I sometimes remove the trigger guard. When I don't, they're hell to remove latter. I also have a jig made up, but have cracked two stocks using it. Now there's some work ahead of you. But with the method I described I've never cracked one. It was a gunsmithing friend of mine who thought it up and told me about it. Maybe others have also done it. Another friend had a Connecticut Shotgun made by Tony and it had a lot of grain going through the wrist. He wanted me to bend it and I said no. So he did it with the shot bags. It bent without cracking. I don't use the jig anymore.
