Well, last December after I boogered up the stocks on my $80 pardner I decided to refinish them. Just messing around I grabbed some of the what I had on hand, antique walnut poleyshades, and sanded and then refinished. Amazing the stocks came out a very very high gloss finish. I didn't know what to do. My brush beating 12 gauge wears super high gloss furnature. Turkey hunting I've been dreading every fense to cross. Having to keep it covered when sitting in the sun because of the glare might spook a bird, what was I to do? I thought of steel wooling the stocks to scuff them up and end up with a semi flat to flat finish. But I hate doing that to a good finish.
And last Friday a friend of mine said he was submitting an order to brownells and asked if I wanted anything. I told him to add the choate synthetic stock and forearm (choate makes the synthetic stocks for NEF). I got them Monday and installed them Monday afternoon inbetween turkey hunts. Here's the verdict:
1. The synthetic stock lowered the weight of the shotgun noticibly. The already light weight balanced 28" mod barreled pardner was now lighter and barrel heavy. To correct the balance I added an Allen shell holding on the butt stock and 5 3" mag loads. This rebalanced the shotgun and brought it almost back to it's orginal wood weight.
2. The textured synthetic stocks have much better grip especially when wearing gloves and the forearm is shaped for easy gripping. Also the grippy synthetic stock held the allen shell holder in place, it never slipped or worked it's way forward.
3. The stocks came with sling rings that could easily be replaced with sling swivels, but I kept the rings. I installed a simple black nylon sling, which is so much nicer than carrying the rifle all day or using a slip over and around shotgun sling.
4. When I was out yesterday we recieved between 1" and 2" or rain depending on where you measured the rainfall. The pardner's new stocks worked perfectly, never getting slippery when wet, always very easy to grip and hold onto.
5. The synthetic stock also has a recoil pad (same one they put on stocks shipped directly to NEF except it says Choate instead of NEF). My wood pardner only had a hard plastic butt plate.
6. The quality of the choate stocks direct from choate (through brownells) seemed to be better than my two nef's with the monte carlo synthetic stocks/forearm. The choate direct forearm was perfectly straight, not warped like one of mine from nef, and the synthetic straight stock just feels more rigid and thicker than the monte carlo stocks on my nef's. Now I don't know if choate keeps the best ones to put their name on or if I just got a really good one, but I'm very satisfied.
The only thing that takes adjustment to is the look. The color case hardened reciever with black barrel and black stocks and truglo fiber bead sight just seems a little odd. Kind of like clashing the old with the new. But after carrying it all day I've grown to really like it. It's very unique. The best of the old with the best of the new.
So my pardner's expence is rising, so far this is what I have in it:
$83 shotgun
$12 truglo front screw in fiber bead
$46 choate synthetic stocks
$141 total
But of all my hunting buddies I still have the cheapest shotgun in the bunch, by far! :wink: And the lightest, simpliest, ......
later,
scruffy
