stock work on an 870 express - yes, it can be done

[Guest Xen]

well, my friend has shot an 870 since he was 16. his dad went down to a store and said "i'll take 5 of those" and pointed to a 12 gauge 870 express sitting on the rack. so yeah, the gun doesn't have the best of fit for him. anyway, i was looking at his gun because he put a new sight on it, and said hmm, that thing fits me perfectly. well, i'm about 4 inches taller than him, so i said isn't that long for you? long story short, yes the gun was too long, we decided to take an inch off the stock. broke the recoil pad that was on it when trying to get it off (pad was made by goodyear) ended up getting a kick-ease recoil pad in the "youth" model because the stock lost a lot of size on the end. also decided to refinish the stock, but this proved to be more difficult. the wood was horrible. the coating that was on it was closer to paint than an actual stain. after stripping it off, we found that most of the normal wood stains we tried wouldn't even absorb into the wood and looked horrible. we found 1 stain that was pretty light in color that actually worked on the wood. i'll get some pictures up, but man, it was a chore

[AJ]

Re: stock work on an 870 express - yes, it can be done

Yep, unless the gun fits the shooter, its worthless. The downside is that if the shooter puts on or takes off weight (fat or muscle) the fit usually changes.

It can be a task to get a nice finish from the birch stocks on the Express guns. Can't wait to see the pics.

[Tominator]

Re: stock work on an 870 express - yes, it can be done

I've refinished a few 870 stocks, and I didn't think they were much of a chore. The Express finish is very cheap, and easily stripped with a paint scraper.

Ask Harvdog to post a pic of the stock I refinished for him.

[AJ]

Re: stock work on an 870 express - yes, it can be done

Chris,

What type of chemical finish remover do you use? I have used various things through the years. I found Zip Strip to be the only thing that would soften the hard as nails Remington and Weatherby glossy finish.

[Guest Xen]

Re: stock work on an 870 express - yes, it can be

i'm sure you guys that kick out those sweet looking guns don't have a problem, but that stock on that cheap 870 was like nothing i'd ever worked with

i'll try to get some pics of it tonight tho - it turned out kind of cool looking all in all.

[Guest Xen]

Re: stock work on an 870 express - yes, it can be

ok, here's what i got so far

there is another 870 in there, that was close to how the gun looked when it was new

[Tominator]

Re: stock work on an 870 express - yes, it can be done

[ QUOTE ]

Chris,

What type of chemical finish remover do you use? I have used various things through the years. I found Zip Strip to be the only thing that would soften the hard as nails Remington and Weatherby glossy finish.

[/ QUOTE ]

I actually use a paint scraper or the blade out of a block plane. That gets you down to bare wood quick without gumming up sandpaper and the like. You just have to be careful to not gouge the wood.

For checkering I use Zip Strip or Strip-eze. The thing I don't like about that is that it tends to raise the grain of wood because it's wet, and the extra zip strip tends to bleed into surrounding wood grain. Pressed checkering is tougher than the actual cut checkering.