After getting that hole for the front pillar done, I was ready to put this together and start shooting. Then Bubba raised his ugly head.
A little background, this gun came from my uncle. He only had girls and my brother was not interested so I inherited it. This gun was leaned up against a truck and someone drove off breaking the original stock. My aunt said a friend carved the replacement out of cherry wood. Not sure if that meant if it was whittled from a block of wood or a purchased blank was finished and fitted.
Any way I noticed the guard screws did not line up and a taper was ground on each to allow them to start. The screws were only catching a couple of threads. It is a wonder the barreled action did not jump out of the stock. Later noticed the trigger guard was pounded flat. A good replacement (thanks Dan) shows the 2 ends are supposed to have a 5 degree included angle between the ends (see photo, the guard is sitting on a ground parallel).
If you do not put the screws into the receiver when it is apart you will not see the unusual angles involved. The forward screw is at a right angle to the barrel and bolt channel. The bottom of the receiver is at about a 4.5 degree angle because of the rimmed cartridges so it looks like the screw is at a angle. The rear screw is at a 5 degree angle to the bolt (see photo).
I liked this stock because it fit my hands pretty well and pointed naturally even though it is not traditional. I can only work a couple of hours a week on this so it took a long time to straighten out. I spent days trying to get the barreled action rotated to line up with the trigger guard and worrying out the holes in the guard. Eventually I gave up and bored the holes out in the stock for pillars on the guard screws also. The screw blank in the photo served as a pilot for a custom 9/16 cutter driven by a hand drill.
So for anyone fitting a new stock, know the location of the cutout and distance to the guard is critical.

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