A few short weeks ago I was asking about bending a draw bolt buttstock to get more drop. buzz advised me to look for another replacement buttstock and make it fit me instead of bending the original one. The gun is a Verona, and I remembered that Bazil Slaughter is the go to man on them, and called him the next day. He looked and reported that this was the only thing he had that was for a Verona 692 28/.410 Combo, which was what I needed, and that it had a serious crack through left side of the head, and extending through the side plate molding into the wrist. We decided on a very fair price and he sent it to me. If you look closely you can see the crack.
I repaired the crack with an epoxy, and worked a little walnut dust into the wet epoxy line where it came through the molding and into the wrist. I then had to fit it to the action, which turned out really good because the wood was a bit too big in it's current state. It is much easier to remove a tiny bit more wood to get proper inletting than it is to build it up if the existing inletting is too large. The stock was much lighter in color than my two forends, so I decided to darken the buttstock, instead of trying to lighten the two forends, in color. I very lightly sanded the stock with 320 to remove any traces of finish that might be present, then wiped on one coat of Minwax Red Mahogany stain. It took it readily. I let it dry about 5-10 minutes, then briskly rubbed the stock down with a clean, dry terry cloth towel to remove all excess stain. I hung it out in the sun and wind for a couple days to completely dry. Then, I handrubbed a couple of coats of oil finish onto it, over a couple of days, put it back on the action, replaced the pad, and here is the finished product.
From start to finish, the whole project began when I called Bazil on 4/12/'18, and ended on 5/8/'18. I don't remember a gun project of mine being completed that quickly. Oh, the best part....................I don't have to modify this one at all, the fit is
perfect! I didn't fill all the pores with subsequent coats of finish because the forends are like that. And, the color match is very, very close. I hated to have to stain it because the caramel/smoke on it was so pretty, but I could never have gotten the forends anywhere near that color.
Thanks buzz, SRH