Stock "restoration"

[daltrey99]

I bought an original G43 stock for one of my project shooters. I got it for a great price due to the issues that it had. It has been chopped down about 2 inches and the bottom was contoured for a flat butt plate. I first tried cutting out a small part of the bottom of the stock and attached a butt end from a K98 in an "L" shape. I didn't like the seams from the cuts that I did so I had to go deeper into the original stock. I had to get another butt end from a K98. Now keep in mind that I could have purchased several K98 stocks that were complete for cheaper but I couldn't convince my heart to chop a good usable stock so I bought sporter stocks that had the forend already altered. I cleaned up the cut on the original stock and made a good cut on K98 butt end #2 and used 6 inch lag screws. The joint is nice and tight but I plan on putting some acraglas in the joint as an extra measure even though this joint right now is near indestructible. Once that I joined the two pieces, I shaped the butt end to the stock and eliminated the high spots. I am super happy with the near match of the wood grain. It is a near match on both sides. I will have to blend in the sanded parts to match the rest of the stock. Here is a few photos of what I started with and where I am at now. I will also show in this thread in the near future what the completed rifle looks like. The story with this rifle is that it was chopped up pretty good and Apfeltor helped bring it back to life. This will be a great shooter for on the range.

 

[sturmgrenadier]

That looks great compared to what you started with, always nice to see a stock saved.

 

[lilallie]

Nice work daltrey99. Looks good.

 

[daltrey99]

I figured I would give an update on the G43 project.

I have everything back together. I am going to try and blend the stock coloring a bit better as there are a couple of areas that the oil didnt take as well. Its not horrible but it sticks out to me. This will never be a collector piece obviously but making it come back to life was the goal.

This project started off with me looking for a barrel to complete another build that I have going. The barreled receiver had a half inch chopped off of the barrel, the rear sight ears were sheared off, the gas block was plugged and drilled on the bottom of the barrel for some reason. The bore was in great shape and the receiver was in good shape besides the rear sight. I had the whole bolt group ready to drop in it so I had the parts to build it.

I found the stock on ebay that someone shortened the butt end and had an aftermarket butt plate on it. They contoured the rear of the stock so just adding the rear piece to hold the butt plate was not going to work. I had to cut more into the original stock so I could blend and join a piece of butt stock from a K98. My first attempt I was not happy with so I tried again with another piece of K98 butt stock. I used 2 sporter stocks that had the fore end chopped. I did not want to use a complete k98 stock and ruin a good piece that someone could use even though I found cheaper ones than the sporter stocks. I drilled pilot holes for 2 6 inch lag screws and fitted the rear piece. I then put Acraglas between the two pieces then tightened the lag screws for an almost indestructible joint. I think the wood grain matched up fairly well considering that it was quite coincidental. Once everything cured, I added some stain oil to try and blend the pieces. I am not 100% happy with the blend and may try to tweak it some more but it isnt too terrible. I have an original handguard for it but it is cracked down the middle. I have one of those "fakelite" handguards on it right now to shoot with it.

The work on the barreled receiver was done by Apfeltor. He did a great job rebuilding the rear sight ears and also machining the front of the barrel to fit the front sight base properly. He filled in the bottom hole on the gas block and re-drilled the top for the proper gas block. A shooters kit was installed and she runs beautifully.

Like I said, she will never be a collectors piece but she is a great shooter. She cycles well and all parts have been gone over and inspected. I love to shoot these G/K43's. If you go over everything and maintain them, they are fun rifles to shoot. This is my first scope rail delete rifle.

Anyway, enough of my rambling, here are some photos of the complete process.