I happen to LIKE dark wood, so, if it were mine, and I cared about originality, the LAST thing I'd do is to rush into "stripping" the stock!!!  It will never be the same if you do.

I'd spend a LOT of time with some terrycloth rags and some turpentine, or lemon oil, perhaps a bit of 0000 steel wool, and see what that does for it.

IMHO (and I've been collecting Krags and .45-70 trapdoors for 40+ years) I've never seen a "from-the-ground-up" wood redo that really looked "right".  Just my $.02.