Fine Shotguns by John M. Taylor

Author:John M. Taylor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2015-03-02T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

Shotgun Stocks—Wood, Wood, Wood!

When talking about shotguns with fine-gun dealers and the gunsmiths who work with those guns, I always ask them what American shooters, collectors, and hunters tend to look for in shotguns. Without hesitation, all agree that fine wood is important to prospective buyers. Certainly, the name on the gun is more important, but the fact is that many Best guns from the late 19th and early 20th centuries have excellent English or French walnut, but not of the high figuration we Americans have come to expect from our native black walnut.

Gunstocks have been made from just about anything, from molded plastic, to aluminum, to hardwoods such as screwbean mesquite and oak, to God only knows what else. I once received a letter from someone looking for a part for an inexpensive gun, for which none existed, and he further stated that the previous owner had begun making a stock from hickory wood. At one time in the 1950s and 1960s, maple was all the rage. Hard maple works well, but it takes a certain taste to like it on a shotgun. Be that as it may, walnut is and always will be the prime gunstock wood.

In the genus Juglans, there are more than forty different species of walnut found throughout the world. The finest walnut is Juglans regia, the royal form of European walnut that is grown throughout Europe. Called French, English, Spanish, Circassian, Bastogne, and several other names, it is the prime gunstock wood. Two world wars raged across much of the Juglans regia growing area, including the Ardennes Forest, where two vicious World War II battles were fought. Beyond that, trees were cut wholesale to make military rifle stocks during those wars, and it’s not unusual to encounter a G98 Mauser with a AAA-special grade stock. While some high-grade walnut is still harvested in Europe, prime walnut today comes from Turkey and surrounding areas of Asia Minor. One of the selling points of guns made in Turkey is, in fact, their great wood.

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