Joel Russo
Well-Known Member
Gents~
The inception of this build took place on the last hunt with my good friend, Phil. Phil was a member here and has since passed away. Our last hunt together was a sheep/moose/grizz hunt in the Wrangell Mountains of Alaska. Phil had his .338 RUM and I carried both his and my rifle on more than a few sheep stalks. After listening to me bitch constantly for fourteen days, he told me to build myself a light weight carry rifle with a nice piece of wood under it.
He actually built it over and over in his head as we glassed the river drainage for bears one day. He told me to use that exotic African wood that I liked so much. He told me to make the barreled action black so that the stock would stand out. And he even was nice enough to tell me that it didn't matter how nice it looked, it wouldn't be worth a **** if it didn't shoot well. He had a way with words.
Brilliant idea I thought. So upon my return home from the hunt, I pulled an action out of the safe and ordered a barrel. Gave all the parts to my good friend Baer, and asked him to chamber me another .308 Baer. He did, and that barreled action sat on my bench for a few years. I just could never seem to find time to work on my own stuff.
Time passed, and so did Phil. It took me quite a long time to clear my head from his passing. In that time, I found the motivation to complete the project that he had conceived. So off to work I went.... I pulled a nice piece of flat sawn pomelle Bubinga that I had on the pile. I purchased a whole log of this stuff years back. I drew on it, cut it, then laminated it together. I thought about installing cross bolts, inletting sling studs, cutting in an adjustable cheek piece and some other fancy additions, but I didn't want to make this stock resemble a hardware store. So, I kept it simple.
After many hours of hard work, I finally finished the project. The only thing left to do is to send it off to my checkering guru for some classic checkering.
If my good friend, Phil were to see his vision turn reality, I'm sure he would be pleased. I think I captured what he had in his mind that day we were glassing bears on the river banks…..
Started with this.
Cut it to the stock dimensions, then glued it together.
Inletted it top and bottom.
Profiled it.
Hand fitted barrel and bottom metal.
Bedded it.
I made myself a center feed mag box out of billet aluminum.
Load development..
Hand rubbed tung oil finish.
Finished product.
Where it all started....
The inception of this build took place on the last hunt with my good friend, Phil. Phil was a member here and has since passed away. Our last hunt together was a sheep/moose/grizz hunt in the Wrangell Mountains of Alaska. Phil had his .338 RUM and I carried both his and my rifle on more than a few sheep stalks. After listening to me bitch constantly for fourteen days, he told me to build myself a light weight carry rifle with a nice piece of wood under it.
He actually built it over and over in his head as we glassed the river drainage for bears one day. He told me to use that exotic African wood that I liked so much. He told me to make the barreled action black so that the stock would stand out. And he even was nice enough to tell me that it didn't matter how nice it looked, it wouldn't be worth a **** if it didn't shoot well. He had a way with words.
Brilliant idea I thought. So upon my return home from the hunt, I pulled an action out of the safe and ordered a barrel. Gave all the parts to my good friend Baer, and asked him to chamber me another .308 Baer. He did, and that barreled action sat on my bench for a few years. I just could never seem to find time to work on my own stuff.
Time passed, and so did Phil. It took me quite a long time to clear my head from his passing. In that time, I found the motivation to complete the project that he had conceived. So off to work I went.... I pulled a nice piece of flat sawn pomelle Bubinga that I had on the pile. I purchased a whole log of this stuff years back. I drew on it, cut it, then laminated it together. I thought about installing cross bolts, inletting sling studs, cutting in an adjustable cheek piece and some other fancy additions, but I didn't want to make this stock resemble a hardware store. So, I kept it simple.
After many hours of hard work, I finally finished the project. The only thing left to do is to send it off to my checkering guru for some classic checkering.
If my good friend, Phil were to see his vision turn reality, I'm sure he would be pleased. I think I captured what he had in his mind that day we were glassing bears on the river banks…..
Started with this.
Cut it to the stock dimensions, then glued it together.
Inletted it top and bottom.
Profiled it.
Hand fitted barrel and bottom metal.
Bedded it.
I made myself a center feed mag box out of billet aluminum.
Load development..
Hand rubbed tung oil finish.
Finished product.
Where it all started....
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