About Me: A certified yet non-professional gunsmith learning the trade through trail and inspiration

Sunday, January 19, 2020

The Savage-Stevens 325A Project Phase II Part 3

If you missed the the first two posts on this part of the project, click on the links below

Part 1
Part 2

In between coats of body filler, I decided to attempt to put some finger grooves in the fore arm of the stock. I didn't have a router bit. but I did have a ball mill that was almost big enough, I figured I would make two passes and overlap by 50%

First pass was not to full depth



Repeat on the other side


The grooves aren't perfect, but they cleaned up well with some sandpaper and a dowel rod 



Back to the "body work". I was getting close to having all the lines smoothed and blended, so I gave the stock a light coating of primer



The primer really helps you spot the areas that still need filling or blending



More progress


Once I had the stock close enough ( the beauty of camo is that it also hides blemishes) I cleaned up the metal parts with the wire wheel, installed the barreled action and gave the whole works a coat of primer.


First coat of paint goes on


Then we add evergreen branches


some twigs and brown paint


Followed by tan paint


repeat on the other side





The final product:
As stated before this stock will necessitate a scope, as you cannot get a decent sight picture with the raised cheek piece. 







Costs for the project:
Rifle: $10 + tax = $10.96
Magazine: $15 (used, gun show find)
Front Bolt/Sling Stud: $4.22 (Gun Parts Corp)
Ejector Spring: $2.70 (Gun Parts Corp)
Camo Flip Flops (recoil pad): $5.00
Birch wood: $5.00 (estimate)

Total: $42.88

I was not entirely happy with the end result and as luck would have it I found a birch wood stock at a gun show for just $1, it was missing the butt plate, but there was several on the table that would suffice for $1 each.
It is in pretty decent shape and should look good once refinished. So stay tuned for phase III in which I refinish the wood and reblue the steel.








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