What type of wood on black-stocked H&R Toppers?

[Ed Ames]

Anyone know what sort of wood the current production H&R Toppers w/ black painted stocks have? They say "american hardwood" ... I'm guessing that means Birch?

Anyone here sand one of these down? Looks like there is more than enough wood available and you could sand the stock down to clean wood. Then you could slap a clear(er) coat on... White wood with the plated "receiver" might look fairly nice actually. Or it could be stained blue I guess.

 

[ArmedBear]

It's beerch.

 

[Ed Ames]

Beerch... the refreshing wood that doesn't fill you up!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

I guess the real question is, Does it look decent if you clean it up and give it a proper finish?

 

[chas08]

Beerch....Now thats my kind of wood. I have a hunting partner who really dressed up a plain piece of "whitewood" on a gunstock by passing the flame of an acetelyne torch over it carefully. The operative word here is "Carefully" Then he finished it out with several coats of Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil.

 

[ArmedBear]

That's an old muzzleloader's trick to fancy up a wooden ramrod. Or maybe it was for camo.

Personally, I'd just call Wenig http://www.wenig.com/ and ask if they have a pre-fitted stock set for a Topper.

 

[ArmedBear]

They do fine work.

 

[ArmedBear]

Or you could contact H&R and see if they'll sell you a stock from the new Topper Trap:



They buy them from this company: http://www.americanwalnut.com/

 

[Ed Ames]

LOL... let's put $500 worth of wood on a $50 gun!

Or maybe not.

I was actually thinking that white(ish) wood would look decent. Not traditional, but decent.

 

[Ed Ames]

For the record:

The wood appears to be birch. It was only rough sanded and some of the black paint is in fairly deep sanding scratches (hard hard to chase down to the bottom) making it appear somewhat "dirty" unless you do a lot of sanding.

Overall, it looks like it could look quite nice w/ a clear coat except for the speckles of black paint in the deeper scratches.

I think I'm going to stain the wood a darker color just so I don't have to chase the scratches all the way down to the other side of the stock. Maybe one of the black/charcoal stains or a blue... hmm.. maybe hunter green? So many choices.

 

[ArmedBear]

LOL... let's put $500 worth of wood on a $50 gun!

Hell, I think Wenig stocks run just a bit higher, at least if you want them fitted to you.

But the Topper Trap is real. Not a bad idea; I would have bought one if they were selling them a few years back. I still might, if they're not too expensive.

 

[Ed Ames]

I bet the stocks cost a bunch more... I was talking about the wood itself. Have you priced high grade hardwood?

The topper trap does look cool.

 

[DaleCooper51]

I asked my local FFL about the topper trap. He told me it would be just over $300 and there is probably about a 2 month wait to get one from the distributor.