Should I slim down or leave as is

[marcusb]

I bought a plain hunting rifle for a good price last year. It was bright pumpkin orange heavily coated with poly coating/stain and showed little figure. I scraped the stock down and mixed up some home made stain. I was happy with the results but now I am second guessing myself. I think there are a couple areas that I could have slimmed down more i left it a little thick thinking it was going to get beat up. What do you guys think, should I refinish or leave it and hunt?

Heres it is currently

[BillPac]

Marcusb
The only thing that jumps out to me is that there is a lot of barrel down in the wood.  It would look much thinner if 1/2 or slightly more of the side flat was exposed.  Hard to see much because of the angle and distance of the photos.
BillP

[ERH]

its hard to tell from the pic. That is a very nice peace of wood!!!!!!!!!WOW

[Acer Saccharum]

Your build pictured might be a tad heavy, but not anything that is worth scrubbing the whole thing down for. Top line of the comb has a slightly odd bow to it. You'd have to re-nlet the buttplate. So where do you start, and where do you stop on the re-work?

You have a nice gun. I'd leave it alone, and build another gun. Fix all your 'mistakes' on the next gun.

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

You said it a hunting gun. Does it shoot good? I think it look pretty nice for what it is. Not my favorite style, but if it was mine, I'd leave it as is. After it's had many hunts on it and starts looking like a garden tool, then fix it.

[Swampwalker]

I would give it some time - down the road you might want to do some additional shaping and carving, add a patchbox, etc.  At this point, it's pretty much a blank canvas.

[Vomitus]

  Winter project!

[kutter]

Just thinning the forend as already pointed out by relieving the wood on the side flats of the bbl to 1/2 way or a bit more.
If the ramrod pipes aren't uncovered to just under 1/2 their depth,,I'd do that too.

That'll allow you to slim the forend profile as it will leave a wide  flat of wood along side the bbl for the entire length from the first operation and a smaller similar shelf along the ramrod cut..

What a nice piece of wood.  I'd figure the extra time & effort would be worth it for that.

Bright Pumkin Orange & a Poly finish over the top of that,,, and to think someone stood back, admired and was satisfied with the result.
Nice save....

[Roger Fisher]

You said it a hunting gun. Does it shoot good? I think it look pretty nice for what it is. Not my favorite style, but if it was mine, I'd leave it as is. After it's had many hunts on it and starts looking like a garden tool, then fix it.

I'll second and third that motion/notion.