Hi all,

I thought maybe I would share with you guys and girls, a little Winter project that I have been working on. Last year I bought a Russian made Baikal over and under 30-06 double rifle to hunt deer with. I originally bought it just to see if I could figure out how they made the barrels so thin and also how they were regulated. I had quite a time getting it regulated but finally got it to shoot to my satisfaction. After working that out, I decided that it needed a scope, so I mounted one on it and went shooting.

I discovered that even though I could shoot it as it was, the comb was way too low for using a scope. I was going to restock it with some nice Walnut but after considering further, and checking out the inletting needed, I decided to see what I could do with the existing stock. I considered making a saddle type cheekpiece and glueing it on, but that didn't seem right. What if I wanted to return it to the original setup with iron sights? A friend told me about seeing military rifles with removeable cheekpieces mounted on them with machine screws. That sounded interesting, so I started makeing up a removeable piece that could be put on or removed at will.

While I was doing that, I decided that I might as well see what could be done to clean up the stock and make it better looking and easier to use. The Russians had made it way too bulky and just rounded over the square corners in the grip area, but it was a lousy fitting and clubby stock at best. They had left the wood proud of the action by 1/8 of an inch or more in places and the grip really needed to be steamlined a lot. I started by scribing around the action and marking the wood with a scribe line to work down to, then I began slowly taking the wood down to fit the action closer. As I said, the grip was way too big and squared so I reshaped and rounded it over where ever I could. I had to sand the whole stock down because it was made of Birch or some other white colored wood. The checkering they had put on it looked really poor so I just rasped it off, sanded the stock down, and recheckered it as well. Then it need to be finish sanded and stained and refinished.

I will admit that it does look a little strange with the add-on cheekpiece on it , but it works extremely well, and the more I get used to it, the better I like it. I also put on a solid mid rib made of Delrin, made up by our friend, Tarawa. It fits perfectly and didn't change the P.O.I one bit. It is lightweight and really helps to spruce the gun up further, I think. Thanks George!!
I am inclosing a couple of pictures but I do apologise for the poor quality of the pics. We had to take them under artificial lighing and they didn't really turn out too well, but maybe you folks who own one of these will get the general idea and want to fix yours up too. The screws I used were brass machine screws and I made the threaded inserts on my lathe out of brass rod, drilled and threaded. I also countersunk the inserts so that the screws can be re-inserted flush if the cheekpiece is removed.