Hunting Stock Guru on 22 Mar 2007 05:41 am
How to tell difference between inletted and semi inletted stocks?
zmneuro asked:
I acquired several sporter stocks for large ring Mauser from gunsmith’s estate. Some are finished, most are not. Want to keep few of them to restock my guns and sell the rest. I want to give accurate description. How can I tell if the stock is fully or semi inletted? Some seems to have precisely cut channels, and some some have rough cut. Yet, when I try to press fit one of my barreled actions into that stock, there is not enough room. Please advise. Thank you.
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I acquired several sporter stocks for large ring Mauser from gunsmith’s estate. Some are finished, most are not. Want to keep few of them to restock my guns and sell the rest. I want to give accurate description. How can I tell if the stock is fully or semi inletted? Some seems to have precisely cut channels, and some some have rough cut. Yet, when I try to press fit one of my barreled actions into that stock, there is not enough room. Please advise. Thank you.
on 24 Mar 2007 at 11:41 am 1.CIH(Ret) said …
A fully inletted stock is one that you can esentially drop your barreled action into wiht only a small amount of final sanding or adjusting. It may or may not be stained and varnished. Some are fully inletted but unfinished meaning that they are not stained and varnished. Others are fully inletted and finished. A semi inletted stock will have most, if not all, of the channels and openings cut for the barreled action but will still need siginifcant rasping, filing and sanding to get the barreled action to fit properly. The semi inletted stock is not finished on the outside and often is only rough shaped. These stocks will be of interest only to the more accomlished home gunsmith or professional gun stocker.
If you want to use any of the stocks for your own use, I sugggest that you carefully cull them and select the fully inleted stocks having the prettiest grain. You might want to keep at least one semi inletted stock just to play with to learn how to inlet a stock. You might also want to go to your local library and find a book on gunsmithing. There is usually a chapter or two on stock work. Another good source for gunsmithing books is,, or.