This is the busy time of year for me up here in Alaska. Lots of fieldwork away from home, so I have not been able to do much on the Spencer project. Over the last month, I have been finishing up the modification of the steel buttplate and fitted the replacement stock to the action. It’s turning out pretty well but there is a little more left to do to finalize things. The stock screws are in and the buttplate is on. I took my time fitting the wood using stock makers black and it came out well. The stock was a little large, as it should be but the inletting was slightly off center, which meant there was more wood on one side of the tangs than the other. Fortunately, there was just enough on the slim side to work. I am quite pleased with the wood, not least because the grain, including the figure is very similar to the original stock. Below is a photo of the current state of the stock being sanded to 400 grit.
In other good news, I found a fellow that color cases double gun receivers who will do the bolt, receiver and lower tang for $200. I have not touched the receiver as I didn’t know if I was actually going to do the color case. Now that I am, I will clean up some of the pits before sending it off. I am also thinking about having my monogram engraved on the receiver before the color case, in the fashion of some engraved Spencer’s I have seen. Looking forward to getting it done, but it won’t happen till the fall.