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Old 12-30-2014, 11:32 PM
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model70hunter model70hunter is offline
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Location: Sante Fe Trail, Kansas
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At one time I lived close to both factories. I have stopped in Fajens and bought a AAA factory 2nd, chip in the fancy grain, filled it in and they were nice. I stopped in ine time and asked Fred if he had a AAA stock for a Parker A grade shotgun. He went to an isle and stopped at a bin on the end. He pulled out a beautiful piece of wood. He said they had made it for a guy years before but he never followed up. Best 20 bucks I ever spent.

I personally liked Fajens, mostly because of the manager Fred.

I have used Bishop stocks but they have a lot of excess wood to remove.

A friend of mine worked at Fajens inletting stocks and finishing them on customer guns.

Both made stocks for gun manufacturers. Some of you older Browning or Ruger buyers will remember the old "SALT" wood guns. Salt wood is great for furniture as a curing process. If used in guns the salt goes to the metal and eats it away.

I bought a Ruger #1 new. When cleaning it I noticed something under the wood. I took the wood off and it looked like it had been in the ocean. Rusty nasty pits.

Can you say livid? I called Ruger and asked to speak with Bill Ruger about this. HE was on the phone very quickly. He opened said hi and where are you calling from. I said Missouri. He immediately disarmed my frustrations with, well it's your MO walnut that caused this. He went on to explain that a fellow had salt cured a ton of MO Walnut for the furniture market and the company failed leaving him stuck with it. He also sold kiln dried wood to Fajen and Bishop, mostly Fajen who made stocks for many companies,he just without telling them sent in a bunch of salt cured wood.

Bill had me call the plant and ask for the manager, tell him we talked and he will set you up. I got back a #1 with the most awesome wood ever on a #1.

The folks that said either stock will not increase the guns value are right if it is just a stock. IF it has fancy grain or was specially bedded it maybe worth more. I was never a fan of the 700 pressed checkering dipped in urathane look so to me either brand well done is an improvement.

The pendulum may have swung back the other way on guns with a replacement stock. The last time I was at Cabelas they had written Custom Gun on replacement wood guns, and they were priced much higher than a similar straight factory gun. To my eye they were not custom.

Last edited by model70hunter; 12-30-2014 at 11:34 PM.
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