lodge pole pine stock

[Gary Rad]

Has anybody ever heard of making a stock out of lodge pole pine. I was on a hunting trip out west and some of the dead pines had very interesting grain in them. Just wondering

[Bill Raby]

Seems like it would be too soft.

[Jerry V Lape]

Too soft and the remaining strength through the lock/breech area would be poor.  There are lots of other better wood choices available at very low cost if that is your issue. 

[Eric Krewson]

I have made a bunch of arrows out of tight grain lodgepole pine, it is about the same density as poplar.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Over the years, I have made four sets of tipi poles out of lodgepole pipe.  Excellent, stiff, hard poles, but useless as a stock wood...sorry.

[54ball]

 I have heard of at least 2 originals stocked in pine, a Appalachian Rifle and supposedly a Pennsylvania. To date after about 10 years of pretty heavy study, all I Find on these "Pine Rifles" is rumor. Stuff like..... One used to be in a museum in Pennsylvania or the very ambiguous ....At least a few were stocked in hard Soithern Pine, but alas....no real proof.
 Some of the plainer and unusual stock woods may can be mistaken for pine.

 I have no idea what Lodge pole pine is. I do know fast growing hybrids grow into small tall poles if not thinned.
 I only know of one pine species that may be suitable for a stock....the Longleaf or Yellow Southern Pine.
 A great Longleaf Pine forest stretched from Virginia to Texas in the coastal plain. These were massive trees. So old and so massive that some were harder than Oak. Lumber like this has not been available for at least 75 years. It ought to tell you something, with so much "good pine" available historically virtually no rifles exist stocked in this wood other than rumor.
 So to get the "right pine" means using reclaimed or sunken wood. Both being historical and both being expensive.
 In the end it may be a shame to ruin a historical piece of pine or.....go though all the effort and find the rifle substandard.
 It's interesting to a point but a gamble.

[Joe S.]

Way to soft as said,yellow pine?very unstable if its the same yellow pine used for decking material.That stuff goes wacky woo just looking at it.Its not old growth timber however.

[WadePatton]

... I was on a hunting trip out west and some of the dead pines had very interesting grain in them...

Some of the tightest curl and interesting grains and colors I've seen in green or fresh killed wood (the colors fade quickly, and the woods weather away fastly if left in the wilds) are squishy Soft maple, Boxelder, and Yellow Poplar.  There can be blues and reds in the Boxelder and curl, Soft maple can develop the tightest curl I've ever seen (more than once) 'round here, and Poplar can have some purples and reds and blues and greens deep in the logs as you work them.

All beautiful woods*, but quite useless for hanging gun parts from-especially when the rest of the forest is Hard Maple, Cherry, Walnut, Ash, Oaks, Persimmon, Butternut, Sassafras, etc.  This particular bit of the South is where Eastern Redcedar dominates and pine is mostly planted, and not naturally distributed, hence my unfamiliarity with most of them.

You might try Ash for a challenge, correct, and highly educational (as in teach the shop dog some new swear words). 



*I do realize that many are "stabilizing" these pithy and soft woods (Boxelder especially) in order to make them into useful things (they stain them funky as well). That'd be fine for a modern or deep fantasy gun. But thankfully we don't do that here-but also I'm sure there's a FB group for it! 

[Joe S.]

Seems like subjects get revisited from time to time,its a good thing,fresh ideas sometimes.On this one however,there's a reason we don't see firearms of old stocked in such woods.Not to say it wasn't tried but the cream always rises to the top so to say.History has a way of weeding out stuff that dosnt work well just like evolution.

[deepcreekdale]

I have seen several rifles stocked in pine here in Florida while researching local gunmakers. Most appear to be from the late 1800's or so. I do have one odd ball rifle with a brass barrel inserted into an old flint pistol barrel with an obviously home made percussion lock that is stocked in pine. One thing to remember, the long leaf yellow pine available today is not like what was originally available in the 18th and 19th century. Pine trees can grow for 500 years, none of these trees remain and the original pine forests bore no resemblance to the commercial timber operations of today. Original  long leaf pine is incredibly hard, dense and heavy. Most of it was harvested for ship timbers. I have seen original boards of pine that it is literally impossible to drive a nail into it because it is so hard and dense. The original guns I have seen are quite plain, very heavy and were obviously utility grade for use around the farm. Not really attractive or desirable but only interesting for their historical provenance.

[taco650]

Since I am from Eastern OR where lodge pole pine is abundant I will chime in.  It's a smaller pine, not nearly as big as ponderosa, and harder with tighter grain.  Trees are generally very straight but as others have mentioned, its not as hard as maple, oak, walnut, etc.  Douglas Fir is stronger and if you can find some old growth, it would make a decent stock I would think.

Lodge pole was used by Native Americans to for their teepees.

[Hungry Horse]

A gun stocked in pine would be a good pearing for a guy that already has a rubber crutch. But, that being said my grandpa said when he was young he, and a cousin, stocked an old broken muzzleloader with a piece of dogwood.

  Hungry Horse

[JBJ]

Guys,
Please go to the following URL and check out the species of interest (in this case lodgepole pine):
http://www.wood-database.com/lodgepole-pine/
In addition to the technical aspects of wood properties, read through the comments section for this species. You may want to bookmark the site for future reference as discussions about wood quality seems to come up with some regularity on the Forum.

The site is searchable and you can obtain a wealth of information concerning woods that you might be tempted to consider as stock wood. Dogwood is a far cry from lodgepole and, if you could find a large enough piece, would certainly be dense enough and strong enough to serve as a stock. It would have to be an out and out matter of desperation for this old man to consider a pine stock of any persuasion.
J.B.