what wood for sks

[nekshot]

I have been pouring alot of hours in this sks we bought to learn about the semi auto league. I built that wood dragonoff or what ever they call it but it is more a pain than function.(at the shooting bench) I now have the gun with 2 bolts to secure it like a rifle should be in my world of thinking. Even with the brand new yugo barrel and all of the other stuff it still is not ready for Camp Perry. So I want to make a new regular type stock and design it around the bolts that fasten receiver. It must be light weight and I am thinking either poplar, cedar or the hybred cherry. It will be laminated so I am not looking for a chunk, just some 1x8 or 1x6 boards. I guess clear fir could be used also. Any ideas from the peanut gallery?

[GhostHawk]

Of those my choice would probably be the Cedar.

You have the choice of finding a bigger chunk, and whittling it down. Or laminating several pieces together. Either method could get you some interesting color and grain.

We have an old cedar desktop top that I have debated about tearing apart and laminating into a stock. Really have not done it as I don't have a need for it at this point.

In my case my Yugo SKS stock is original and in fairly good condition with a few battle scars. A big gouge, a burn, some knife scratching of names, you know. if only she could talk, the story's she would tell.

[LAGS]

I built a stock from Poplar boards glued together for a Short Barreled Mosin Nagant.
It has held up well to the recoil.
The stock was originally carved as a Pattern , to be used on a Stock Duplicator.
But the guy that let me use his stock duplicator, moved to the other side of the country.
So I did a coat of fiberglass resin on it and painted it with Krylon Wrinkle Paint.
The stock is light weight and the pistol grip takes up a lot of the Felt Recoil from full house loads.
The other two stocks are made out of Hardwood Flooring Planks glued together.
The light one is Cherry, and the dark one is Walnut carved out to be shot Left Handed as you can see in the relief cut out to clear your wrist

[nekshot]

I really like the idea of cedar but it must be clear of knots. Maybe the good aroma will make up for dismal accuracy!

[jcren]

Never seen such, but strength to weight has to go to bamboo. I have used raw bamboo flooring boards to laminate into bows. Just a thought.

[bubba.50]

back in the day, when they would roll out a crate of Chinee SKS's & pry the lid off & your choice for $59.95 the stocks looked kinda like mahogany.

[Larry Gibson]

bubba

Odds are those chinese stocks were from the wood left over from making mandarin orange crates............

Larry Gibson

[LAGS]

I still have one of those " Cheap " Chinese SKS's that have the Low Grade Mahogony Stocks.
For the amount I shoot it, it is fine for a Plinking gun.
But will be upgraded to a More Solid Barrel atachment set up when I convert it to .357 Magnum

[ulav8r]

Straight cedar is too soft for anything other than a rimfire. It would require glass bedding or a harder wood on the interior.

[funnyjim014]

Bamboo flooring would be very strong, and look fantastic. And it's cheep. I wonder how well it would machine

[Any Cal.]

I would make sure bamboo was laminated and sealed well, it is a grass, and moves a lot with moisture.

[Oklahoma Rebel]

you can convert a skss to 357 magnum? tell me everything!

[Oklahoma Rebel]

I would be very interested in doing that, I love the thought of a close range 35 cal carbine

[NoAngel]

You might be able to feed it from a Desert Eagle magazine.

[Oklahoma Rebel]

thanks, didn't think of those, lags what are your plans?

[merlin101]

But will be upgraded to a More Solid Barrel atachment set up when I convert it to .357 Magnum

WHOA! Hold it right there! Please enlighten me on that process.

[LAGS]

I am still in the research stages of making a conversion to .357 Mag.
But there must be a way to dump the pinned barrel and since it is being replaced, go with a threadded arrangement to the receiver.
But from what I have seen so far, the receiver may not have enough meat to be worth the trouble.
I may just stick with converting a CZ527 to .357 Mag.
But a Semi Auto like a SKS would be nice and was bought cheap enough to experiment with.

[armoredman]

Guys, when he says he's gonna do something, no matter how odd it sounds, he usually pulls it off. I'm also interested in seeing this, but I don't doubt the guy - he's pulled off some wild stuff in the past.

[LAGS]

Thanks Armoredman.
I dont want to Jack this thread, so I may just have to sit down and start a threaad and kick my Ideas around and get some input from some others.

[TRX]

I really like the idea of cedar but it must be clear of knots.

There are two types of wood that are generically known as "cedar." One is a coarse-grained red or reddish-brown wood, "true" cedar. The other is actually juniper; that's the stuff with red, orange, and yellow stripes and a bit finer grain than true cedar.

Juniper is a bit stronger than cedar, finishes out a bit smoother, and the dramatic coloring is impressive. It also smells more like cedar than real cedar does... but juniper trees aren't very big, and the way the branches grow, the trunks are full of tiny knots, seldom more than a hand's width apart. And since the trees are small, you have to work with center-cut wood instead of quarter-sawn.

My Dad had a woodworking business and used to make chests, boxes, and furniture out of juniper; he simply filled any cracks in the knots and ignored them. His customers didn't seem to care either.

According to the tables I found online, juniper is on the low end of the scale, strength-wise, but in line with some of the woods stocks are normally made of. You probably wouldn't want to make a featherweight or Magnum stock out of juniper.

I picked up an baulk of cedar at a sawmill two years ago, intending to make a stock for my own SKS out of it. But Real Life(tm) has been intrusive lately, so I haven't done anything further. I plan to deal with the knots like my Dad; just fill and ignore.