I mentioned before that this action did not have a stock. Now for the stock. The Blanc is South African Blackthorn and it was given to me on my first African hunt so it seemed right to use on this rifle. In our shop we specialise in building stocks/ rifles to fit the shooter and thus stock design is critical. The less drop the less muzzel jump you have. This is due to the fact that the recoil is directed straighter into your shoulder. Also if you look at your shoulder and where your eyes are you will notice that where the butt of a rifle ends up and your eye do not line up. This is where cast off for a right handed shooter, cast off for a left handed shooter comes in. If you angle the stock around .5" and have minimal drop you will find that you do not have to drop your cheek to the stock or cheek piece and you will also see that the rifle tends to point when shouldered to where you are looking. This does not just apply to double guns but any gun. In my eyes stock design is critical to how a gun handles. If you look at the picture of me shooting the 450 you will see that the gun is off the sand bags, however if you look close you will see that the muzzel is not jumping I am rocking back. Set up like this recovery for a second shot is minimal and you feel less recoil as it is directed against your shoulder and not against your shoulder and cheek bone.
The first thing you do when designing a stock is look at the wood and try to see the stock in the blank. You want the grain to flow from as far back in the butt as possable through the grip and into the forearm as possable. Never go for pretty grain over strength!
Once you have done this cut out the blank and inlet the action, once this is done the fun begins!!!! Fit your pad or butt plate and all lines work forward from there. A good rifle will have smooth flowing lines, your eye will follow from one end of the rifle to the other with no harsh angles which stop this flow. Strive for that perfect marrage between wood and metal. When you run your hands over a good rifle you should only notice a difference in texture between the wood and the metal.
When I was 12 years old I was told this by Mr. Wallace Gussler, these are words I never forgot and strive to achieve.
If this picture comes out it will show me fitting the pad to the stock. I had drawen out its size prior to roughing out the stock but as it is now time for the final shapping the pad has to be installed so that it can be worked down with the stock to achieve as near to perfect fit as possable. From this piont on the pad will not be removed from the stock, all sanding and finishing will have the pad in place so that it will blend in perfectly.