American Airguns Blog
The Random Ramblings Of An Airgun Addict

After months of work and much agonizing about the stain color and butt pad, I finally finished my TX200 target stock. This project started earlier this year when I sent a target stock pattern I designed to Mike Abernathy. Mike rough cut the outline of my pattern and the in-letting and then sent it back to me for final forming and finishing.

During the course of all this happening my wife and I decided to sell our house and build another. We spent a month preparing our home for sale and then had to move within a few weeks of selling it. I managed to get the base form down and sent the stock back to Mike to copy so he had a pattern for a target stock. I also spent a few weeks trying to finds an adequate stain to get the red color I wanted. What I was finding was that the laminated stock blank that was used didn't accept stain very well. The stain I tried all turned out really dark. Lesson learned on laminated stocks, get the color you want from the manufacturer before you start the stock. I settled on using spray paint as a stain.

I had the stock ready to stain and finish when I decided to look at other butt pad options. I had a really nice Anchutz hook butt on a .22 rifle that I owned and a spare older model hook butt sitting on a shelf in pieced. I gave the hook butt a try and really liked it. Unfortunately the stock would have to be cut down a bit to get the right length of pull. Back to the shop again and a week later I was ready to finish the stock and start shooting.

To apply the spray paint stain, I sprayed on a bit of stain, let it set for 10-15 seconds and then wipe off excess paint. I found it best to spray small areas and only do it once. If the stain was a bit light in color, it was better to respray it after the paint had dried. After getting the stain applied, I used Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil for the finish and used Jim Macarris directions for his London Oil to apply it to the stock. This gave a really nice finish but then I took the additional step of applying a coat of Birchwood Casey Stock Sheen & Conditioner to give the stock a really nice satin finish.

I am really pleased with how the stock turned out. I had a few places where the color isn't perfectly even but it won't affect how I shoot with it. The stock design fits me very well and shoots well off my knee. I have a TX200 MkI 12 ft. lbs. action in the stock and plan to shoot with it next year. It took me the better part of the year to complete this project and I really enjoyed it. It was very satisfying to see how it turned out after such a long time.