My Dad bought a Beretta Silver Snipe in 1964. Because he was Dad, and put recoil pads on all his guns, he dutifully dropped it off at a forgotten gunsmith in Maryland, had the stock cut, and put a Pachmeyer white line pad on it. The deed was done before I was five years old.

I hate Pachmeyer white line pads. But, I digress. Dad never really warmed up to the Snipe, and it was used very little, until I got older.

Dad was built a bit like Popeye, and had a short LOP. The stock is really short. I have used it, successfully, bundled up late in the season, but, it is too short for anything else. The pad was a bit squishy when it was new, and caused some trouble with the Snipes inertia trigger, but, the thing is hard as a rock, now, and that hasn’t been a problem for years.

Recently, I was hunting about the sites and an uncut Silver Snipe stock was on the ‘bay, but, at an eye watering $225. That is about half of what a used but not abused Snipe is worth, in my opinion. But, looking further, I turned up a never installed stock in Canada for $80. So, technically, it was $100 with $20 shipping, but, getting something shipped from western AB for $20 seems like a steal.

It mostly fits. It was advertised as being for an S57 (same gun, mostly) and the wood is just a bit high on the side the lever opens to. When installed it has a nice, long LOP. I have the original butt plate off the Snipe, and the new stock (it was advertised as NOS and I believe it) has later version of the Beretta grip cap and butt plates. I can decide which I prefer, down the road.

No, it won’t be getting a pad.

No it doesn’t match the front wood. Not yet, anyway. It is finished in satin something, and the Snipe is shiny varnish. I’ll get there. For now, I’m just going to get it on, and get busy breaking a few clay targets with it, until I figure out this shooting off the right shoulder a bit more.





Best,
Ted

Nice, I used a Silver Snipe while stationed over seas. Used it for everything, quail, ducks, geese, etc

Nice story Ted, enjoy it in good health with fine memories of your father.

You can make that fore end match the butt stock very closely by stripping the f/e finish and playing around with various shades of stain. I have done that several times with mis-matched gun wood.

Go for it!

Ted,
Great project, considering it was your Dad's gun. You'll get there, best wishes on the project!
Karl

That was a great find Ted. And pretty cheap money to make a gun that doesn't fit usable again.

Nice wood on Snipes back n 64....

Wish Dad hadn’t cut it….

Best,
Ted

Re: The $̶8̶0̶ $130 restock.

It continues.




Bought some stripper, kerosene to fill my smoke can, a scraper, and a turkey tray. Still have some finish and Jerry Fisher scrapers coming from Brownell’s.

I had a real nice conversation with James Flynn about replacement stocks and fitting of same. I did consider dumping the whole project in his lap, but, it is just a Silver Snipe, and he is, well, James Flynn. I refinished the stock and serviced the gun when my dad was still alive, and since it will end up with my son, hopefully later, rather than sooner, I am going to do the work.



Best,
Ted

I hope you enjoy the process as much as I do, Ted. A good while back I acquired a FAIR Verona 692 LX Gold E Combo, in 28 ga. and .410, both with 30" barrels. Price was very reasonable and it wan't hurt, except that it had a trap style buttstock with an aluminum adjustable butt plate. Yuuuck! The comb was also too high for me to shoot well in sub-gauge sporting events, so I set out to find a replacement buttstock. A call to Basil Slaughter in Nevada yielded a cracked one that he had pulled off and replaced, for the customer.

He sent me pics and a price of $50. The wood was beautiful and I knew I could repair that crack. The resulting project was great fun and yielded a very nice gun that is now great for sub-gauge events and for doves and quail. I had to stain it to more closely match the fore-end, and it turned out good enough that no one has ever noticed the crack (I honestly can't see it myself, and I know where it was), or that it wasn't the original buttstock.

Another buttstock replacement that I did was on a 12 ga. Philly Fox SWE. I wanted to save the original f/e so I had to match the color of the new buttstock to the old wood on the f/e. Here's before and after pics.





You can do it, playing around with multiple layers of different shades of stain.

Nice work, Stan.

The Snipe was refinished by me a long time ago. I stripped it, masked off the checkering, and shot it with the Brownell’s tung oil varnish they used to sell. I scuffed the finish with scotch brite between coats (you can tell I’m a car guy, right?) and laid on about four coats over a weeks time. I didn’t use any stain. The last coat got polished with 2500 grit wet or dry and finished with 3M Finnese-it. I cut the finish with enamel reducer to get it through a Binks #7, and used a few drops of Japan drier in the cup. I think I got 2-3 days out of a cup.

My dad liked shiny wood. He would have been best buds with Roy Weatherby.

Best,
Ted

There are so many different ways to finish gun wood that it is almost staggering. I have found my favorite, so far, to be the sanded in finish as formerly done by Phil Pilkington. He used to sell the finish but it is no longer available. It can, however, be easily made for yourself with readily obtained ingredients (only three). I've done several wood sets this winter using this method and am blown away by how nice it can make a plain, straight-grained piece of wood look. It creates a depth that causes a "holographic" effect on even the plainest of wood. It looks like you can see into the surface of the wood.

I never use stain either unless I am trying to match two different pieces of wood that are starkly different. This is a set off a Fox Model B that just needed a little "freshing up". No stain added.

After stripping and de-oiling ..........



After .........

a nice job...

i too, consider the pilkington method as my favorite approach to finishing, and now i keep two variants of mineral spirits for that purpose....one unaltered, and the other with alkanet red to pigment the solution. i find that alkanet also provides surprising "depth" to the finish.

i have several guns that were done with this finish, up to 40 years ago, and have weathered quite well.

best regards,

tom

Damn. Every time I think I’m going to get a day in the shop, a honey-do rears its ugly head for me.



Momma said her car was making a “funny sound”. Wheel hub and bearing took a dump. Oh well.

Maybe this weekend.

Best,
Ted

I had read of dissolving alkanet root in finish oil, or so I remembered it, but don't recall anyone saying they did so in mineral spirits. Makes perfect sense, though. I'd like to hear more about that, Tom. Always wanting to learn.

after reading a good deal of posts herein about alkanet - many from our brit members - along with references to "london red stains"...i decided why not? i do a fair amount of general buying on ebay, and i will make this simple for you;

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...mp;_nkw=alkanet+root+powder&_sacat=0

i put up two different items; 1) a couple of quarts of mineral spirits with about an ounce and a half of the ground power in a 2 liter soda bottle, and 2) about half an ounce in a pint bottle of 91% rubbing alcohol. it takes a fair length of time for the color to diffuse into the liquid, and the advice was to shake it often, or regularly upend the bottles. my supply is probably 5 or 6 years old now. the solids, of course, will settle and it is easy to gently pour off what you need for use. the alcohol based solution penetrates a bit better than the mineral spirits, and is a bit handier for darkening a small area.

if i want to considerably darken the wood, i will use the alcohol to whisker the wood and/or soak in a bit prior to starting the pilkington soak/sand/slurry process. nowadays, i automatically put a test spot of alkanet on any stock blank i handle to see what it does to that particular piece of wood - some show little change, and others are quite dramatic.

best regards,

tom

Thanks, Tom. You answered a big question I always had about it, concerning the solids.

I've got a bag on the way to play with.

Hello All,

Great project Ted. Keep the pictures coming.

And great info about alkanet Tom, thanks for sharing!

Best,

JC

My alkanet arrived in the mail yesterday. Gonna begin "building a potion" with it, in mineral spirits, later today.

"Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble. Cool it with a baboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good."