Pine Stocked Rifle

[shortbarrel]

I saw a pine stock rifle at one of our club shoots years back He was a new member and  one of his relatives gave an it to him. He had sanded of part of the finish and I saw it was pine wood. Was a well made plane old rifle. Wood work was very good and and the rifle had never been altered, This got me to thinking, so I spent al lot of time testing woods. Pine with its white and resign wood won out for a gun stock. Got good figure to. Made two rifles years age out of pine wood, They are still as sound as the day I made them. The trick is learning to work the resign and white wood into a stock. 

[Bob Roller]

There have been imported muzzle loaders that looked like pine and were
referred to as brass&pine rifles.
Bob Roller

[sz]

Well I can't see why you could not do it.  Pine is soft and so you would not want something of a very heavy caliber or the end grain might compress, but not all "pines" are weak.  There are a lot of different types of pine. Yellow pine is very hard as far as pine woods go.

One alternative might be spruce.  It';s actually quite strong and still pretty light.  That's why Howard Hughes had the famous "Spruce goose' framed with it.

Another "non-gun wood" which could probably work is cedar.  Makes good arrows, so it might be ok for a gun too.

[Daryl]

It is (apparently) common to find pine with  the hardness of some walnuts, however that really isn't saying much.

[shortbarrel]

These rifles were made from hard yellow pine. Dennis was kind enough to put pictures of these rifles on here, some years back.  I looked  but  could not find them. If someone is interested enough and more literate of this site than I am, they might be found.

[rich pierce]

It’s a fair bit of work to stock a rifle from a blank. It’s extra work when wood is soft because the inletting takes more care and therefore time. I’m trying to imagine the situation where I’d use pine of any kind to stock a gun but it’s not coming to me. Each to their own; we all find different ways to make life fun and interesting.

[t.caster]

I'm with Rich, it would be a total bugger to inlet anything into! Don't care how scary sharp your tools are.

[Gaeckle]

I have an old antique stock that is pine. It is a halfstock, I got it from a good friend that only wanted the lock, a side slapper. He left me th a barrel, that was re-rifled and put into another stock. It was stocked in the poor boy fashion, no butplate.

[tooguns]

I have an old antique stock that is pine. It is a halfstock, I got it from a good friend that only wanted the lock, a side slapper. He left me th a barrel, that was re-rifled and put into another stock. It was stocked in the poor boy fashion, no butplate.

Do you have any pictures of this pine stock. I'd like to see it if possible. Thank you.

[Dave B]

I was shown a bring home  by a GI from WWII cut in half to stuff into his duffle. He reassemled it once back after the war. It was the only one I have ever seen made from pine. Not sure if it was a last ditch job like the Japs made.  Very interesting. I have a German take down gamekeepers flint lock that looks like it could be a fruit wood, pear maybe but now this conversation makes me want to look again. it is very yellow in color maybe pine???. It had some repair work done to it at some point and the patches in the forend are oak..What were they thinking?

[alacran]

Pinyon pine, (Pinus Edulis) is a very slow growing pine in the Southwest US.  It can be very dense. That being said I can not see any reason to use it or any other pine to build a rifle. I have worked with Southern Yellow mostly Loblolly pine and have inlet locks into doors made from it. Very time consuming to do stain grade work with it.

[Stophel]

Suitable gunstock wood is readily available.  Why on earth anyone would use any kind of pine (or many of these "other" woods that people desire to use just to be different) is beyond me.

[Stophel]

I also have to doubt many people's ability to correctly identify wood.

[Daryl]

Suitable gunstock wood is readily available.  Why on earth anyone would use any kind of pine (or many of these "other" woods that people desire to use just to be different) is beyond me.

Exactly!

[Eric Krewson]

I see it all the time in the bow making world, to many people wood is wood, they don't make a distinction between species because they just don't know. There is a guy out there who has made a bunch of shooter pine bows, not my cup of tea but I am not the one making his bows.

[Craig Wilcox]

For those that just want something different, you might try Larch (Larix laricina).  It is a tough, durable wood, and does have some beauty in the grain.

Larch is a coniferous tree, with pine cones and needles.  But it is also a deciduous tree, meaning that it sheds it's needles in the fall, like leaves of many other trees do.

Native peoples used it for snowshoes, and probably some bows.  It has been used to corduroy roads, due to it's non-rotting characteristics.  And, I believe it was also used to mark the NW corner of sections in Canada for some time - almost a permanent marker.

I have made cabinets from it, and it proved to be an attractive wood overall.  But I personally will stick to the more traditional maple and walnut.

[shortbarrel]

These two rifles were made from a 2 by 10 pine board from Lowes Hardware. Wood was left in the attic for 2 years to season. The reason I made these 2 rifles was to test my inletting skill.  It took time and patents.. Thanks everyone for there post. I turned 85 two days ago.

[Gaeckle]

I have an old antique stock that is pine. It is a halfstock, I got it from a good friend that only wanted the lock, a side slapper. He left me th a barrel, that was re-rifled and put into another stock. It was stocked in the poor boy fashion, no butplate.

Do you have any pictures of this pine stock. I'd like to see it if possible. Thank you.

Here are some pictures

[Gaeckle]

Suitable gunstock wood is readily available.  Why on earth anyone would use any kind of pine (or many of these "other" woods that people desire to use just to be different) is beyond me.

Exactly!

They were very frugal people, they used what was available or what they could afford. When they slaughtered a pig, the only thing they didn't use was the squeal.

[Dennis Glazener]

These rifles were made from hard yellow pine. Dennis was kind enough to put pictures of these rifles on here, some years back.  I looked  but  could not find them. If someone is interested enough and more literate of this site than I am, they might be found.

ok I found them but Photobucket has its logo on them.
Dennis

https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=31547.msg302713#msg302713

[tooguns]

Thank you Gaeckle, I find these very interesting, thanks again.

[heinz]

I just built a workbench out of Southern Yellow Pine.  It is hard and as the resin dries it keeps getting harder.  It is no sugar wood but it seems as hard as birch.

[Daryl]

Those pictures came out fine, Dennis. No logos on them when I clicked on the link.

[Dennis Glazener]

Those pictures came out fine, Dennis. No logos on them when I clicked on the link.

That's because you are special Daryl They still have the logo for me.
Dennis

[shortbarrel]

These rifles were made from old wrought iron barrels that I reamed and rifled. The lock plates I found at gun shows. Made all parts to complete the locks. All other hardware was made by me. BTY  the brown finished rifle has a cast on nose cap and the other a wooden ramrod rib.   thanks all