I used finished two stock, one was a old glennfield. with some funky dark stain of some sort,.It bothered me from day one,I knew the wood under the stain wsnt walnut,It birch, and NO stain will go into the pours of the wood.Slo make a long storry short,I sanded all the funky stain off, and used tung oil.I have 10 coats on it. it looks good. my other is a walnut wood stain too,And it bothered me again after years of looking at that stock i thought im redoing it,So i took it all apart, and striped all the stain off of it. and here the wood was Maple.I used Maple stain, and i finished it with tung oil too..IM Happy now. with both stocks But see that made me happy..
you do it the way you want, what makes you happy.I would use a hair dryer on the wood to bring all the old junk that maybe in the pours.to the surface,I think you would be surprized what the hair dryer will bring out,,
I have a cz 24, that i like to redo. but it has all sorts of stamped marks on it. I dont want to take out,so i will ponder on how bad I want to tackle it,.