What do I have here for wood?

[eublepharis]

I am a newbie to here, and relatively new to contenders.  I've enjoyed reading the years worth of knowledge here and it occurred to me someone here may be able to tell me what I have here.  When I bought my first contender (used 3030 Super 14 contender hunter package) the guy gave me a few extra pistol grips and fores along with a rifle butt stock that he  said was for a contender also.  To be honest, I have not even tried seating my frame in it yet, but assume it is for contender.  It has a Fajen butt plate on it.  I'll try to attach pics. 

Can anyone tell me if this is a T/C stock w/Fajen butt plate, Fajen stock or someones custom job?  Any help is appreciated.

Dan

[Keith L]

Welcome aboard!

I have never seen a stock like that.  I assume that it isn't TC, but an aftermarket of some kind.  You may want to post this question on the TC rifles forum down the page a ways.

One caution:  Do NOT put the buttstock on your frame and mount a barrel under 16 inches long.  That makes an illegal (in the US) short barreled rifle. 

It looks like a cool stock, though.  I started out with pistols and got a rifle stock set and started getting Contender rifle barrels.  They are cool that way as well (and really accurate!!)

Good shooting.

[eublepharis]

Thanks, When I first got it, I tried selling it along with all the extra pistol grips and fores on craigslist (before I had found any sites like yours).  A couple of I'll take its, but never any money sent.  Since then, I have started adding pistol barrels, and have uses for my extra grip/fore sets.  Now, I am looking for a deal on the right carbine and I'll have to get fore wood for it.  Now, I couldn't be happier that none of the furniture sold, except I am having trouble keeping money in the bank now.  I'll take it over to the TC rifles forum.  Thanks again.

[Keith L]

One thing you don't have to worry to much about once you get into Contenders is excess disposable income.  Welcome to the club.

[Ladobe]

It's certainly possible it is a Reinhart Fajen stock made for a Contender.   They made quite a few standard pistol and carbine models for Contenders as well as took custom orders for them.   Was a great company to deal with know for their quality, and I had several rifle stocks and gripe/stock sets for Contenders I got directly from them going back over 45 years ago.   Still have an old Fajen Victory stock on one of my Remington XP-100's.  Sold my other XP stocks and all the Contender sets to collectors not too long ago, so they served me well for many years.    Somewhere in storage is a late 60's/early 70's Fajen catalog with well worn pages I spent many hours pondering orders over.    Enter Potterfield and an era of great stockmaking was cut into many small pieces.


Saved this off GunBroker a few years ago.   Was posted 11/21/2004 by one of the moderators there - nononsense.

...
Some brief bits of history:

Reinhart Fajen was a stockmaker from Warsaw Missouri. He created a fairly sizable custom stockmaking/fitting company that was world renowned for quality. Just down the road was another custom stocking company named Bishop. Both companies existed nicely, making fine stocks available in various forms to the general public as well as private manufacturers. Some time in the 80's, the two combined to become a single company and shortly after that, Larry Potterfield (owner of Midway) bought that company and held it under the umbrella company of Battenfeld Technologies.

Potterfield built a state-of-the-art, CNC stockmaking factory in Missouri hoping to capitalize on the names of both the Bishop Co. and Reinhart Fajen. As has happened in the near past with the accumulation of too many small companies, his eyes were bigger than his stomach and he had to shutter the operation of Fajen Stocks. Battenfeld Technologies retains some of the machines to produce some plywood stocks under the name Fajen mostly for Mausers and 10/22's. The rest of the machines and inventory were sold. The man that ran Fajen's custom shop under Larry Potterfield, bought some of the machines and set up his own semi-custom/custom stockmaking company:

Show-Me Gunstocks
Route 3 South
Wanta Linga
Warsaw, MO 65355
Phone: 660-438-4568
Fax: 660-438-4569
...

L.

[RonF]

I'm pretty sure that is a Fajen blank.  I have one exactly like it, but in pretty fancy walnut.  They made quite a large number of these in the '70s and some were sold to a Houston, TX, outfit called Texas Contenders run by Frank Kendrick.  He was a major T/C dealer/distributor at the time, if I understand the story correctly, and his success with custom carbines convinced the factory to start offering them.  I am fortunate to have one of their customs in .223 Remington and it has what I consider to be a really great butt stock and forearm made by Fajen.  I don't know if it was finished by them or someone else; Mr. Kendrick said they finished none with a gloss finish, so it wasn't done by Texas Contenders.  Possibly the owner did it or had Fajen do it.  Anyhow, I'd bet yours is a Fajen blank; who finished it I can't help you with.  I have a second Texas Contenders carbine with plainer wood and a bit less "fancy" to the grip shape.  Not as pretty, but shoots well.

RonF

[eublepharis]

Thanks!
Great info here guys...the kind of stuff I was looking for.  Hard to see in the pictures, but the finish on my stock leaves much to be desired.  It is gummed up below the cheek plate where you see the glare in the picture and a little elsewhere.  I suppose sooner or later I'll want to learn what to do to refinish it. 


Dan

[skarke]

I too have old Bishop and Fajen catalogs.  Relics, really, but they bring back memories of evenings flipping through the pages wanting and wishing, only to be brought to earth with the fact that baby strollers cost lots of money, and are more necessary. 

And in the long run, the stroller's contents are even better things to entertain yourself with.