To blend or not to blend.. that is the question.

[John Nagel]

I just purchased a DHE 16 and the stock fits me much beyond my expectations. It is a straight grip with SST and the stock has an extension on it that seems to be well done and ends at a non peroid correct rubber pad.

I am trying to decide whether to have the stock blended or not and am hoping to hear opinions of folks who have maybe done it and we're pleased or regretted it.

I will post photos soon.

[Harold Lee Pickens]

Looking forward to seeing pictures--I have a DHE 16 w/ straight grip that weighs 6 lbs . what length barrels ? There are some talented guys out there that could probably make you happy, Mark Larson out in Oregon comes to mind--he has a nice website, Google it.
Finding any grouse in Ohio?? I hunt Belmont, Jefferson, and Monroe counties and find very few birds, and decline to shoot those I find, but doubt my conservation efforts would have any effect.

[Brian Dudley]

Even the best stock “painting” jobs only look good from 3 feet away. The result is much like the look of tenite stocks on Stevens/Savage guns. It looks like plastic and sometimes can lack fine detail.
The end result IS worth the money for what you get as opposed to the alternative. It just does not pass for the real thing.
All my opinion of course.

[John Nagel]

http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=714&pictureid=9743

http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=714&pictureid=9745

http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=714&pictureid=9746

http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=714&pictureid=9739

http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=714&pictureid=9744

[John Nagel]

Looking forward to seeing pictures--I have a DHE 16 w/ straight grip that weighs 6 lbs . what length barrels ? There are some talented guys out there that could probably make you happy, Mark Larson out in Oregon comes to mind--he has a nice website, Google it.
Finding any grouse in Ohio?? I hunt Belmont, Jefferson, and Monroe counties and find very few birds, and decline to shoot those I find, but doubt my conservation efforts would have any effect.


I have never hunted Grouse in Ohio. I am actually living in northern Michigan now. I have heard that SE Ohio used to be wonderful when all the farms in the hills were overgrowing. I was in athens last year and I don't know that I saw a single spot of secondary growth forest.

My barrels are 28" how about yours? Would love to see your gun as well. What adorns your floor plate?

John

[John Campbell]

This is just my opinion, but if this were my gun, I'd send it off to Mark Larson for some wood graining magic and a more appropriate red/Silvers type pad.

I guarantee you that when Mark is finished, YOU will be the only person who knows that the buttstock actually has an extension.

Mark just finished up a Churchill stock for me, and will ship it after the Holiday. He's done others for me with outstanding results.

[Mark Beasland]

If I was doing it I would redo the extension with a better matching piece of wood and original butt plate.

Look at several examples of who ever is doing the work. Quality varies wildly . Dennis Earl Smith is the best I have seen.

[Harold Lee Pickens]

Well, you are in good grouse country now! I spent 16 days in the UP this fall. My DHE 16 has 26" cyl/m barrels on the O frame.
Very nice gun of yours, but certainly think I would do something about that extension also. Look at Mark Larson's website.
Oh yeah, mine has the flying turnips( ducks) on the floorplate

[Garth Gustafson]

Recently I bought a GH that also had a stock that had been cut way down. I considered having an extension added to it but I wanted it to be right and in the end I opted to spend $2k for a new buttstock and have it done by one of our members. I got the wood I wanted, the gun fits me perfectly and am very happy the way it turned out. In your situation, you could have a SSBP installed and the gun would really stand out. I just feel these high quality guns are heirlooms and deserve to be as correct as possible. Cheers!

[Mark Ray]

Before and after 3” extension on a 20 bore lindner daly.
Mark does nice work


59161

59162

[Rich Anderson]

Grouse hunter where in northern Mich are you?

[Garry L Gordon]

I have never hunted Grouse in Ohio. I am actually living in northern Michigan now. I have heard that SE Ohio used to be wonderful when all the farms in the hills were overgrowing. I was in athens last year and I don't know that I saw a single spot of secondary growth forest.


John

John, after reading your post and Harold's reference to Ohio grouse, I couldn't help responding, even though my comments are off the original topic. I went to school in Athens (many, many years ago) and continued to go back to hunt grouse for years around Nelsonville/Athens until the bird numbers dropped too much to justify the drive from Missouri. I miss so much my Ohio grouse coverts. I remember 25 flush days and lots of places to hunt with decent grouse habitat. Like so many other things related to hunting, "those were the days..."

Thanks to both of you gentlemen for bringing this up.

[allen newell]

From 1978 to 1985, we lived in Southern Ohio (Minford) about fifteen miles north of Portsmouth. Had a nice dutch colonial with five acres on top of Rases Mountain. I could literally walk out the back door and hunt grouse and woodcock all day long with my setter. Had some of the best grouse hunting in those years while there on a project with S&W Eng'rg Corp. Best years for my wife and two daughters. Great environment

[Gary Rennles]

If it were my gun, I would try having it blended.
No added wood will ever match the original grain flow.
The right person can make that look nice.

Before blending and shaping.

http://www.jpgbox.com/jpg/53204_600x400.jpg[/URL][


After blending

http://www.jpgbox.com/jpg/53205_600x400.jpg[/URL][/IMG]

[Paul Harm]

I would cut it off and put on, or have someone put on a piece of wood that matches it much more closely. There are people who have a selection of wood that would come real close.

[John Campbell]

As I suggested early on, you might want to consider the talents of Mark Larson. He has become the premiere stock grainer of the US trade.

https://www.marklarsongunart.com

Below are before-and-after photos of a Churchill buttstock that Mark recently completed for me. Judge for yourself:

[Tom Flanigan]

Stock bending works but you have to take your chances. I have had it done a few times, but one of those times the stock cracked through the grip. I'd be careful with very old guns. The gun that cracked was a high condition early DH that had about 98% original color. A real rarity. Cracked stocks can be fixed but it is better to leave very old guns alone, in my opinion.

[allen newell]

We lived in southern ohio for 7 yrs while i was on a project for Stone & Webster. The grouse and woodcock hunting just north of Portsmouth, around Minford and in Pike County was terrific. As good in my opinion as maine, NH and Mich/Minn.

[Tom Flanigan]

Good grouse cover usually has about a 20 year life and then the second growth grows into trees and the grouse numbers diminish in most areas. Many of those old great grouse coverts were the result of overgrown orchards, farms and areas that had been logged in the past. If the area is selectively logged, the grouse cover remains. If not, it goes to forest. The key is to find areas with a lot of second growth, thick cover and most importantly, vegetation that provides a lot of food such as bayberries and fox grapes in the east.

Grouse congregate in these areas and you don't have to walk a mile for a shot such as you have to in less viable areas.

[Garry L Gordon]

We lived in southern ohio for 7 yrs while i was on a project for Stone & Webster. The grouse and woodcock hunting just north of Portsmouth, around Minford and in Pike County was terrific. As good in my opinion as maine, NH and Mich/Minn.

Allen,

I hunted those same areas for years, but, alas, the "environmentalists" have long since put an end to tree cutting. I quit hunting Southern and Southeastern Ohio some years back. It's really sad what "loving trees to death" can do to grouse habitat.

[allen newell]

Sorry to hear that