The safety issue was only my mis-read of some poorly written instructions. It functions as it should. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

In case anyone is thinking of inletting a custom rifle stock, you might want to re-think it a bit. This is the first stock I've done this much work on and I don't think I would do it again. The Fajen stock looks like a drop-in at first glance, but it was far, far from it. The receiver and barrel lug pillars were about 3/8" from meeting the bottom metal, which means that a whole bunch of wood has to be hogged out of the stock. I'm no gunsmith, so I'm proceeding cautiously with a Dremel grinder and inletting black. So far, I have over 50 hours of work in fitting this and a whole lot of hours still left before it's finished.

First, I rough-cut the stock to length - to be finish-shaped last. Then, the real work began...... after smearing inletting black on all of the metal that touches wood, the rifle is then assembled, disassembled and the transferred black marks ground off. This goes on over and over and over until the fit is good. Here's an example of how little is removed each time the rifle is disassembled - just the black is removed:



Each time the grinding is done, a little sanding and shaping can be done on the top rails. Eventually, it may look pretty good:





I sanded off all of the proud wood that was under the magazine cutoff switch - didn't like the look of it at all.... it's looking cleaner to me now:





The left side profile is beginning to take shape, but still has some rail sanding to go:



You can see from the tang area how much material was removed as the receiver and barrel areas were lowered:



The right side shape is just beginning with the first cuts under the ejector port:



I'm sure there are faster ways to do this. It's not so hard - just very tedious. I have a feeling that if I ever finish it, I'll never sell this one. With the 14" LOP, it's beginning to fit me very well and it feels ever so nice in my hands....... it comes up to the cheek weld about perfectly, but I haven't tried it with the scope mounted yet.

Frank