Six weeks after I returned my brand-new Ruger No. 1 for replacement of a broken stock, the UPS man brought my gun back to me.
I’ll admit opened the box with some apprehension; a friend and fellow blogger had a horrible experience with Ruger’s repair department and warned me to expect disappointment. What’s more, I’d gone to some trouble (and put Bitter through a bit of trouble) to get a rifle with a pretty stock in the first place, and I was afraid the replacement wouldn’t match up to the quality of the original wood.
My fears were unfounded. Here’s the left side of the new stock:
And even nicer, the right side:
Still photos really don’t do it justice; the feather grain is iridescent and almost dazzling under strong light. Click here for a little animated GIF that shows what I mean. You just don’t see wood like this on production guns very often.
So, let me send out a big “Thank You!” to Ruger for handling this situation well and fitting such a beautiful stock. I’m a happy customer.
That’s a nice frickin’ piece of lumber right there.
Given good walnut prices these days, I would not be surprised to learn that the stock makes up as much as a quarter or more of the price of a new No.1…
Holy moley!
That is gorgeous.
How well does it color match to the fore end? That’s always a problem when partially restocking 2 piece stocks.
The stock and forend match pretty nicely. I’ll have to take some more pix on a day with good natural light. As you can see, I shot those pics with artificial light and had a lot of trouble with glare.
Beautiful figure in that wood. I’d have to drape blankets over the shooting and cleaning benches every time a used something that nice.
very nice!