Richards Microfit - The Good, The Bad, and The careless Mistakes

[Jessesky]

A while ago I made a post about leaping into a Richards Microfit stock.

Some three months later my stock has arrived! I felt like it was Christmas morning. (You definitely need patience ordering these)



I had some reservations about whether or not it would be a drop in inlet, or if I would have a lot of work ahead of me. To my pleasant surprise, the action sucked right into place. (P.s. Don’t worry, I won’t be using those scope bases)


The fit has a little space here and there, but not a huge deal considering I will be bedding the rifle, and I know mausers do have slight variations in dimensions (this is a VZ-24). I then wet a cloth to get a preview of how my finished stock will look once sanded and oiled. To my surprise the figure of the A grade English walnut is pretty decent.


One major issue I noticed upon receiving the stock was the ebony grip cap. Why? Because I specified no ebony grip cap, it is in the notes of my order. Now if I cut off the grip cap for the steel one I intended to add, the pistol grip will be too short for my hand.


This last issue is not an ordering mistake, it is poor quality control. The ebony tip is attached via wood dowels and glue (pretty normal). Now seeing the photo below, I don’t think I have to explain what happened.


After waiting three months for a stock, you’d hope you don’t need to return it due to careless mistakes. The customer service was good, and I will be getting a replacement. If Richards takes greater care in the details, they have a real recipe that would be unrivaled. The stock you see including taxes, shipping, and all the options is $260

I will keep you posted on the customer service endeavor with the replacement

 

[troy fairweather]

Mine is about 16 years old now, I've Dunn about 10 but don't have those rifles anymore. I can't remember the grade of mine, I can't even remember which walnut it was. Could be Carlo? I do like there lower grade stocks, and they have some with small blemes and can be pretty cheap.

 

[DocRock]

Nice looking wood. Hope the replacement arrives soon and without issue.

 

[Elkins45]

Richards is a real crapshoot, but you can get stuff from them you can’t find anywhere else. I’ve bought three stocks from them, all of which I was simply amazed I found. I bought three laminated stocks:

Winchester pre-64 long action left-hand
Mauser 98 (Zastava) left-hand
Mauser 98 left-hand stock for right-hand action

The good news is that all of them showed up in the bargain bin so they were each around maybe $50-$60. The bad news is that two of them looked like they were inletted by an angry beaver with dental problems and took forever to get smoothed out and fitted.

 

[Elkins45]

Model 70

Mauser

 

[Olympus]

I learned my lesson on Richards Microfit about 15 years ago. I ordered a stock for a Mauser sporter build I decided to take on and I remember it taking forever to receive my stock. When I finally did get the stock, it was rougher than a stucco bathtub! If you want to tackle a serious woodworking project, buy a Richards stock and a metric TON of sandpaper! The issue I had with my stock was that the style I used had a comb up too high and the bolt would not fully retract without hitting the comb. I had to cut a huge notch out of the comb for the bolt to slide into in order to get it fully eject a round. You'd think they would have made mention of that on their website on that particular style of stock....but NO. I will never order another Richards stock and I would NEVER recommend one to someone else. Especially not when you can get a nicely fitted and finished Boyd's stock.

I'm a woodworker by trade and when I look at those pictures, especially the one with the pistol grip cap, I'd say that piece of wood looked like it was gnawed on by a beaver!

 

[greyling22]

I'm glad you's worked out well. My left hand mini-mauser from them was quite a disaster. 95% inlet my foot. maybe 50% inlet, and I feel they vastly overstated the grade of their wood.

 

[Random 8]

I've done 3 of their stocks. A semi-Fancy thumbhole claro, a A-fancy American in "frontier sportster", and a semi-fancy American Walnut thumbhole. I have been satisfied overall with the quality and grade. Only minor issue was the stock for my wife's LH Savage 11 was inletted in the action for a RH action. There are some minor differences. In contacting them, they were unaware of a different pattern for the LH action (cutout for the safety and trigger group is slightly different). Was only needing some dremel work and a fill on the other side to make it right, and I settled for a free acraglass kit rather than shipping them the stock and action to correct the issue (they were willing to cover all costs involved).

The OPs stock seems unexcuseable though. A cursory inspection should have caught the tip cap inlet cut into/through the dowel, and placement should have been better in the first place.

As for the other issues noted down the post, they are quite clear in their description. You get extra wood on the outside. Their stocks are machined, not shaped by belt sander and planer so you get rough wood on the outside which requires heavy sanding, planing, and some shaping. You get a stock made from a graded blank. Can be a crap shoot, sometimes it turns out better. The semi fancy claro stock I did easily grades as AA. Got lucky on that one. Machining and finishing brought out figure and color that must not have shown in the blank. The A-fancy stock I did has disappointing figure, but technically grades as A based on figured percentage of stock.

I don't think I'd order an heirloom piece from them, but for a better than factory stock at an affordable price, IF you are up to the shaping and sanding, they can't be beat. Just be prepared for a proper finishing project, not a simple sand with 220 grit and slap BLO on and expect fine results.

 

[Elkins45]

A lot of it depends on how much you care. For my LH Mauser I just wanted a stock that wouldn’t warp in the rain. After I finished the inletting and bedding I just took the tops off the roughest spots and slapped on some finish. If you look carefully at the photo you can see it still has some definite texture.

 

[Skylerbone]

It took some time as my 95% was not correctly inletted for the bottom metal I had which required considerable removal to fit, a fair amount more inletting to press it in, even more before it stopped bottoming out (layout fluid and clay help), and yes, a whole lot of paper to smooth it, but the results weren’t bad for a cheap stick of wood.

I pinned the stock JIC then hogged more out to bed it and it shoots fine. Not a beauty contestant but better than factory in most cases. Mine was Claro, I think A, and I’m back to a complete rifle, my main objective in this case.


I actually used an orbital sander and a drum chucked up on the drill press for some areas. Things got Medieval for awhile.





I know it needs lower rings, I just slapped on a pair to check function.

 

[gotboostvr]

If they made a Manlicher stock I'd roll the dice for my sporterized K98 in a second.

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

I've done three stocks with Richard's: two laminated Destroyer Carbines and a full-length K31 custom sporter (FYI: I've a second un-Bubba'd K31 in my milsurp collection). The laminates came out OK, but the barrel channel on the K31 was rough and off-center. I decided to make the best of it by shortening the forend, glass bedding the entire barrel channel and hoping for the best. So far at least it's worked fine, but hardly a recommendation. My take on Richards is they are willing to try custom projects for relatively low prices, but quality can be highly variable -- not my choice for high-end stock work.

.

 

[Random 8]

If they made a Manlicher stock I'd roll the dice for my sporterized K98 in a second.

They do. You need to do some digging, but they offer this as an option
"Mannlicher length forearm for up to 22" Barrels (no tip or cap installed) Available in a Full semi-oval shape only. $57.00"

 

[gotboostvr]

They do. You need to do some digging, but they offer this as an option
"Mannlicher length forearm for up to 22" Barrels (no tip or cap installed) Available in a Full semi-oval shape only. $57.00"

Welp, good thing I decided to grab two pints of stain instead of just the one earlier today.

 

[js8588]

They do. You need to do some digging, but they offer this as an option
"Mannlicher length forearm for up to 22" Barrels (no tip or cap installed) Available in a Full semi-oval shape only. $57.00"

"Up to 22"
Unfortunate. Imagine taking a Winchester M70 Alaskan 30-06 and putting it in a full length stock.

Delicious.

 

[Random 8]

https://www.zastava-arms.rs/en/civilianproduct/sporting-rifle-m70ps This M70 with a 560mm barrel will fit, and you can get it in .375 H&H, 9.3x62, and some interesting European calibers as well as good ol' 30-06

 

[Jessesky]

Alright, now a few weeks later. A representative got back to me, offered a $75 discount on the current stock. I told them if they gave me the discount I would keep the current defective one and pay for another stock but this time done right for another rifle (since I have another Mauser I am currently working on anyway)

 

[gotboostvr]

"Up to 22"
Unfortunate. Imagine taking a Winchester M70 Alaskan 30-06 and putting it in a full length stock.

Delicious.

Have the barrel chopped and problem solved!

 

[Allen One1]

With the current stock I would fill the exposed dowel area with black epoxy then slice off half of the ebony grip cap and mount the metal one that you want to use. You have a lot of work to do to get the stock finish ready, actually seems like a fun project. I like the wood grain pattern on it.

 

[Jessesky]

That’s exactly my plan, you read my mind

 

[Jessesky]

Balancing time between responsibilities and gunsmithing. It’s coming together nicely but taking the proper quality route certainly takes more time.

The first coat of oil was applied today, and whiskered with 320grit. Really showing the potential of the figure. Next I have to apply a few coats of alkanet oil to deepen the figure further. And after that a few months of coatings of my oil and spirits mixture until its hardened. Then I’ll have to bed with pillars, checker, add a stock escutcheon and it’ll finally be done.

I’m debating whether to blue or keep the grip cap in the white.

 

[Jessesky]

After Bedding, then undoing the bedding because I messed up and my dye didn’t let the epoxy fully cure. Then re-bedding again with pro-bed 2000, and finish sanding for the second time. Finally it’s now time for a coat of oil.

This is a mixture of alkanet oil made from double boiled linseed oil, mixed with a tablespoon of turpentine, and with about two table spoons of alkanet root powder to help bring out the figure in the wood.

This is only coat one, I suppose it may take four applications before I’m happy with the color and can start on my finishing oil.

 

[troy fairweather]

Looks good did you send in the oil or just rubbed it on. I just about finished my Richards stock, I decided this week to stipple the stock, before it never had the finished look. Took about 5 hours, can't get .much detail with my camera but happy how well it came out.

 

[JohnKSa]

My experience with them (years ago) wasn't great. I'm usually pretty handy with that kind of stuff, but it was so messed up I couldn't salvage it. Chalked it up to lessons learned and haven't ordered from them again. I'm glad to see that some folks have had a better outcome.