I bought this 300 in Germany last year. It was in A1 condition except for some twang. I was fortunate enough to get some JM high power springs which he made on a custom run last year. I was saving my last one for a special piece and installed it in this gun along with a new bumper, seals and piston ring. I used regular moly on the piston/cylinder and just a dab of tar on the spring itself. The gun shot great and puts out around 700fps very consistently which is all I want. I'm going to put this action in a walnut tyro stock this winter but needed something work on so I decided to re-do the beech stock which was a bland, chocolate brown with all the figure hidden under the factory stain.
First thing is to sand the stock all the way down to clean wood. One needs to be careful to not change any angles or contours, especially around the inletted portions. I do these by hand usually with a block.
I've had several of these and one in particular had suffered a crack through the pistol grip. Since I am going to use this as a field piece, I thought I'd reinforce the pistol grip.
For this, I use a 1/2" forstner bit to flatten a spot in the inside rear of the back of the gun.
Here's where the flat is.
I use a 6" x 1/8" drill and drill all the way down through the grip being careful to not come out through the bottom.
I then use a 5" Stainless Steel wood screw which I dip in glue before driving it into the grip. I used to use Gorilla Glue but I now use Sumo which foams much less. I like to scruff up the screw with a steel wirebrush to rough it up. This is what happens when obsessive engineers have too much time on their hand.
Now the stock is ready for some color. Because this was bland bleech, I usually give it a base coat of cordovan shoe dye cut 50/50 with 118 proof grappa. The grappa goes good over ice too.
The red base coat looks very red at first
but once it's dry, I like to sand it down with 400 grit to soften it up, then I give it two coats of walnut stain. I use Iron Mountain Forge stains which penetrate very deeply, especially in dense woods like beech. This stain is designed for maple and is what the flintlockers use on their pieces.
Once the grain is dry, I give is at least 5 coats of Permalyn sealer, again blackpowder stuff, very thin, designed for maple and it soaks in well. Once dry, the maroon pad comes out and the piece is buffed down to remove all traces of the permalyn. I like the finish to be in the wood not on it. The finish is topcoated with several coats of Johnson's paste wax and buffed.
Almost done, the last thing to do is to clean off the stippling with an old toothbrush and some grappa. The grip is then carefully taped off and shot with flat black paint.
This is Moe and Larry. They hang out right outside my workshop. They seem to like Mozart more than Bach.
This is Bugs III. He prefers classic Delta Blues and some Townes Van Zandt. Go figure.
Here's the FWB all rolled together. It's fitted with a Gerhold 3 x 7 on 5030 mounts which is a great sight for this gun. Just clears the loading port.
You can see that the beech doesn't have much figure but the red base and walnut top coat bring out what little it has.
I used a JM bbl sleeve which a friend painted for me in flat black. Topped it off with an Apex break to hide the front sight groove.
The gun shoots very well. Today was a sleepy kind of day so I took a little peanut butter and smeared it on a piece of paper and set it out at 60 feet. I have several tupperware sandwich boxes packed with a couple lbs of monkey sheet set up around the yard at 25, 40, 60 and 100 feet. They make handy silent traps
Took this nice fly this afternoon.
Looks like a head shot...
Cheers
<>< Think Straight Shoot Straight
