GPR kit!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[barebackjack]

Picked up my second GPR kit last night....$275!!!!!

I semi-finished one and sold it in the white to a buddy.

I noticed however that this one has ALOT of wood on it, there is three-quarters of an inch of wood sticking out on both sides of the buttplate.
How would you recommend taking this off?....I was thinking a draw-knife.

Also, the tang looks to be inlet well enough, but I dont think it has the right angle of curve, its got to much of a curve. How should I straighten this? Would just a propane torch heat it up enough, or should I not even bother with heat. (I need to go roughly 7-10 degrees). Also with the triggerguard, when I drop the front part of the guard into its inletted spot the rear part that makes contact with the stock is off to the side a good half inch. Should I heat the triggerguard to bend it as well?

The kit says to draw file the barrel, but I plan on browning the barrel, and Ive heard many of you say a rougher finish to the metal helps the browning adhere. Should I just forgo this step as the barrel seems to be fairly well polished and I only see one tiny little spot of tool marks?

All in all, Im not overly thrilled with the stock, but for the price I couldnt pass. The forend cap needs much work, and they didnt leave none to much wood to do it in. Also in the breech end of the barrel channel there is a large patch of wood chipped out so you can see down into the ramrod channel. No biggee im sure.

For staining do you guys prefer water or an oil/alcohol whatever based stain?

SOrry for all the questions, but I know theres a wealth of knowledge out there in you guys.

Thanks in advance,

Boone

 

[Goldhunter]

If you are careful, you can use a band saw to take the wood on the sides down. I sure form rasp makes pretty quick work of wood.

I just bent the tang on my Hawken I am restocking. I just put it in the vise and using a cresent wrench, bent it a little at a time until it was where I needed it.

On my GPR, I didn't do anything to the barrel (I wanted a matte type finish) Just used Laurel Mountain Forge browning regent. I can't even see any of the mill marks on the barrel. I also used Laurel Mtn stain, the cherry I think it was. Brought the grain on the walnut out nicely.

Hope this helps.

 

[Chiefs50]

My .02 on the stain. I prefer an alcohol or water base stain over oil because you can easily apply successive coats to darken the stain if need be. That is difficult to do with an oil-based stain because the oil in the stain seals the wood to a degree.

 

[noahmercy]

My GPR kit also came with an overabundance of wood. I used a coarse 3M sanding disc chucked into my cordless drill to remove most of the surplus. Brought it down to within about 1/16th of an inch of finished in short order and made keeping the contours easy. Then I used a sanding block with progressively finer grits to get it where I wanted it.

As for the tang, I'm not sure what to say. The trigger guard was easy enough to bend on mine (same problem as yours), but the tang is stout on those things. I'm not doubting your observation about the angle of dangle on the tang, but just make sure the stock doesn't have a bunch of extra wood in the wrist like mine did...it made it seem like the tang was curved down excessively.

I left the barrel as it came from the factory and used LMF browning solution...it turned out nice in my opinion. It is a more matte finish than I have seen on some modern guns, but looks very similar to some old ones I've seen. And all the barrel imperfections (looked like wire wheel or fine sanding marks running lengthwise) disappeared after the second coat of brown.

I didn't stain my stock. It had nice figure, so I just applied four coats of Linspeed oil, knocking every other coat back with four-ought steel wool. I like Linspeed because it dries completely in very short order and is easy to touch up and change the glossiness. Also, I just left the dust from the final 200 grit sanding on the stock before applying the first coat of oil and it helped fill the pores of the walnut. The oil did darken the wood a bit and enhanced the contrast. I get quite a few positive comments when I take this rifle to the range.

The main thing is to do what ya' like...make the gun your own.

:thumbsup:

 

[fw707]

Jack, I'm working on a GPR kit now too, and I had the same issues you got. I guess they are all alike.
After I made sure the tang wasn't sitting on a hump, I just chucked it up in a vise and bent it with a Crescent wrench to fit. It needed a slight bend right at the junction of the tang and the breech opening to get the barrel to drop into the barrel channel. Just go slow and don't try to bend a lot at a time. Same for the trigger guard.
I took off a lot of excess wood with a scraper. It made sanding easier when I had the wood down close to where I wanted it.
Hope that helps. :grin:

 

[MSW]

for my birthday, i got some microplane rasps from my fifteen year old. you know- the one with common sense... these are really great tools, and you should try them. usually available at Home Depot or somesuch 'bigbox' hardware store, or online.

as regards the tang, most of these guys can be cold bent if you go slow and if you don't have to go too far.

 

[barebackjack]

Thanks for the help!

Ive inletted the tang down some more, but will bend it the rest of the way. There is surplus wood all over the thing, except where I want it, the wrist area was almost finished, and I dont want to go to thin there.

When you brown your barrel did you put the sights on or brown them seperate?

Thanks again
Boone

 

[paulvallandigham]

If you brown them separate, you risk marring the finish on the sight when you drift it into the dovetail. Do the sights together with the gun.

 

[elk_chaser1]

My GPR kit had allot of wood on it, too. Just took some 60 grit sand paper and elbow grease. Came right down...after allot of sandpaper! Could've used an electric sander!

 

[Vaino]

Either use a gouge w/ mallet{cross grain} or a Dremel w/ a large cutter to "bring er down". I use both to remove large amounts of wood after bandsawing and where applicable, even use a hand saw.....Fred

 

[Zonie]

As many have found, sanding across the grain will remove wood much faster than sanding with the grain.

The thing to keep in mind though is the results of sanding cross-grain leaves a very rough unsightly surface so when the wood gets down to about 1/16 inch from being where you want it, sand with the grain only.
Any crossgrain sanded wood left on the stock will stick out like a sore thumb after you've applied the finish.

Zonie