doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Baker stock job?

Anyone have a good source for semi Finished Baker stocks. I bought one from Macon and it is just too much on the "rough" side. I could always inlet, glass bed it and send it out as a pattern to have it copied. But to use it, as is, is just too poorly done. Worse I need a 16 as well as a couple of 12's and while Macon claims they are the same my calipers say otherwise.

I like Bakers as project guns. They are very reasonable to buy with decent metal condition. Demand is limited and no one screams that I am ruining a collector by replacing a broken stock.

Yeah, this. The inletting wouldn't have to be too tedious or precise; the glass will provide a perfect fit to the metal and the duplication can be held to very close tolerances since it's for your gun, not a generic. At the same time, you can make all the mods for shooting fit. I started the hobby with semi-inlets but my last dozen were all from dupes of my pattern stocks. The out-of pocket cost was the same but the bull work I saved was substantial.

Baker stocks are difficult to find semi-inlets commercially. I have a 12g pattern on hand and have stocked a few. If you say that one of the stocks from Macon was a bit too rough, I am sure that what you got was pretty typical for a semi-Inletted stock. A lot out there call them 95 or 98% and it is more like 80%. And anyone looking for a drop in fit on many of these old SxS guns is kidding themselves.
As a sidebar, i do not like to usually discuss specific companies or vendors. But I personally have had some bad experiences with Macon stocks that people have provided me with to fit. One of them was with a baker. In all cases, the stocks provided by them were not even usable. And in cases where the original piece was supposedly used as the pattern.

John,

Call Jim Olivant at Highland Crest Stock Fitters, 631-648-8289. He has several Bakers and has restocked several and can cut a new one to your dimensions, reasonably.

Happy holidays,

John

I will give him a call after the New Years day.

I was not trying to get into a smack down of Macon gunstocks. Like most some patterns are better than others and this one was not close enough even for government work. There are blanks like custom shoes, blanks like off the rack shoes and blanks that fit like galoshes. Some semi inlet blanks are very good and others are a real challenge to use.

I have a duplicating machine, a heavily modified Gemini so I understand 80%-90%-95% semi inlet and how no one size fits all pattern exist for these old guns. Good patterns are too labor intensive for one of a kind restocks and needing both a pattern for 12 and 16 made me want find if someone had a good one to save me all the work of repairing and then making my own pattern. Call me lazy but ten hour spent on a pattern are better spent else where if possible. These are simple restocks not upgrade using high grade blanks for a custom gun.

More than one person has told me that you get a rough stock for an L C Smith when you order a Baker stock from Macon.
I don't have a dog in this fight, just what I've heard over the years.
Randy Murray did a very nice job fitting wood to my Tobin, and asked if he could keep the old wood in case another showed up. He did restock many an old L C Smith back in the day, wonder if he has something for a Baker?
Good luck.

Best,
Ted

I got a semi-inletted blank from Donnie Gomes at Show Me Gun Stocks, for a Baker Batavia Special and it was really good. First one I ever finished for a side lock gun.
Jim