Reworking a Ruger #3 front stock.

[Cheshire Dave]

I'm waiting to get a Ruger #3 in 22 Hornet from Gunbroker. I'm looking for ideas for reworking the front stock to get rid of the barrel band. Any one out there that has done theirs and want to show how it turned out? I was lucky and someone here on Castboolits had a rear stock to replace the damaged one that is on the gun. My long term goal with this rifle is to rebore it to 25-20. If it turns out to be a real good shooter as a Hornet that may not happen. Oregunsmithing in Pendleton will rebore and chamber in my chose of 1-12 twist for 375.00. Thanks for the imput.

[Texas by God]

No pics but I have done just that to a #3 and a 10-22. I used a 2" Stanley Surform scraper to blend the step, then rasp, file and sandpaper. Both shot and looked better IMO.

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[pietro]

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I don't have a pic, but I removd the barrel band on one of my #3's and reshaped the forend into a duplicate of the Ruger #1's Alexander Henry schobble tip (below)

I simple reshaped the FE tip to match, and refinisged it - but left the FE uncheckered to match the uncheckered buttstock.






Alternately, since the #3 FE has plenty of extra wood ( aka: fat), the forend in back of the barrel band can be reshaped/tapered to remove the step in the wood for the barrel band.

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[oldhenry]

My #3 is a .45-70. The straight grip stock+ the slick metal butt plate when added to the recoil was not a pleasant experience: but, it was extremely accurate. I restocked in a Bastogne walnut #1 butt stock (with recoil pad) & a slim small schnobble (sp?) FE. It looks great, but is not as accurate as it was with the barrel band OEM FE. Now it's Bastogne walnut for looks & OEM bbl. band FE for serious work.

You may want to check out the accuracy of the bbl. band set-up before any surgery. Of course the large bore of the .45-70 bbl. will probably be "stiffer" than the .22 Hornet. The science of "harmonics" remains a mystery to me.

Henry

[Cheshire Dave]

Thanks guys for the ideas. If I have the barrel re-bored I will have months to work on the stock. Although the point about seeing how well it shoots with the barrel band is a good one. I guess I should hold off and see how it shoots before I do anything drastic. I just had a hard time finding pictures on the internet you would think there would be a bunch of examples of people reworking number 3 fore ends.

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[missionary5155]

Good morning
Just yesterday I had to remind myself.. "If it is not broke do not fix it".
Mike in Peru