjustments to the inletting, and the top of the pistol grip was routed to fit around the air tube. That was a challenge because my 5/8" half round router bits are on route from china. I made do with 1/2" bit and drum sander. In the end it was too big, I had to use wood filler and "bed" the stock to the air tube. It fits perfectly now.

Step 4a: Gluing up the two halves. Self explanatory, liberal wood glue on the two inner surfaces and clamp the bejesus out of it. Prior to gluing I marked the location of the screw holes for the pistol grip and by squeezing the two halves of the stock around the top of the pistol grip I located the two little nubs that help prevent rotation of the grips. I drilled out one side for the screw hold and dimpled the 4 nub holes both sides. I drilled the other side for the screw hole in the drill press after glue was dried. 100% fit!


Step 4: Square up and add some bling. After squaring up the butt end I realized I has made the LOP a bit short so I decided to add a piece to the butt. Here I found some bed post material which is full or holes and slots but I found enough material to harvest a nice chunk for the butt and a piece for under the butt stock to match. The collective Forum experience suggests this wood is black walnut. I added the butt pad (the only piece I bought for this project) with whiteline filler - then I decided to match the white/black detail to the bottom of the forestock. I had some some white plastic and some 1/8" nylon plaques so it was easy. Goop to glue the plastic together and epoxy for the white plastic to walnut.

Step 5: Start the contouring. I used 45 degree router bit and went around the outside to get the contouring started, then onto the belt sander for the butt and fore grip contouring - it was slow going but I was encouraged by how it was turning out. The foregrip to shoulder was to beefy so I ended up cutting away some of the shoulder stock at this state, it is very comfy.

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Iacio, ergo sum

Step 6: Final details, more sanding and contouring. Used a drum sander of various sises in the drill press and the belt sander, orbital sander and hand sanding with various grits from 120 to 320 trying to get a smooth surface.. days of sanding!

Step 7: Staining. I used "red oak" minwax iol stain to try to match my pump arm, not a bad match. Unfortunately the stark contrast of the walnut/birch went away Stained, sanded, and stained again. Then dried for a day.

Step 8: Assemble the almost finished stock on the 2289. I still need to do some fine sanding and touch up the staining and then add oil finish, but This is it!


And a big thanks to lauchlin who generously donated the lovely 3-9x32 AO scope for this project.

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Iacio, ergo sum

Outstanding work and inspiring.
You and others on this forum have inspired me to try something. Nowhere near as ambitious as this but simply some new scales for my new (to me) 1911 pistol.
Like you, I did not want to waste good wood on my first try so grabbed a piece of scrap and started. Biggest challenge was trying to get the screw holes correct...glad I used cheap wood first! Need to make some corrections for next iteration.
Well done!
Rob27

That's turning out really nice !

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I'm still waiting for the day when government finally admits to us all that aliens do exist, that and the Leafs to win the Stanley cup.

Thanks, I am getting a grinding wheel rasp for my angle grinder that I'll use to shape the stock to a oval cross section, then sand it all down again and try to get a uniform finish on it. I also forgot a step, which was step 0: Make the grip inserts so the pistol grip is a uniform 1/2" thick. I used the 1/8" Nylon plaques for that. First a paper template of the grips, then transferred to the plaque and cut out, then sanded smooth around the edges. Drilled out the holes for screws along the way too.

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Iacio, ergo sum

Grip inserts to make the whole group one thickness brilliant.
Makes designing the stock so much easier.

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I machine, I build , I shoot
Sent via Flux Capacitor uF

Dang! That looks really good! Love the ivory look of the spacers and the butt pad. Looks totally professional.

If you're open to experimenting, I used a small hand planer to do the profiling of my most recent project. Works good as long as the surfaces aren't concave, and it would be hard to take too much material.
Those big curly wood chips are quite satisfying

Thanks, and I know exactly what you mean.
When I was a kid I used to mount a piece of scrap wood in the vice and spend hours planing it.
My dad never stopped me or complained, but later in life he let me know he wasn't totally in favour of my planing fetish.. because I was dulling his plane!
I have a block plane that I just could never get it to cut sweet like dad's old block plane. i miss that thing.. I bet one of my brothers has it.

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Iacio, ergo sum

Well at least you were using the planer for it's intended purpose.
I used to catch hell on the regular for using my dad's tools... I wrecked the better part of a set of Forster gunsmithing screwdrivers...and hey, chisels look kinda like screwdriver/pry bars to a kid...

Just last year he gave me the set of drivers. He's like "you remember these?".... Yes. Yes I do

My little planer doesn't really cut well if I push it straight. Gotta cant it sideways a little and it does alright.

Great result. What's your next project?

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I have some airguns.

TKs. Well, the thing is Shorty now start to mention, say me not giving her much attention....
But I have started on the thumbhole stock version (and also marked up some wood for a loom stand).

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Iacio, ergo sum