Revamping my Tikka

So I have had my Tikka for nearly 10 years now and it started life as a .243 laminate which served me well.
I eventually had Paddy rebarrel it for me in 6 X 47 lap. With a 20" border barrel a couple of years back.
I just got it back in time to work up a load before I went on Malc's DSC course.
This was my target from the test on the day.

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Thanks Paddy

Being a guy who likes to do a bit of wood work I always fancied a nice walnut stock. Keeping my eyes pealed on the web I eventually saw a reasonable Turkish walnut blank come up for sale on here. At well under £100 I thought it was worth a punt.
I sent it to Gary Kane with instructions to shape and fully inlet it and leave the sanding and finishing to me.
After a VERY long wait a box arrived and I was itching to get started on it.

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There ended up being a bit of inletting still required so once I was happy with both the action and bottom metal I started sanding out any tool marks with 320 grit paper.
After that I filled and sealed the grain with a varnish. Which involved thinning some hi quality varnish and giving the entire stock a liberal coat. I then gave a second pure coat 2 days later. After that had well dried I sanded it all off with 320 grit being careful to only sand the varnish and not wood. This left all the grain well sealed.
At this point the stock looked like **** and i was really hoping it would come right soon.
Which it did after some wet sanding with 400 grit and 2 coats of boiled linseed oil.
I wanted to stipple the stock so now was the time to cut the borders. I penciled them out and used a single line cutter and v chisel. This was much harder than I thought and took a lot of care and concentration.

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I did the stippling with a recipricating tool £12 off ebay.
Don't use Dremels, the grain needs to be impacted not ground out.
I played about on a test piece of wood but found that the tip of a 3" nail was by far the best result.

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I also installed my flush cups at this point by cutting the correct thread into the timber and smearing them with bedding agent before screwing them in flush.

I sealed the stippling with 2 layers of varnish and proceeded with 4 coats of oil to the stock.
I leveled off the finish with 0000 wire wool before bedding the action and bottom metal.

Paddy's custom recoil lug straight off the cnc.
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Just after cracking out the barrel and action.

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Stock was then oiled again and left for 3 day's to dry.
Let me tell you, when you have done this much work to a piece of timber and been handling it almost every day for a month. To leave it 3 day's hanging in your room and not touching it is torcher.
 
Wow a thing of beauty. What a way to turn a good standard Tikka into something stunning. I do like the swept back bolt handle too.
 
Hi

Very nice work all round as well as the outcome - labour/love comes to mind, enjoy.

L
 
Thanks guys.
Yes definitely a labour of love but I loved the labour.
It's not easy to leave it in the cabinet for more than a day or two.

Old Yop,
Gary did a great job with the fitting. He took a hand measurement as well as a length of pull.
 
Well christened this morning.
Not the longest stalk, 5 min from the truck.
The bucks have been showing quite a bit of activity this week. I knew where I was likely to engage then this morning. Back in time for coffee and back to work:)
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Perfect cull buck.
Most of the prickets here have barely any points but good body's.
 
I am surprised that the DSC test now allows you to bring along a bench and a vice (joke). Fantastic target, congrats.

I have to say that target is a one off.
The rifle is super accurate but that's the best group I've ever shot. Just cool that it happened to be on the DSC course.
 
Just seen your write up, What an amazing turn out great wood, accurate rifle, A pleasure to use and admire. Good photo record as well I might add. Thank you.

BC...
 
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