The point is that even with great help out there with turning many different types or styles of wood, the really great work is left to do. It takes a lot of time to remove tiny amounts of wood and fitting the metal to wood time after time until it is perfect. But you can do it. If you know what awaits you and don't get greedy with your time. Once the wood fits, there is more time ahead of you in the scraping or sanding. You can use heavy grit sandpaper with a soft pad and a power finish sander and still have a stock that looks like crap, or you can take your time with a hard block and keep sharp lines and flat surfaces without inundations. If you work fast, the work will be smeary. Take your time and the work will be crisp.
Look at a $20,000 Piotti. A stock with fiddleback will show loop d'loops where the softer wood has been undercut from the harder wood and someone has been screwed out of a whopper amount of money because the manufacturer has no respect for the wood. Some in Europe also have no respect for the art of checkering. It can make a very expensive gun looked buggered up. Of course, you can go nuts, too. One English trained stocker saw a magnificent checkering job without flaw and then was incensed to learn that it took 200 hours. The checkering on an English Best is not expected to take over 8 hours.
Now shotguns are a bit easier to do than rifles. Rifle design is such that some artisans make the designs with many sharp edges so that their attention to detail will show up in KEEPING those edges sharp. It might not make a lot of sense in a using gun as sharp edges get knicked and bruised and worn, but it shows the quality of work used by the artisan.
The bottom line is don't expect all the work to be done for you. Don't rush. Don't remove wood that you have to patch later (some can do that well, but not likely you). Keep lines sharp by thinking ahead. Don't use fiberglass when beautiful wood is available. I have it on good authority that St Peter won't let anyone into heaven who chose a fibreglass stock.
