[Coltdriver]

I got this 1949 model 70 in 30 06 about two years ago in order to go Deer or Elk hunting.

This is the first year its going hunting. I drew an Elk Tag in Colorado.

But it kicks like hades. Call me a wuss, I don't care.

So today I went to the Crossroads gun show in Denver and picked up a pachmeyer stock pad for $10. It was way over size so this afternoon I installed it and put it to the belt sander to fit it to the stock. Of course, in the process I scuffed the stock. So I taped off the checkering and sanded the whole stock clean with a hand held orbital sander followed by some hand held 220 grit.

In the past I have refinished a stock with Tung oil. Very pretty, but time consuming and the Minwax is not recommended for outdoors use.

I have tried Polyeurathane but was not happy with the results. Too much work and still not recommended for outdoors.

This time I tried spar varnish. Quick, easy and definitely weather proof. I will post a pic soon. Looks like a weekend effort. First coat, give it six hours to dry. Second coat after a good fine sanding. Third coat to make it pretty and we are ready to go hunting! Just a week end deal.

The stock is walnut and the spar varnish darkened it up real nice. The contrast with the checkering should look pretty good.

Mounted a Bausch and Lomb Elite (now bushnell) 3X9 40. With the barrel/receiver off of the stock it was easy to square the base of the receiver to the windage cap of the scope and get it perfectly straight up and down.

I will go sight it in next week end.

Look out antlerless elk:D

[Coltdriver]

Purty!:D

[rick_reno]

That's beautiful. Here's what I did to my Sako rifles.

1. Sand the stock, apply multiple coats of some kind of green varnish to help seal up the wood. Do the bedding channel too.
2. Head off to Wal-Mart (the only store we have) and buy 4 cans of Krylon paint (black, brown, green and mud color). Get some masking tape and mask off anything on the gun (the lenses on my Leupold scopes, for example) that I don't want painted.
3. Spray on a base coat of brown. Get some branches from fir trees/ferns in my yard and use them like a stencil. Paint various colors on the rifle, including the scope.

Touch it up every year with Krylon as needed. They don' t need much. It's not as pretty as your Mod 70, but it works.

[Coltdriver]

Thanks,

I am pretty sure you are the one who inspired me to give that a try on another stock. There were several posts here on doing a camo job and I took your suggestions on my first attempt.

I have a wood 10/22 stock as a test mule.

I got the krylon, I am looking at about 8 cans of it on my paint shelf right now. Its amazing how far it goes when you just use a little from each can.

Never could get a good result. I do not have an artistic touch for making camo patterns on my rifle. I have stripped it back to bare wood three times now and the latest was an attempt at an oversize rattlesnake skin pattern. Looks terrible.

That spar varnish builds up real quick. I could have put one more coat on it but it is going to be a field used rifle and I figure it may get another coat next year. I did seal it inside and out as you suggest. That recoil pad is my first effort at mounting one. Got it cheap, screwed it on and trimmed it with a belt sander. Came out much better than I expected. Hope it helps tame that kick a little.

That is just the original plain jane stock that came on the rifle in 1949.