Making The Best of California Laws

Alisdad · #1 04-27-2017, 03:01 AM

With the addition of yet another set of crazy new California laws (related to semi auto rifles) I figured it was time to make the best of what many of you would consider just straight left maddness. I've owned a mini 30 for about 20 years. Over time the rifle had morphed from a wood stock to Hogue over molded stock, to a pistol grip ATI stock. I really liked the ATI stock and found it was a comfortable and enjoyable platform for this rifle. Then came the new laws in CA and I found myself with an illegal weapon. Since I had the original wood stock (which had bumps and bruises from regular use) I decided it was time to introduce my 10 year old to the fun of refinishing a stock. What did I have to lose? I had the Hogue on standby and the best case scenario was my son put his best efforts into refinishing this thing. The result was pure enjoyment with a young gun enthusiast, taking the gun apart and starting from scratch. He picked mahogany stain and stripped and sanded the stock. We applied a couple coats of stain to his preference and went with a tung oil finish. We tried to make a mini 14 wood handguard work but we found better luck with the ATI handguard (25 bucks lost, but part of the fun). Plus we got to keep our forward mounted red dot without additional cost. It took us about a month to complete, since we had school and work getting in the way. The end result wasnt perfect, but i will proudly hunt and shoot with it. Our next attempts may be on his 10/22 and his older sisters m1carbine. California laws may be crazy, but in this case I think they have made a young shooter more invested in the sport.