Hello Tracker357,
Bullberry makes EXCELLENT wood for your T/C's, here are two of their extended forends I had made for a couple of my guns. The 6.5 JDJ is a laminate I finished myself, the 17 Ackley Hornet is walnut and was finished in-house by Bullberry.
All but two of my forends use the hangar-bar system and are glass-bedded with Marine-Tex to make sure they stay put (I do have a couple of Encore forends that are pillar-bedded and they work well for me also).
Virgin Valley also makes great forends, and I have several of their laminated models although they get a little pricey. I always try to use bipods since I'm such a bad shot and I almost always use laminates due to their extra strength and the fact that they're so easy to finish (I'm really lazy!). VV will pillar-bed for you and I'm sure Fred Smith at Bullberry will too if you want to save some time - both will provide unfinished wood or laminates if you want to apply the finish yourself. I'm sure no expert at woodworking or finishing, but I have seen some beautiful work by some of the folks on this board. I'm sure if you ask for some forend finishing suggestions, they'd be happy to help you out. Just one quick tip: I find it useful to ensure that the barrel itself remains free-floated throughout the length of the forend. If you glass-bed, make sure the barrel channel will allow a dollar bill folded in half to be run full-length between the forend and the barrel down to the hangar bar itself. I also like to stick the folded edge of the dollar bill down from the top between the forend and the barrel where the hangar-bar is located to ensure that no barrel-to-forend contact is a problem there either - that way you know you have a good free-floated barrel.
Let us know what you decide on and if possible, send in some pictures. We all like seeing what everyone else is doing and I'm sure your forend will be great!
Safe and good shooting to you!
Javelina
