Richard's Stock?

[psm207]

Anyone using a Richard's Microfit stock on their ML10? I am considering changing to a Monte Carlo design.

[jims]

I have a Richard's Exhibition grade on a Savage MLII I have. I had them put the Decelerator recoil pad on at the plant. I glass bedded it and have two pillars added. It shoots well.
I did not put the ramrod grove in or a sling. As I recall I ordered a short action Savage stock ,and opened the barrel channel and filled in the magazine well.

[psm207]

According to Richard's Microfit, they can cut the ML10 (Savage 10 SA/ BBL). I am highly considering a Monte Carlo design, because I am tall and find most factory stocks do not fit me well. I know that typically a Monte Carlo has more drop at the heel, along with a pitch change. I wish that Richard's had the stock dimensions available, so I can compare and make my decision.

[nemohunter]

i dont have a Richards for my Savage but i do own a few for other guns. they make a very nice stock if you like to finish your own. the only real down fall is the wait time to get one. order ti and forget about as it were.
they come anywhere from just abit of sanding to need a LOT of sanding to get them ready for finish. heres af few pics of some of my Richards stocks.

[rossman40]

Richard's has been around a long time and was like the first to offer a thumbhole stock. Supposedly Richard's got it's big break working with Weatherby and Winslow.

Of course the whole gunstock industry is like a soap opera. You start off in Warsaw, MO with Rienhart Fajen and his buddy down the road E.C. Bishop. Fajen started to pick up OEM work from Winchester and other gun manufactuers and shared the work with Bishop. Fajen spun off a flooring division (still operating) and the OEM work (Fajen had like 4 plants that did nothing but OEM work) turned into S&K gunstocks (also still operating and the largest maker of wooden riflestocks, supposedly the Boyd brothers were involved somehow with Fajen on the OEM side and started up on their own in the early 80s) so he could take it easy and concentrate on custom work. I think he would work all year on stocks for the annual NRA and then the SHOT show. He then merged/bought out Bishop. Then Rienhart Fajen got sick and died and Larry Potterfield (MidwayUSA) stepped in and bought Fajen gunstocks and thought the way to do it was to modernize the operation and bought all new equipment and ended up driving it into the ground. Fred Wenig (Fajens righthand man) bought some the old equipment and started on his own and the rest of Fajen gunstocks was auctioned off in like 99 with the majority of the fancy new equipment being bought up by Boyd's and Richard's along with like thousands of patterns designed by Fajen and Bishop. Potterfield still owns the Fajen and Bishop trademarks but the Fajen stocks now being made are made by outsourcing. With the increased capacity from acquiring new equipment Boyd's and Richard's has stepped up to fill the void. Boyd's has played around some with the OEM side and the brothers have recently split into a OEM and commercial division and a now trimmed custom gunstock division. Richard's has been on the quite side but now provides a lot of the smaller stock makers (like Elk River) with inletted blanks both laminate and fancy wood. The big winner,, Rutland Plywood,, all the gunstock laminate regardless of who makes the stock comes from that little town in Vermont.

[reelnellie]

Rossman40 - Really interesting. Excellent information. Thanks for sharing.

[rossman40]

For all you young ones that never heard of a Winslow rifle,,



Not mine

[Rifleman]

That is funny you brought up the Winslow, just last week a guy had work came to me and said he had a Winslow he had inherited from his father. It had been stolen and just recovered and it was a little banged up, he was looking for somewhere to get it refinished. I had to think awhile before I remembered a reference to the Winslows in an old Shooters Bible, 1978 I believe ( got it for christmas as a kid). They were really cool looking rifles. Always reminded me of a Weatherby gone wild.

[rossman40]

The finish on a Winslow is one of a kind much like the blueing. Winslow moved from Florida to S. Carolina and I think is still in operation as a custom shop. Tell your buddy it would be best to have it refinished by Winslow if not I would not have it refinished at all, specially if it was one of the fancier grades.