Ben, I believe Vic Pedersen knows about db rifles, too, having seen his name in Graeme Wright's book - surely a sign he's a serious 'smith.

As hinted at above, you need to really love a rifle before mucking around with it, because, as with a car, subsequent buyers generally prefer them original. Of course a gun or rifle needs to fit you but, if that means you have to shorten the stock, look hard and long at everything else about the firearm and make sure you want to keep it.

I've had a lot of fun sporterising military rifles (two FN Mausers and a Mannlicher Schoenauer) but they were cheap and common in those days and initially I couldn't afford to buy commercial ones. I always retained the original stocks and streamlined them to look like period sporters, complete with hand-chequering. No place for originality really, just an understanding of 'the look'.

It helps to have books to refer to. I started with a book by the Williams sight people called 'How to Convert Military Rifles' (since lent out, never to return), and later got Jim Carmichael's 'Do-it-yourself Gunsmithing', which shows safe projects for the amateur.

Cheers
- Paul