On another thread I mentioned that while I love Ruger No. 1s, I hate the bilge brown color Ruger paints them. Shown the pic below, note that the 375 H&H enjoyed a stock swap as well as a refinish in the classic English Red.
So here's how I do it.
1. First the wood need to be stripped bare. I use an aircraft grade stripper than will take off anything. Then you need to wash with warm water and Dawn. Rinse, rinse, rinse !
2. Next you need to bleach it. I use the Zimmer 2 part (Amazon). It may take several applications to get the wood blond. Again the wash and rise along with Vinegar to neutralize the bleach.
3. Now wet sand GENTLY with 220/320/400 and tack it off well.
4. After trying many stains, Varathane oil based Cabernet (Amazon) works well if wood is light. If it's darker, I add some Keda powder dye (Amazon) in red to the mix.
5. Final finish is up to you. Any oil based finish will further darken. I like glossy and have progressed from MinWax spray spar varnish to spray urethane and now to automotive clear coat
6. A final rubout with Brownells 5F followed by carnuba auto wax completes the job.
In progress now is a 1B stock that looked like this
and a 700 Classic stock (factory epoxy finish --- yuk) that is soaking up stain like a sponge.
When they're done I'll post pics.