btolson, The shaping of early Straight Stocks are pretty distinctive and will be easily noticed by prospective buyers, back to the distain exhibited for the one that was sold at Arts. If you intend to, at some time in the future, sell at the high end of market it will be worth your while to investigate finding someone that will let you use a duplicator to duplicate a period correct stock and have it fitted, finished correctly, and then checkered correctly to grade and period. You can find examples of this in the V&S book and they should give a good stock-maker everything they need to make an appropriate replica and even give it a aged matched finish that blends with the rest of the gun's wear. The forearm is the other easily identifiable hallmark of these early guns. You can see examples of this type of work if you search this forum. Good Luck and well wishes for trying to undo a previous wrong. BTW is there a serial number in the lower tang groove of the current stock that was removed? Will
I believe a skilled stock maker could take a round a Jap round know stock and convert it to a straight stock. The Japanese stocks are very proud on a Belgium gun. If I was going to keep it I’d leave it alone. However I have plenty of guns with worn metal and nice stocks.
I did, but don’t use a stock that is checkered. You will have to sand the pistol grip checkering because the checkering won’t be parallel with the straight grip. Also, you will remove to much wood to "erase" the checkering and won’t look right. I purchased a non finished auto 5 stock on EBay. It was not checkered and slightly oversized which give enough room for custom fitting. The best is to check the European gun auction site. I found a 1906 buttstock with the original buttplate all in excellent shape and the 1904 forearm.
Biz better hide that butt plate you're going to make a liar out of me! Lol He should get a sense for what they should look like from this photo, thanks for posting! Will
I will however say, that even with this stock as a donor, although it has the square receiver shoulders it would still be obviously not a one of the first complete year (Mid 1903-Mid 1904) production era stock because of the fluted comb. What is still unknown as far as my experience and research has discovered is that some of these higher grades have raised cheek panels on them, these could of course have been later replacements Now you've gone and pulled the Anal Engineer out of me! Lol Will
The advertisement also answers the OP question of factory LOP. It appears initially you had a choice of 14" or 14.5". Will
Those fine slots can certainly be put and orientated in a new bronze ring. Would probably have to be done on an older style universal mill with rotary table , The Live steam scale model loco guys and their fraternity are the ones to seek out for doing that.job. They have and use all the older style toys and tooling in their pursuits. And they are usually perfectionists and anal engineers as well lol.
Your fluted comb observation is very interesting. I always wondered if the fluted comb was related to a production era, a grade or if they came fluted if you ordered a checkered stock. All my very early model 1904/05 have the non fluted comb (they are not checkered) which tends to confirm your affirmation. However I have serial 121xxx and 140xxx that are similar to the early model. Regarding the raised cheek panel, are you referring to this example?
Biz, No it is the half-moon raised areas where the stock meets the receiver not unlike the early Remingtons and is seen on Serial Number 1 Auto-5. I see it in later examples of Higher Grade Auto-5 that do have a trailing teardrop but I have seen a few examples in the Early Engraved Auto-5 s but most have been sanded terribly. I have always referred to your example as a Monte Carlo Cheek, very prominent in Western Europe seen on most period doubles from that area. Will
In my mind the fluted comb or "cone" began somewhere in the introductory stage of the 16 ga, roughly 1909, and continued to about 1929 just before the two examples you have shown were manufactured. Then went away with the more familiar "Fat-Nosed" comb that stayed throughout the 50's and 60's Belgium production. I haven't looked at V&S in years but I believe it discusses these nuances in stock shape to some extent. Will
Drove across the state this past week to attend a friends memorial... tried to turn a not so fun trip into something positive, so I visited as many old gun shops over there as I could on the way home. The goal was obviously to try to locate a straight A5 stock... no luck. Bought more parts, pieces and old ammo. It was good to see some great gun shops & owners that I've known and supported for decades. This stock quest might be a bit more time consuming than I thought. A person here is trying to locate a straight stock, but no luck yet. I sent an inquiry to Art's gun shop to see if they might have an unfinished set available. Another friend gave me a stock blank that has great figure, it I have too, I'll find someone to do the duplication and send it on to Monte for the finish....
Why don’t you purchase a duplicator and make the stock yourself or ask your gunsmith. I paid only 900$. I am sure they are very common in your country on the used market. It is pretty easy, I am not a gunsmith and I did it myself. The most difficult part, is the inletting. I did a couple forearms and now I am making the buttstock for my 1903.
I don't have an original straight grip stock to use for a pattern... yet. Thanks for the input though. I do have a wonderful piece of wood... nicely figured and if I need to use it, should produce an amazing stock set.
