In the spirit of learning what grade would this stock be considered?

Not good at grading but a beautiful piece of wood..............except for the fish scale checkering.

Pretty butt, however the grain through the wrist looks suspect.

Crotch grade 4

https://www.anschutznorthamerica.com/store/p385/Claro_Presentation_Grade_Feather_Crotch_Walnut_Blank_%233.html

http://www.kensmithbasses.com/wood-species/walnut-grades/

If your considering purchasing it, pass. That pistol grip looks gawd awful.

It doesn't look suitable for a gunstock. Very weak in the wrist!

Even on a through bolt gun I would pass on that blank. Will end up cracked or made into a lamp. You can’t forget layout as job number one in making a stock.

Not too worried! Just curious about wood grades.

Every seller has a different scale. Call it 4A or even Exhibition grade if you want, it is symmetrical in figure. A lot of blanks are one side much better than the second. But as a stock it is more eye candy than value. Long term the layout will most likely result in failure. And why they added that disfiguring black mess on top is a mystery to me. But if the buyer is happy then that’s the only vote which counts.

Thanks Jon! I’m not a fan of the black mat on the stock as well, but the gun fits and shoots nice. It’s a standard mass produced O/U. I couldn’t figure out the grading systems for wood, but what you wrote makes sense as every site I found was different.

Looks great! Benelli has good wood in there O/U. Is the wood an upgrade?

Came with it on the silver receiver.

Nice wood except the layout IMO is god awful. probably would never matter in a clays type gun unless you drop it or fall on it. Too me its suspect enough that if you had it in a case and dropped the case it might crack.

Like I said not worried, if it were a real issue the internet would be full of broken stock pics from Beretta/Benelli and lower quality O/U’s. Maybe on a hundred year old gun with thin arms but this thing not worried at all.

The fish scales tend to hide the real grain pattern but I think I see reasonable grain on a best quality american walnut stock. Should be good on anything but a duck gun, trap loads should be no problem.

bill

Grades are what the seller wants them to be . There are no set standards . My grade 1 may be your idea of a grade 2 . All you can go on in mass produced guns is the makers standard for each model .


Some wood that looks very pretty and is suitable for machining for O/U's ,where a reinforcing tube can be fitted to over come short grain in the hand , will not be suitable for hand work on side by side's . So is it a grade one or not even though it has spectacular grain pattern ?